The ninth and final installment of the New Hero series. Once again I apologize for any deviations in canon, since I'm only going off what I saw in the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I do not own the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I leaned heavily against the elevator as the doors closed, then the elevator began moving with a soft whirring sound. Every time I moved, the wound in my side sent shocks of pain up my side. It wouldn't make it any easier to fight Shredder. I could only hope that he didn't walk away from the fight completely unscathed.
The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. I took a couple deep breaths, then gripped the sword in my right hand and walked through the opening. I forced myself to push against the pain as my side continued to throb. If I was going to catch him, I would need to hurry. I could only hope the military would delay him for an amount of time.
As I walked the distant sounds of gunfire reached my ears. It seemed that they were doing at least something. The fighting steadily grew louder, until I finally reached the lobby.
It looked completely different for the time I had originally been there. Smoke filled the room, lit up occasionally by gunfire. I would be lucky not to get shot going through there.
"Oh well… here goes…" I took a moment to brace myself against the incoming pain, then sprinted forward through the smoke and through the front door. The pain in my side seemed to disappear momentarily as gunfire echoed in my ears. I was running on pure adrenaline as I shot like the many bullets around me through the front door and into the snowy landscape.
The fighting continued into the courtyard as I ducked behind a wall that wasn't completely blown to pieces then got a scope of the situation.
The courtyard was filled with chaos. The terrorists and military were spread through out the area at random, each with their own firefight. Many of the trucks were destroyed or otherwise immovable, but a couple near the front gate were still intact. It was there I spotted him.
The glint of his armor caught my eye as he climbed into an open back truck, which began to drive off almost instantly.
"You're not getting away this easy…" I muttered as I got up and scrambled across the courtyard, using the trucks as cover. By the time I got to a usable truck, Shredder was gone.
As fast as I could with my injury, I climbed into the truck and started it up, then slammed my foot down on the gas. The back wheels fishtailed for a moment before catching some traction, causing the truck to jerk forward and trundle through the gate as it began building momentum.
As the sounds of fighting began to disappear behind me, I spotted the red lights of Shredders truck ahead of me. They were a ways ahead, but I was catching up. The only thing that worried me was the cliff on the left side of the road. It was about 30 feet to the side, but one wrong jerk of the wheel, or a small bump, and I would go flying off of it.
Ahead of me, I saw a blur of motion. Quickly, I jerked my head to the side as a knife sliced through the windshield and imbedded itself in the seat cushion directly to my left, before detaching itself and flying right back through the window to Shredder, who was standing in the back of the truck and staring directly at me.
I was getting closer, but not close enough as he threw a knife at the truck again. This one embedded itself in the hood of the car and I blinked for a moment, before he began throwing more at the hood.
"He's trying to take out the engine…" I realized as he brought back the first salvo and chucked them at the engine again. Slamming my foot on the accelerator, the truck jumped forward and slammed into the back of the truck.
The truck swerved as the combined momentum caused it to lose control on the snowy road, then flew into the air as the wheels hit a sizable bump in the road.
I couldn't help but grin as the truck swerved towards the left then began to roll, but that rapidly disappeared the moment my truck decided to follow the other one.
"Oh shit!" I yelled mentally as I threw open the door to my truck, grabbed the sword, then jumped. I landed in a snow bank, which saved me from some severe pain, but not all of it.
As I hit the ground, the truck continued on and proceeded to ram the other, sending both off of the cliff, and into the icy dark waters below.
Covered in snow, I gritted my teeth and picked myself off of the ground as I looked at where the trucks had disappeared. Nothing. There was just some ripped car parts where the rolling truck had been, but other than that, I couldn't see anything.
I sighed as I looked at the ground. Maybe it was over. Maybe he was actually gone. I turned away… then stopped as the sound of metal on rock met my ears. "It's never easy, is it…"
I turned back to face the cliff edge, and there, rising to his full height, stood Shredder. As if in an attempt to dramatize the situation, the moon chose that exact moment to come out from behind the clouds and bathe the area in a pale light, the white rays reflecting off of Shredder like light off of a sword.
No words were spoken as I brought the sword up in front of me. His gaze traveled over me, as if assessing my physical state, before he stepped forward closer to me and began to turn slightly in a circular motion. I did the same, Leonardo's sword glistening in the pale light.
Our tracks had formed a large circle in the snowy clearing when we finally stopped, the moon to our side. The pain in my side seemed almost non-existent now as we stood there, then he finally spoke.
"You may think that merely because you have a weapon now, you will win. But you will not. I have years upon years of training. You, you have speed and luck." He glanced at my side. "And even that has begun to desert you. You will die here, on this cliff. And no one will even know of you."
I shivered slightly as the cold wind picked up the snow particles and threw them into the air, then immediately jumped sideways as Shredder lunged at me with his razor sharp blades. I brought the sword up quickly as he twisted and slashed at me, the two blades producing a high-pitched *ting* as the metal glanced off metal.
I took a step back as he slashed at me again, this time with his other blade, barely missing me as it flew past my chest. Quickly, I jabbed with my own sword at his arm. The blade skated across his armor as he turned into the blade and slashed down ward at me with both of his blades at the same time.
Time slowed as I pulled the sword back and met the powerful blow with all my strength. Catching the first blade, I pushed it back towards the other, and then pushed them upwards.
Stepping forward, Shredder pushed back against the blade, and then threw all of his weight forward, throwing me into the air. I yelped as I twisted through the air and hit the ground on both feet, the traction in the ground causing me to slide a couple feet through the snow before coming to a stop.
He gave me no time to recover as he charged forward and began slashing at me with increasing speed. Having no time to dodge again, time slowed as I began to block every attack as fast as possible. Ducking under a slash, I stepped forward and brought the sword down on his left arm as hard as I could. As I hit, I noticed his other blade arcing towards my head, so I continued the motion down into a roll as the blade sliced past my head with inches to spare.
A quick roll and a spin and I was facing him again. I blocked an attack from his right arm, then ducked as his left arm sliced at me again. The attack hadn't done anything.
I had no time to ponder as he began to assault me with a flurry of blows, pushing me backwards towards the cliff edge. I took a quick glance behind me and saw the cliff edge quickly approaching, then began to fight back with renewed intensity so I wouldn't get thrown off.
That's when it came to me. I couldn't beat him in a physical fight. His armor was too strong. So the cliff was my answer. Maybe it could do what I couldn't. And if Shredder's armor was heavy enough, it would pull him to the bottom and become his own tomb.
Slowly, the fight began to move backwards towards the cliff. Not that I could push him back any more anyways. He had been right. He had years of experience over me. And he was strong. No matter how hard I tried, he always managed to push me back steadily towards the precipice.
Finally, I felt my heel move back and meet the rocky cliff edge. Throwing my weight forward, I brought my sword forward and blocked a double-bladed attack from Shredder, locking us together, our faces inches apart.
My muscles strained as I pushed against his weight so I wouldn't fall backwards.
"This is where it ends… Goodbye… Shadow…" He growled as he began to push harder against me.
I gritted my teeth as I resisted his push. "But you forgot one thing… I'm not an ordinary human…" I grunted.
Time slowed as I used what little telekinesis I had yet to push him backwards just far enough to let me jump upward and do a flip over him. Landing on both feet, I twisted and shoved forward with a yell to throw him off of the cliff and into the dark chasm below us.
Everything froze. I felt confused as I looked up at him. Then I realized that his arm was raised. My eyes slowly dropped as I followed the arm down to the blade then the blades edge up to my body, where it disappeared into my right chest.
"Everything dies. You wouldn't be the first, or the last." He growled as he watched me take it in.
His words seemed a million miles away as I blinked slowly, then realized I was probably going to die here. Up on this snowy cliff, with no one around to see me.
I blinked again.
A new thought entered my mind as I looked up at Shredder. If he escaped, he would go on to kill more. Even if I was sure to die, I would make damn sure he would go with me. This one thought in my mind, I raised my left hand.
"You're going with me."
With those words, I summoned up every last ounce of power that I could from inside me, then focused it all on Shredder. Time slowed down for me as he tried to move away, but it was too late for him. I heard nothing as he was abruptly thrown backwards off of the cliff edge, the blood soaked blade leaving my chest in one fluid motion.
He disappeared from site quickly as he hit the inky black water far below, his weight creating a tremendous splash as he hit the water, then nothing. He was gone.
I stared down at the water for a moment, then felt my world tilt. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground, staring up at the twinkling stars. The snow felt warm beneath me as I breathed raggedly, having only one lung that was functional.
As the world began to fade, I saw a shadow appear over me. I couldn't begin to comprehend it as my vision faded away, until only darkness remained.
The End