Chapter 5: Home Invasion

On Shredder's orders, the FootBots attacked, leaping at the owners of the home they were invading. However, they didn't last very long. The family tore them apart, fueled with unbelievable rage, especially Raph and Karai. As the fight went on, Shredder started to wonder if the FootBots wouldn't be enough.

He raised a hand to stop the regular FootBots from advancing.

"Retreating already? You're smarter than I thought," Raph remarked as Shredder only laughed. The mutant snake-droids jumped to the front line, 12 in all.

"Seems like just another gimmick to me," Karai stated as they charged, each taking on two while Splinter went against four with ease.

Karai was doing well until one knocked the butt end of its sword on her back, taking her by surprise and knocking her over. The other swung down and she barely blocked the hit in time. Their swords ground against each other as Karai struggled to get back on her feet. Then she looked over at Leo, unconscious and bleeding, and let out a battle cry as she kicked the mutant FootBot back and then slashed it in half. The other one advanced once again, but she sidestepped and cut it into several pieces.

Raph was holding his two Bots at bay, their swords caught in his sai. He twisted hard until the swords broke, and he threw them around. Then, one grabbed him with its tail and slammed him to the ground. As it was about to strike again with its tail, Raph stabbed one sai through the Bot's tail and the other one into its torso. He then picked up the Bot and smashed it against his second one, destroying them both.

Donnie batted his Bots away using his staff, then as they both advanced at once, he pushed himself up on the staff and split kicked them both in the face. One was knocked back, while the other grabbed his foot and slammed him down. He had only seconds to react as the Bot jumped towards him. Thinking quick, he activated the blade in his staff, impaling the bot, then as the other one attempted to take him off guard, Donnie made a clean swipe behind him, slicing off the Bot's head.

Mikey was having a little more trouble than his brothers, being unable to block attacks as easily. However, activating his longer chain, he hooked one Bot and threw it into the other, smashing one against the ground. The Bot that he threw got back up to attack, but Mikey managed to bat at it repeatedly with his nunchucks until he got behind it and used the chain to twist the Bot's head off.

Finally, Splinter noticed that his family was finishing off all of their respective fights.

"My children! Think quickly!" he exclaimed as he knocked all four of his Bots towards the other four, respectively, and the Bots were all impaled, slashed apart, or otherwise destroyed.

To say the least, Shredder was not pleased.

"Destroy them!" he ordered to his top four henchman. They reluctantly each went to take on one member, Donnie against Stockman, Mikey against Rahzar, Raph against Fishface, and Karai against Tiger Claw. As they began battling it out, Splinter and Shredder locked eyes. Several FootBots tried to attack Splinter, but he knocked them back and destroyed them with ease until what few remained were out of the picture.

"You have gone too far this time, Oroku Saki!" Splinter exclaimed towards Shredder.

"Not far enough. Not until I repay everything that you have put me through! You stole Tang Shen from me, so now I will take your family! My men will finish off the rest of your family, and I will finally destroy you myself!" Shredder cried out. "Make no mistake, Hamato Yoshi. Today, the story that began with just the two of us, will END with just the two of us, and I will finish what I started all those years ago..."

"You blind... Ignorant... Fool! Tang Shen was never yours! All this time you have blamed me for your own actions, you destroyed my family out of jealousy once, and it cost us both dearly! However, now, this does end. With only one of us!" Splinter exclaimed and pounced towards Shredder, who extended his claws and fought back.

As the two dueled, evenly matched, the others were having a little trouble. Buzzkill had burned part of Donnie's staff with his acid vomit, and Donnie himself was barely dodging being hit himself.

Fishface's switchblade was flying all over the place, giving Raph a hard time keeping up with both it and the dangerous robotic legs. While Raph was distracted, Fishface attempted to sink his teeth into Raph's shoulder. As he did, Raph cried out in pain, alerting the others.

This gave Rahzar a chance to slash Mikey across the torso, causing him to fall back, although his shell fortunately took the brunt of the damage. Rahzar threw several blades towards Mikey, who barely managed to dodge or block them all with his nunchucks.

Karai was having the most trouble. Tiger Claw was absorbing her attacks without much difficulty, although she had managed a few cuts. He, however, had gotten in several deep cuts on Karai, and as they clashed blades he swept out her feet.

Buzzkill finally landed a hit on Donnie with the acid, causing him to howl in pain as it seared his skin, and Buzzkill knocked him over with a good shoulder ram.

Rahzar threw more blades, and one caught Mikey in the shoulder, causing him to yelp and drop his guard, allowing a few more to hit him as he collapsed to the ground.

Karai attempted to stand, but Tiger Claw pressed down her torso with his foot.

"Master Shredder! Shall we finish them?" he inquired, gesturing to the fallen turtles and Karai, and causing Shredder's eyes to light up as Splinter took on a grim expression.

"No..." Splinter murmured under his breath. Shredder was about to give the kill order, but then was ambushed from behind by a snake tail. Leo was bleeding badly, but he had regained consciousness.

"You... Will not hurt... My family..." he muttered.

"Leonardo!" Splinter cried out, relieved to see his son alive. However, it was short lived. Tiger Claw roared in frustration and swung his sword down to land the kill on Karai. She closed her eyes and turned her face as she prepared to be finished, when she heard metal clang. Looking up, she saw that Leo, although he was in snake form, had blocked Tiger Claw's attack with his black swords. Without a word, he quickly used his tail to knock Tiger Claw back.

Using this as a distraction, Donnie, Raph, and Mikey worked through their pain and knocked their respective nemeses off of them. Donnie batted Buzzkill back and swatted the fly's head with his staff against the wall before the fly could react, a fitting end for one of his kind.

Mikey threw his nunchuck chains around Rahzar, trapping him, and threw him to Fishface, whose switchblade was out and impaled the werewolf.

Grunting in frustration, Fishface slashed back and forth at Raph, who was still loopy, but conscious. Finally, the blade got caught in one of Raph's sai, and Raph used his other sai to impale Fishface through the torso.

"I would make a joke about gutting the fish, but... That would be dark, even for me," he remarked with a smirk. Now only Tiger Claw was left, but he was fighting a losing battle, now against all four turtles and Karai, as Shredder roared in anger, realizing his big victory was quickly turning into his final defeat.

Finally, Tiger Claw was knocked back into a pillar by a kick from Karai. He cried out as Leo stabbed him with both swords. Panting, they nearly collapsed. Then, Karai suddenly grabbed Leo and kissed him as he went wide-eyed and blushed profusely. She pulled away and hugged him close.

"Wow..." was all Leo could manage as his brothers gave him knowing smirks and Karai beamed at him. Then, they turned towards Splinter and Shredder, as Splinter visibly had the upper hand.

"Your time is up, Oroku Saki!" Splinter exclaimed. "You never should have attacked us here!"

Shredder let out a roar of pure rage and ripped his mask off, revealing his charred, almost inhuman face.

"It is never over... I will fight you... To my very... Last... Breath!" he screamed as the two charged at each other. Then, rumbling was felt as the already damaged lair began to cave in slightly, knocking everyone off balance. Between Splinter and Shredder, a giant "Kraang worm" crashed through the wall. Several Kraang droids were surrounding it.

"Kraang has successfully located the ones that are turtles in the place that is here. However, now that Kraang is in the place that is here, the ones that are turtles will soon NOT be in the place that is here!" one of the Kraang exclaimed monotonously as the droids began to fire all around the lair.

"Not now..." Mikey muttered.

Shredder attempted to take out the giant worm. He wasn't about to let the invaders take the privilege of destroying Splinter and his family from him. Slashing at the worm with his claws, he didn't know what was coming when...

All around the lair, another mighty roar was heard from Shredder as everyone looked over to see him thrashing about, covered in glowing mutagen.

Oh my. I uploaded slightly early, since tomorrow I'm leaving on a week-long trip, during which I probably won't be able to write, let alone upload due to lack of internet. Besides, y'all deserve it. I love all the feedback I've been getting. Didn't expect this idea to take off as much as it did. So yet another cliffhanger, hmm? Will Leo be able to return to his normal form? Will Splinter approve of LeoRai as much as I do? What will Shredder become? And just what are the Kraang going to do next? Find out in the final chapter. (This doesn't include epilogue, but you know what I mean XD)