(Beachside Brawl)

Superjoeyf721: Yep, it's about time that Casey met the group and joined up with them, which means he could also be a partner for Nightwatcher. I'll be doing my own take on that, so expect a few differences from the 2007 movie. But as far as explanations go, there actually was a prequel comic that explained it.

Gamelover41592: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it.

Spectacular Webhead 11: Yeah, I wasn't crazy about the love triangle either, but that won't be a problem here. On a more positive note, Casey met the Turtles and George met Splinter, so that came full circle.

Jebest4781: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it.

XaralandoWyattWyatt: There are a fair number of characters that would be able to figure out Irma in the right circumstances, which is why she's playing it slow and careful for now, but still trying to sow certain seeds with April. On another note, George and Splinter meeting was fairly overdue in my opinion, so I chose to go ahead and make that happen, along with Casey meeting and allying with the group. Also, a happy new year to you too.

Guest: Leonardo as Ronin, possibly taking the mantle from Hawkeye? That's actually not a bad idea, I'll keep it in mind. Donnie is a bit of a tough one though, since I want it to be original as well, but I'll figure something out.

5FingerDeathFist: Yeah, we'll get Miles in time. For the record though, I actually liked that particular suit in the game. But trust me, we'll be seeing A LOT when the time comes for the Kraang invasion.

Tortugafash2002: Yep, I figured this way Casey could have more of a bond with the Turtles than just from April introducing them. I figured if anyone knows about self control, it would have to be Wolverine, so he's passing on his teachings to Raph. Keep in mind that Usagi does appear in season 5.

Frosty Wolf: Heart, hockey sticks and misplaced confidence. Honestly, I don't think I've ever heard or read such an accurate description of Casey Jones. His friendship with Raph is pretty wholesome, and it helps branch out the Turtles' connections in the city. Gwen will be helping out Casey with some upgrades though, so wait and see how that works out. I hope you enjoyed this and continue to do so in the new year.

C.S. Allen: Considering his history in the comics, I figured it only made sense for the Jackal to be involved in cloning shenanigans. April teaming up with Venom and the Defenders was a lot of fun to write, the same with Raph becoming the new Nightwatcher, and there were meant to be some parallels to how Peter lost Uncle Ben, so he would understand how it felt. Also we finally see Casey meet the group, and he'll get some upgrades of his own in time. And actually, the Purple Dragons being drafted into the Inner Demons is a really cool idea.

Guest: Two for one, sounds good to me. Yeah, April is up for taking the initiative, but she has proven time and again how stubborn she can be, which isn't always a good thing. But there is a difference between her and Eddie, being that even if she is mad at the Turtles, she never went out of her way to hurt them like he did to Peter. I usually try to avoid love triangles in my stories if I can, and here's hoping Casey meeting the Turtles will help with that here. Leo and Donnie are a bit more challenging to figure out, but I've got a few ideas going forward, so we'll see how it works out. Also yeah, Captain Stacy and Razhar having the same voice actor, a mention of that would be funny. And sorry, but Peter is being turned back well before Leatherhead is brought back into the picture, but we'll see how that goes in time. Anyway I'm glad you enjoyed those chapters, and I hope you enjoy the next one.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Morning came, and the sun shone over New York City.

"Nothing so far." Donnie leapt off the roof of a skyscraper and came to a stop on a ledge that overlooked the city "No sightings in the lower half of Manhattan so far. What's the status on your end Blue Justice, any sign of our target?"

"Remind me again why we're using these code names that Casey made up. This kind of goes against the whole ninja motif if you ask me, and Mikey already has a codename as part of his whole Turtle Titan thing."

"You agreed to go along with it."

"Only because I like the name Blue Justice. Anyway nothing from Brooklyn, clear all the way to the bridge. There's no sign of any giant mutant monsters, and that includes mutant bats."

"Copy that. What about with Turtle Titan?"

"No sign of Kirby Bat in Queens. That's it on my end, sorry D but I gotta run. I'm gonna run and check on May and see if I can find any other Mutagen around here."

"Got it, just be careful. How about on the end of Arachnette?"

"Same with Leo, only because I like my code name, but in all seriousness I think it somewhat takes away from how important this actually is. Also nothing near Staten Island, but I'll keep an eye out."

"Good to know. Sorry Skull Reaper, not really, looks like the majority voted down the code names." Donnie was met with silence on the other end "Skull Reaper? Jones?"

"To hell with that." Casey let out a scoff over the phone "Casey Jones doesn't need some overly complicated plan to track down a giant mutant bat, he can find his own way."

"Casey don't go off half cocked, if we picked up on the sightings of Kir- the giant bat, then it stands to reason that someone else did too."

"Hey, Casey Jones doesn't need to explain how he gets stuff done to a stickmaster that tries to copy my iconic gap tooth. Trust me, I've got this one in the bag."

"Casey wait!" but then the line cut off, much to Donnie's ire "Dammit! Great, Raph has to go off doing god knows what before we get up, probably another one of his tantrums, and instead we get the new one. How bad could today possibly get?'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, unknown insidious forces…

"You're confirmed. Goblin Squad Alpha is currently on approach."

"Copy that." Miles Warren sat down in a recliner aboard a certain chopper among a convoy that soared over the waters surrounding New York City, the former looking over a set of data on the tablet sitting in his lap "Status report on current facilities and potential recruits."

"Current facilities are still under construction, but the target Hammerhead has managed to once again elude us."

"I see." Warren paused as he stowed away the tablet in his lab coat, and he let out a sigh "I'm sure that our leader will be less than happy to hear about that. But let's focus on the task in front of us for the time being."

"Copy that. Awaiting orders sir."

"The transfer will be happening soon, so make sure you're prepared to receive the next potential recruits. And make sure that you do NOT fail again." Warren cut the communication short, and then turned to a hulking blue figure that sat at the other end of the chopper "I'm sure you know that goes for you as well… Slash."

"Don't worry." the hulking blue figure, now identified to be Slash, gripped his morning star and stepped out of the shadows, revealing a blinking purple light shining on his forehead "I'm not like the others. I don't go down so easily."

"See to it that you can back up those claims. I have another project to attend to today, so I'll be leaving this in your hands."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the search party…

"Now we're talking, get ready to get a face full of hockey puck!" Casey leapt onto a rooftop and pulled a metal stick off his back as he prepared to launch a puck at the target hiding in front of him "Go ahead, give me a reason to shove this down your throat."

"How about I give you a few reasons not to?" Ghost Spider suddenly leapt out from her hiding spot and shot a single Impact Web at Casey, sending him crashing to the ground wrapped in a thick layer of webs "You might want to work on improving your entrance into a fight."

"Here's an improvement for you Blonide. I show up, I don't talk and I just smack the crap out of bad guys with a puck." Casey pulled himself back to his feet, or tried to since he was still bound by the webs "I'm gonna remember that when we find Dracula's pet bad."

"We're not out here hunting a monster Casey, we need to bring him in peacefully. Did the others not tell you anything about this?"

"Not really, Raph just said to come help you guys out with looking for a big-ass mutant bat while he dealt with something else. That's about it, and frankly that's where Casey Jones shines, being the hero of the hour in bringing down giant monsters hulking out around the city. No way in hell you're gonna see me be one of those soft guys that always gives villains the benefit of the doubt when they just go right back up and start destroying stuff again."

"Casey this isn't just some mindless monster, he's an innocent person who got mutated because of the Kraang and we have to find him and help him. Plus he has a name." Ghost Spider paused when she glanced over to the side as a figure appeared in the corner of her eye "And that name is Kirby O'Neil."

"...Back up, what now?" Casey's gaze snapped towards Ghost Spider "O'Neil? As in April? You mean that's her dad?!"

"Yeah, he got mutated by the Kraang when the canisters dropped all over the city. It's not his fault what happened to him. Just stay here and let me try to calm him down, I've got this one, okay Casey?"

"Hey, when I'm in the mask you gotta call me Skull Reaper!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the wayward hero…

'Huh, didn't see that coming.' Turtle Titan was left musing to himself as he pulled up behind the Parker Household on the Stealth Bike, a few bags of groceries placed in the side car 'Didn't think superheroes get a discount on groceries. Good to know for the future.' he parked the Stealth Bike and prepared to make his way to the front door, but stopped when the sound of a phone ringing prompted him to pull out his T-phone "Turtle Titan."

"Titan, it's Captain Stacy. If you're free then I could use a favor."

"Making a grocery run for May, but if you need me for something I can figure it out. What's going on?"

"A few inmates from the rebuilt Vault are being transferred to Ravencroft for evaluation. I just want to make sure that nothing happens where they could get free. Better not to take chances with something like this."

"Gotcha. Gwen and the guys are off doing other stuff, and no idea what Raph is doing, but I can make time. Give me the details and I'll meet you there when I'm done with May. See you in a little bit." Turtle Titan hung up and pulled out a key from his suit, opening the back door and entering the Parker household with several bags of groceries that he sat on the tables… but then he stopped as he took notice of a picture of Peter sitting in the living room 'Hang in there a little while longer Pete. We're gonna find you and turn you back. I promise.'

"Oh hello Mikey." this was when May made her way into the kitchen "Thank you so much for doing this, I'm a bit late for my shift at FEAST."

"No problem May, just doing what I gotta do. I gotta head out though, Gwen's dad called me and needs me to back him up for a few things."

"Of course, don't let an old woman like me hold you up."

"Hey come on, if you're old then I'm not the fun one." Turtle Titan gave a grin as he pulled back his cowl, revealing the face of Michelangelo "Besides, Pete would say the same thing. He will as soon as we get him back here. Just hang in there."

"Of that I have no doubt." May gave a small sad smile, but then quickly began bustling her way over to the door "I have to go or I'll be even later than I am, if you could please put away those groceries before they spoil and lock up when you're done."

"Sure thing." Mikey gave a small sad smile as he watched May rush out the door, but then his face fell as his gaze wandered over to a picture on the mantle 'She's been pushing herself pretty hard lately, and she's doing it all alone. Plus this is gonna be her first Christmas without at least having Pete with her. It ain't right… We gotta do something about it.' it was then that the sound of his T-phone ringing drew his attention again "Raph?"

"Hey Mikey."

"Dude where have you been? Leo and the others called you for like an hour."

"Yeah, I uh… got a text from Daredevil about another Mutagen canister around his turf. What's going on on your end?"

"No sign of anything according to the others, but I had to break off. Gwen's dad asked me to help out with some prisoner thing, something about a few big bads being moved."

"Got it, I'll wrap up what I'm doing and come help out. So which ones are we gonna have to deal with there?"

"He didn't say, and I don't know who else there is. A lot of bad guys managed to break out of there during the whole Technodrome thing. I put a couple away since then, but no telling who the cops have gotta deal with."

"Yeah good point. Let me wrap up the stuff I've got going on here and I'll come over as soon as I can."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the search party…

'Okay you know the drill Gwen, you have to do this carefully.' Ghost Spider took a breath as she landed on a rooftop behind Kirby Bat, quickly drawing his attention and causing him to grow defensive as she took a step forward "Mr O'Neil, hi. You don't have to be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm… a friend of April."

The mention of April was enough to make Kirby Bat relax, but only slightly.

"She's worried about you, and so are the rest of us. I want to help, all of us do, but you have to let me, so maybe you can-"

"Hold the hell up Wingnut!" this was when Casey suddenly leapt down onto the rooftop and lobbied a hockey puck at Kirby Bat, which subsequently exploded.

"Casey no, don't scare him off!" Ghost Spider was forced to recoil at the explosion, which also gave Kirby Bat time to pick up one of her legs in his mouth and fly away.

"See, we're dealing with a total mindless monster thing here! Look at him dragging you away like a freaking rag doll!"

"Because you scared him! Mr O'Neil work with me please, we're trying to help you!"

"To help with that, you can't reason with the monster in monster movies!" Casey was quick to latch onto Kirby Bat using his own grappling hook, leaving both of them dangling as they were carried away from Manhattan.

"Serioulsy Mr O'Neil, think about April! She wants you back, and I know that she wants to get back to you!"

"Forget it blondie, you ain't gonna see someone talk a zombie out of eating a guy in the Walking Dead! Give me a second, I'll get us down from here."

"Wait, how are you going to do that?" Ghost Spider received her answer in the form of Casey pulling out a metal club and trying to bash Kirby Bat on the head with it, only for him to swing both of them around, only to end up getting thrashed around "Okay you're just thrashing the club around to scare him right? Like that was on purpose?"

"Hey it ain't my fault, he keeps moving around!"

"I noticed!" it was then that Ghost Spider managed to free her leg from Kirby Bat's mouth, leaving her hurtling towards the waters below them, but she managed to latch onto him with a webline as she was carried into the skies "Quick piece of advice, the problem is that you keep aiming for where he is instead of where he's going to be! Also you're not helping, just let me handle this!"

"You gotta stop coddling him Blondie, he's a-"

"He's an innocent man and April's dad, don't even think about saying it!" Ghost Spider was then forced to let go of her webline and launched into the air "Of course that being said, I think that I could use some help!"

"I gotcha Blondie, grab on!" Casey grabbed onto Ghost Spider by the arm mid-fall, allowing her to latch onto Kirby Bat again with a webline and launch herself onto his back.

"Thanks. Okay take it easy, we need you to settle down so we can- Oh crap." it was then that the group ended up crashing down towards the waters below, with Kirby Bat going under and Ghost Spider and Casey crashing onto the shores of a nearby island. A few moments passed before the former picked herself up and spat out some sand "Note to self, thank Daredevil for making that recommendation about keeping stuff out of the suit."

Another moment passed before Kirby Bat washed up from the waters, levelling a glare that he sent at Ghost Spider.

"Okay to be fair, I wasn't planning on us crash landing into the East River." Ghost Spider paused for a moment, and then her gaze softened "I am trying to help you, you know that right?"

"Back the hell up Wingnut!" Casey leapt back to his feet and started swinging one of his metal clubs at Kirby Bat, causing him to recoil, and then eventually vomit up a ball of garbage at them ground fast enough to create a shockwave, sending both of them crashing to the ground "Okay, that was gross…"

"Not to mention bad, because there he goes." Ghost Spider pointed to where Kirby Bat was flying off into the distance, and then shot an annoyed Look at Casey "Remind me why we let you come on this mission again?"

"Hey face the facts Blondie, you're the one going soft on guys like that when they can puke acid at us, literally. You gotta go hard and fast with guys like that. It's like hockey, there are two sides and it's either working with us or against us. If we wanna turn him back then we can't go soft on him."

"Casey not everything is that black and white. Sorry I don't subscribe to the policy of beat them with a stick first, ask questions never."

"In case you didn't notice, I just saved you from the giant bat monster."

"He's not a monster! He's an innocent man, and he's April's dad for crying out loud! This isn't a hockey game!"

"It might as well be, we're beating the crap out of people with sticks trying to get the goal so they don't. I've seen enough horror movies to know you can't reason with monsters. We gotta bring him down one way or another, you gotta get it through your head Blondie."

"I have to-" Ghost Spider let out a groan of pure frustration "Seriously, if this is how you're gonna act when we're looking for April's dad, I can only imagine what it's going to be like when we finally track down Peter."

"Peter? As in Parker?"

"Yes, he's Spider-Man, we already went over this. These are real people that-" Ghost Spider was cut short by the sensation of quiet rumbling beneath their feet, but it stopped almost as suddenly as it started "Okay… I think that was supposed to be an earthquake."

"On an island? Where the hell are we anyway?"

"Based on how far we went from Manhattan, I think we're on one of the Brother Islands. North used to be where they had the Riverside Hospital, it was used to quarantine diseases, but now it's uninhabited."

"So what, freaky abandoned island?"

"No, a few years ago were bought by the government and given to the city. But I can't imagine why people would want to be here… unless this is a trap of some kind." Ghost Spider got down on one knee and examined the ground beneath them "Sand… It's sand."

"Yeah it's sand, what did you hit your head when we landed or something?"

"No you don't understand, I think this means that-" Ghost Spider was cut short by a column of sand erupting beneath them, sending both of them hurtling into the air, and then a large hulking sand figure appeared in front of them "It's not just sand, it's the Sandman."

"Wait, I thought Raph said he was a good guy now. What the hell gives? And does that mean the bat knew that he was here? Dammit, he totally set us up!"

"Hold on a minute, don't jump to conclusions. I know the Kraang have a history of using mind control, that's probably what's happening here."

"So then how do we-"

"Tag, you're it!" Sandman suddenly shot out one of his giant arms and grabbed Casey with it, then hoisted him into the air, then backhandd Ghost Spider across the face when she tried to leap into the fray and save him.

"You ain't getting the better of me freak!" Casey managed to light the fuse on one of his hockey pucks and hurled it at Sandman, engulfing him in an explosion… only for the damaged parts of him to grow back almost immediately "Oh come on, you gotta be kidding me!"

"Spike!" now growing pissed, Sandman suddenly spiked Casey towards the ground, leaving him falling, until…

"I gotcha!" Ghost Spider swooped in and caught Casey before he hit the ground, leaving both of them sprawled out on the beach "You okay?"

"Playtime!" Sandman then began charging towards the two of them.

"Okay I'm just going to say it, you have a weird definition of playtime!" Ghost Spider latched onto Sandman with a webline and launched herself at him… only for her attack to be blocked by his giant fist, leaving her to be sent flying into a tree further into the forest.

"You're it!" and then Sandman reached for her.

'I'm it? Okay mind control or not, something feels really wrong about this.'

"Back the hell up ugly!" this was when Casey once again came running at Sandman, only this time he was using a metal club as a makeshift hockey stick and firing several blue-colored pucks at Sandman, all of them detonating on impact, encasing him in a thick layer of ice "Okay, what the hell was that?"

"It's a new kind of freeze webs that Donnie and I were developing, and I stored the coolant fluid for it into some of the new pucks along with the new gear that I made for you out of the metal that we recycled from that squad of Foot Bots. You like it?"

"Hell yeah, Casey Jones just took this to a new level of awesomeness! Thugs like that are gonna have to watch out for me now!"

"I'm sure we all will, but let's stay on the task at hand. We have to figure out a way that we can get Sandman back to shore before he can thaw out. Plus this doesn't seem right, mind control or not he was acting like-"

"A superpowered freaking sociopath? Yeah."

"No not that, more like a kid. This whole thing doesn't make sense- Wait." Ghost Spider was quick to take notice of Sandman's icey prison quickly shattering, allowing Sandman to free himself and land in front of them, splitting into two identical copies.

"Wait, he just split himself in two. He can do that?"

"Apparently he can now."

"How about a new game, crush the Spider and the punk kid!" the two Sandman were quick to charge at the two of them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the B plot…

'Looks like this is it.' Turtle Titan perched on a rooftop with a good overview of Ryker's Island, allowing him the chance to get a look around, and then his T-phone started ringing "Raph?"

"Mikey hey, the situation is taking a little longer on my end. Remember that freaky fear fungus thing we had to deal with yesterday?"

"You mean the whole "see your worst fears" thing?"

"Yep. Apparently it left behind a few more remnants than we thought, it spread further through the sewers and a little bit got into Hell's Kitchen. I'm with Daredevil and Wolverine and we're gonna figure out a way to clean it up. I'll be there soon though, so hang tight until I get there, got it little brother?"

"Got it bro, just try not to go crazy from that stuff." Turtle Titan pocketed his T-phone and cast a look down as the gates to the prison opened, revealing a figure in a silver and purple metal suit bound in a high-tech straightjacket 'Hang on, I recognize that guy. He's called the Beetle, that one bug guy we first fought with Pete. Man, that really takes me back.'

"Be ready in case he tries anything, he's still dangerous." George Stacy watched as the group of soldiers ushered Beetle into an armored truck, and then spoke into a radio on his chest "The first prisoner is secured, we're ready for the next one."

'Right, the guy said there were gonna be two prisoners. Who's the second?' Turtle Titan was quick to maintain his vigilance, and then he looked down to see a hulking green figure being rolled out in a high tech crate 'Wait a sec, is that… Snakeweed? Aw man, we haven't heard from him since that night he tried to turn people into fertilizer. Now I know where that comes from… I still can't believe the guys lied to me about that. Actually I can, I just wish it wasn't truce, cause that's all kinds of nasty, like-' his musing was cut short by a loud bang, and he glanced out to find the source of it.

As it turns out, the source in question was several red colored clouds of smoke going off and filling the skies above the streets.

'Okay, seems a little early for fireworks. And I'm pretty sure it's New Year's that happens, not around Christmastime. I'd better go keep an eye out.' so he leapt down onto the Stealth Bike and took off after the prisoner transport.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"You know, part of me did want to take a day to play at the beach." Ghost Spider was quick to leap away from the oncoming Sandman clone and take refuge on a nearby tree "But this feels like a little bit much."

"Shut up and hold still!" the Sandman clone launched a giant sand arm at Ghost Spider, forcing her to evade it and leaving it to destroy the tree instead, and then he began chasing her "Why won't you let me tag you?"

"Your tagging is coming off as a little bit intense!" Ghost Spider avoided the next series of tags and swung her way into the trees, perching on a hidden branch 'To be honest, this is not how I'd expected things to go today. Then again I didn't really expect to becom a superhero either, so I guess that balances out.'

"Stop hiding and come out here! I said GET OUT HERE!" the Sandman slammd two giant sand fists into the ground in his rage, leaving a small crater upon impact.

'And this keeps getting weirder. Life as a superhero I guess.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the other island bound hero…

"Oh you wanna go ugly?! Let's go!" Casey was running away from his own Sandman clone, and once he found an opening he lobbed a puck with a lit fuse at him, engulfing Sandman in an explosion… but not before one of the giant sand arms grabbed him and hurled him deeper into the surrounding forest, forcing a webline to latch onto his back to stop him from flying into a tree.

"Hey there." Ghost Spider pulled Casey up onto the branch next to him "I'm guessing you got tired of Squid Games too?"

"Pretty much yeah. Not a bad one liner though, points for it."

"Thanks, I like to think Pete's sense of humor rubbed off on me. But in all seriousness, we have to figure out a plan of some kind. I've never fought Sandman before so I wouldn't know what to expect, but I don't remember anything about him being able to do this. Maybe it's part of some kind of Kraang experiment?"

"You ain't gonna see me give this freak the benefit of the doubt."

"I figured as much." Ghost Spider glanced down at the Sandman clone beneath them "Do you still have that electro-static bomb I put with your gear?"

"The electro-thing? Yeah I haven't used it, you want me to chuck it at him? Cause I'm all for it, but you only gave me the one and there's two of him. Even Casey Jones has limits to how far he can shoot a puck."

"Not if I can help it. Get it ready, but don't fire until I give the signal. Hey Sandy, if you wanna play then I'll hide, you seek!" and so she swung away into the woods.

"You're not getting away from me!" the Sandman clone was quick to chase after her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And now for the other clone…

"Where! Are! YOU?!" at the same time, the other Sandman clone had finished regenerating and was looking for Casey, punching through several trees in a rage over not being able to find him anywhere.

"Change of plans, your other playmate is busy, so you get me!" Ghost Spider swung down onto the scene and landed a solid kick straight through the clone's chest, only for it to regenerate almost immediately, prompting her to retreat onto a small mound overlooking the forest as she tapped the ear piece hidden under her mask Are you ready?"

"I'm ready Blondie, but this had better be damn good."

"It will be if it works, just wait for me to give the signal."

"Found you!" it was at this moment that both Sandman clones managed to find Ghost Spider around the same time, albeit from different sides.

"Oh no, I should've picked a better hiding place."

"Yeah well, now we get to crush the Spider!" both Sandman clones grew to larger size and promptly charged at Ghost Spider.

"Or here's another thought, we do this!" Ghost Spider leapt over their charges at the last second, causing both clones to crash into each other and combine into one giant figure "NOW!"

"Get ready to get a face full of Casey Jones!" Casey activated the skates integrated into his shoes and shot forward, using his metal hockey stick to lob a small blue-colored device at Sandman, enveloping him in a powerful electrical current and causing him to dissolve into a large pile of sand on the ground "Nice, so is that it?"

"No, it's only meant to stun, not kill. But at least now we should have a little bit of time to figure out what's wrong with him. He needs help."

"Help? You're seriously trying to help him after he tried to freaking kill us?! What part of him being the bad guy ain't getting through that-" Casey was cut short when he noticed the pile that was Sandman suddenly form back into life, in the form of four identical copies.

"Okay not going to lie, I was expecting us to have more time than that."

"I feel like there's a one-liner about having a bunch of faces in here or something."

"I think the phrase you're looking for is, talk about a split personality."

"Well that was fun, now let's try a little something like this!" one of the sand clones morphed into a giant wave of sand that enveloped both Ghost Spider and Casey, and then surrounded them as it took on the form of a giant maze.

"Okay, this is… disconcerting, to say the least."

"It all makes perfect sense to me." the face of the Sandman clone gave a smirk from where it was looming over the maze, and then began summoning giant spikes from the various walls in an attempt to impail both of them.

"You know I think there's some joke here about getting the point, but I'm gonna save it for when I'm not about to become a shishkabob." Ghost Spider leapt atop the walls of the maze and was forced to avoid more spikes, as well as a barrage of sand arrows being shot at her "Also I really am starting to hate sharp objects."

"Yeah well, I'm hating sand right about now!" Casey leapt over one of the walls and chucked a hockey puck with a lit fuse at a Sandman clone attempting to lunch at him, causing it to dissolve into a pile of sand, and then he leapt back onto the ground to join Ghost Spider "These things keep coming, how the hell did the real Spider-Man take this guy down before?"

"Usually by using his surroundings to his advantage, and for the record this guy has a real name, and it's Flink Marko. But all of these Sandmen are one note, as if they're just one-dimensional facets of the real one, cheap knockoffs of the real one. But that raises the question, where's the real Sandman in all of this?"

"So we find the real one and we take all of them down. In that case point me at the real one and I'll shove one of my pucks up his-" Casey was cut off by a giant sand fist bursting out from the '

ground and uppercutting him in the face, sending him flying into the air and crashing into the branch of tree a fair distance away, allowing him to get a look at an abandoned-looking building at the center of the forest "Oh yeah now we're talking, first rule of sci-fi horror movies, always look in the creepy abandoned buildings in the middle of nowhere to get answers." and so he leapt down from the tree and took off running in the direction of that building.

"Casey hey, what are you doing?" Ghost Spider was about to take off after him, only to find her way being blocked by three Sandman clones rising up from the ground 'Oh yeah, this just keeps on getting better.' it was then that her phone started ringing, prompting her to tap her ear piece as she tried to avoid the attacks of the clones "Casey?"

"Hey get a load of this, you know that creepy building in the forest? I think I know what it's gotta be for. Probably gotta be some kind of crazy secret base."

"Don't go down there on your own! I think there's a lot more going on here than either of us had first thought." Ghost Spider continued weaving around the various sand tendrils and other attacks as she tried to make her way towards the abandoned building.

"Hey I know damn well what's going on down here, the real Sandman is controlling the rest of the knock offs, so I'm gonna take him down for good."

"Call it a hunch, but I don't think Sandman is in control of anything." Ghost Spider continued her charge, weaving around the various sand arms and tendrils and launching herself through one clone after another… only for one clone to catch her off guard and deal her a sand fist to the face hard enough to send her flying away from the forest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the rogue hero…

"GOONGALA!" Casey lobbed another explosive puck at the wall of the abandoned building, blowing a hole in it, allowing him to get a look at the elevator sitting in front of him as he pulled out his phone "Hey get a load of this, you know that creepy building in the forest? I think I know what it's gotta be for." he quickly bashed open the doors and started climbing his way down the elevator shaft "Probably gotta be some kind of crazy secret base."

"Don't go down there on your own! I think there's a lot more going on here than either of us had first thought."

"Hey I know damn well what's going on down here, the real Sandman is controlling the rest of the knock offs, so I'm gonna take him down for good."

"Call it a hunch, but I don't think Sandman is in control of anything." this was followed by a loud thud, then screaming, and the line was cut off.

"Blondie? Ghosty? Gwen? Hang tight, I'll be back soon!" Casey stowed away his phone as he reached the bottom of the elevator shaft and found another hallway at the bottom 'Oh yeah, evil secret base. Mission Imposible, eat your freaking heart out. Tom Cruise doesn't have a single damn thing over Casey Jones.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the beachside battle…

"Okay, I'm just going to say it. At this point I think I would probably prefer to be part of Squid Games." Ghost Spider spat out a fair amount of ocean water, but then she tapped her ear piece once again t "Casey I mean it, don't go into the base alone. Can you hear me?"

"You're going down!" this was when three large clones of Sandman materialized on the beach in front of Ghost Spider, all of them snarling angrily at her.

'Well this could be going better. On the plus side, this does give me a chance to try out that new theory I've been developing. I get the feeling none of you will like this! Get a load of my brand new water webs!" Ghost Spider sucked some water into her web shooters and shot out a series of thick globs at each clone, soaking them and causing them to fall to pieces "Now you can call yourselves Mudman! I wonder how Pete would react to that quip.' but putting that thought aside, she quickly went back to her ear piece "Casey do you read me?"

"I'm reading ya, just don't want to right now. They say Casey Jones is more brawn than brains, but I'm proving right now I've got both! Guess who's right."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the rogue hero…

"Casey do you read me?"

"I'm reading ya, just don't want to right now. They say Casey Jones is more brawn than brains, but I'm proving right now I've got both! Guess who's right." Casey gave a smirk as he looked up to where Sandman (the real one) was bound in a high-tech sphere at the center of a lab "I'm sure as hell gonna lord this over the Turtles, especially Donnie, once I take this guy down." and then he launched a lit-fuse puck at the sphere, engulfing it in an explosion.

The explosion in question didn't destroy the sphere, but it did free Sandman from the restraints that bound him, allowing him to fall to the ground… and the first thing he did when he laid eyes on Casey was reach out to him "Please, you… you gotta help me…"

"Say what?" another sound then drew Casey's attention, and then he whipped around to see a certain something come up behind him… and then everything went black.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the B plot…

'Okay, something about this is really messed up.' Turtle Titan continued to watch the fireworks go off as he drove alongside the police convoy on his Stealth Bike 'First red then yellow, does that mean green is gonna-' he was cut off by a loud bang, followed by a cloud of green smoke that appeared overhead 'Yep, straight up Mario Kart rules.'

"I think you know what that means." one of the car windows opened up to reveal George Stacy in the driver's seat "Be ready in case anything happens."

"Got it, just hold tight with the big bads so-" Turtle Titan was cut short by a series of brief yet powerful explosions, courtesy of multiple police cars being engulfed in explosions and then overturned into flaming wrecks.

"Dammit!"

"I got left, keep the rest of them safe!" Turtle Titan was quick to break off and rush over to the wrecked cars.

"You heard the turtle, the front group keep going with the convoy! The rest of you form up on me!" George screeched to a halt and bolted out of his car as he grabbed hold of his gun, just as he caught sight of a large group of choppers flew onto the scene, with George and the rest of the officers present shooting at the choppers almost immediately.

"Hang tight, I gotcha!" Turtle Titan grabbed two wounded police officers out of a wrecked car and pulled them away just before an orange blur shot past them on a motorcycle "Not how I saw this going."

"You couldn't have seen me coming if you tried." the figure leapt off the back of his motorcycle, leaving it to crash into a nearby lamp post and explode on impact, and then turned to face Turtle Titan, revealing the pumpking mask he wore over his face as he pulled out a spear, before being joined by several others "But we're sure as hell gonna have some fun blowing your head off right about now.."

"Go ahead and try it, but you might wanna stretch first." Turtle Titan pulled out his kusarigama chain and was quick to begin fending off their attacks, though only barely managed to avoid the blades as he leapt out of the way 'Crap, those things are sharp. I'm gonna go ahead and guess you're new in town. Call me Turtle Titan, and in case you didn't know those guys in the truck are bad news, so we definitely wanna keep them in prison."

"Get out of our way freak!" one of the soldiers snarled as he pulled out a rifle "This isn't any of your business!"

"Fine, excuse me for trying to be nice during all of this."

"To hell with the pleasantries, take them down!" one of the officers present (Seargent Carter) began shooting at the pumpkin soldiers as he ducked behind a car, during which he cast a quick glance over to where Turtle Titan was fighting a group of them "Any idea who these guys are supposed to be?"

"I was kinda hoping one of you guys had an idea. Pumpkin heads are new to me! Any ideas on that front?"

"None that aren't already dead! We can take care of these guys, just hurry and keep them away from the transport!"

"I'm on it, just be careful!" Turtle Titan used his kusarigama chain to hurl one pumpkin soldier into the other two, and once he affirmed that they were unconscious he mounted his Stealth Bike and took off after the convoy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Casey are you there? Casey answer me!" Ghost Spider continued trying to avoid the attacks of the Sandman clones, only for an explosion to go off in the distance, and then she looked over to see the skull mask and gear of Casey Jones emerge from the forest "Oh. You came back? I have to be honest, I didn't think you would listen to me."

Casey didn't give an answer. He just pulled out a metal hockey stick and lit-fuse puck, along with several others, and prepared to shoot them at Ghost Spider.

"Casey what are you doing? We're on the same side!" Ghost Spider was quick to start leaping around the beach to avoid the barrage of hockey pucks "Casey seriously, this is totally out of hand, even for you! I know that we haven't exactly been seeing eye to eye today, but that's no reason to try and blow me up!" and so she latched onto his skull mask with a webline and yanked it off… only to find a sand figure residing underneath "Okay, what the hell?! Part of me feels like I should've seen that coming.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the real Skull Reaper…

"What… What the-?!" Casey's eyes snapped open and he immediately began thrashing around, only to find himself hoisted in mid air by the leg by a green furry hand "Get off me you Bigfoot reject, I swear I'll shove my taser so far up your!"

"As much as I applaud the enthusiasm, you're wasting your time." the Jackal glanced down and shot a smirk at Casey "You might as well face the facts, you're nothing without your weapons and mask, and in a few minutes you're going to be nothing altogether."

"Wanna bet?" Casey tried to reach for Jackal's face, only for the grip on his leg to be tightened, and for him to be subsequently thrown into the containment sphere, hitting the ground inside with a loud thud, but that didn't stop from trying to punch his way out, albeit to no avail.

"You might as well enjoy the time you have with your cell mate. Once your Spider companion is out of the picture, I'll be back to attend to some… business, with the two of you." Jackal's smirk only grew wider as he turned and made his way out of the lab.

"Nothing huh? Try and say that after my taster blows your face off!" Casey continued trying to punch his way out of the sphere, with no success.

"You're wasting your time kid, he's had me down here for weeks. Sand or no sand I can't figure a way out of this thing." Sandman patted Casey on the shoulder, only for Casey to smack it off in an instant.

"Back the hell up freak."

"Alright alright, you don't have to go hard ball. I get it, with or without the mad scientist stuff these guys have done on me, I've done some screwed up stuff over the years."

"Yeah well… Forget it, alright? I know you ain't the bad guy here now, but it's kinda hard to get past the image of you trying to blow my head off. Or a dude that looks like you. Or a bunch of dudes that look like you."

"Trust me, that's nothing compared to what's gonna happen Jackal gets back. That's when he starts his experiments on me. Now probably on you too."

"I ain't the dude that's made of sand, I'm a dude that's trying to fight the good fight."

"You think that matters to the Jackal? With guys like that, you're either gonna be with them or against them."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the beachside battle…

'Definitely not how I imagined today going!' Ghost Spider found herself going on the evasive once again to avoid the barrage of exploding materials the Sandman clone with Casey's gear was firing at her, along with the already existing Sandman clones "Well it's not like this could get any worse." she paused as a familiar sensation went off in her head 'I just had to say that out loud didn't I?'

"It couldn't get any worse? I wouldn't be so sure about that my dear."

Ghost Spider whipped around to find the Jackal standing before her, complete with his armor and electrical gauntlets "I guess there is one way. I have to admit though, I never imagined you to be the type that likes the beach."

"Oh far from it, Ghost Spider I believe you called yourself? I had always found myself to be very fascinated by the events that transpired on the Brother Islands, and given the limited access that's offered to the public, I chose to take the chance and make myself at home. I take it you don't like what I've done with the place?"

"I've seen better, and less life threatening. So what, working with the Kraang wasn't enough for you? Now you have to resort to kidnapping and cloning guys like the Sandman to make your own army?"

"Oh no, don't misunderstand." Jackal gave a smirk "This isn't a matter of building my own personal army, though don't think the thought didn't cross my mind. The real Sandman was less than cooperative, so I chose to put him through my new cloning process to create a successor that's more suitable to joining the new organization I happen to be part of."

"And what orgnaization is that?"

"A good question, but you're a fool if you think I'd be willing to answer that. But it's thanks to them and my newest benefactor, I've managed to invent not only the means of creating all of the splinter Sandmen you've seen today, but also the means of controlling them."

"Uh huh." Ghost Spider quickly dodged a series of attacks from a Sandman clone "You know I'd be more impressed if it didn't prove that you're pretty much out of your mind, but then again I didn't need to know about you trying to manipulate Sandman to know that."

"Trying to manipulate him? That implies I haven't been successful. Perhaps you just need a bit of hard evidence of my success." Jackal pushed a button on a remote he held in his hand, which summoned two Sandman clones from the ground before him "Perhaps having two of them rip you apart will suffice."

'...I never would've imagined he could find a way to ruin the beach.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Get the hell out here and die like men, you can't stay down there forever!" as it turns out, the half of the convoy guarding the truck was attacked by another group of pumpkin soldiers, and they were quick to force the officers present to duck behind their cars during the following shoot out, during which the leader of the group cast a glance over at the others "Hurry up and take out their defences, we gotta overwhelm the guards and stop that truck!"

"Keep the form up, don't let them through!" the leader of the officers present (Lieutenant Yuri Watanabe) turned her gaze to the other officers beside her "We have to protect the transport by any means necessary!"

"Die ya blue pigs!" one of the pumpkin soldiers pulled out a rocket launcher and prepared to fire it at the officers… only to be stopped by a projectile hitting him in the face, creating a cloud of dark smoke that disarmed him and the soldiers close to him.

"Booyakasha!" it was at this moment that Turtle Titan sped onto the scene on the Stealth Bike, using his kusarigama chain to ensnare several pumpkin soldiers and send them crashing to the ground on the sidewalks, allowing other officers to subdue them, during which he cast a quick glance at Watanabe "You the one in charge?"

"Yeah, and the captain said you might be showing up." Yuri breathed a small sigh "No idea who these guys are, but they're after the transport, the Beetle and the plant monster."

"Beetle and Snakeweed, got it. I'll chase them down, hang tight and take care!" Turtle Titan was quick to take off on the Stealth Bike, but it wasn't long before he found other pumpkin soldiers on motorcycles riding up next to him "Seriously, what the shell do you even want with guys like that? Looks like your club already has plenty of members!"

"Just wait and see, the rise of the Goblin Nation is at hand!" one of the pumpkin soldiers tried to fire a rifle at Turtle Titan, only for him to fire a shuriken at one of their tires, sending both of them spinning out of control.

'Goblin Nation? I don't like the sound of that.' Turtle Titan continued chasing after the truck, during which he pulled out his T-phone "Guys, if you're close then you gotta get here! Some dudes with pumpkin heads are trying to get the Beetle and Snakeweed out of jail!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with another Turtle…

"Guys, if you're close then you gotta get here! Some dudes with pumpkin heads are trying to get the Beetle and Snakeweed out of jail!"

"Yeah I noticed, I could hear the fireworks all the way from Brooklyn. I'm on my way Mikey, just hang in there!" Leo was quick to take off across the rooftops in the direction of the convoy, but quickly found a group of flying drones making their way towards him, one of which he was able to dodge, but the second ended up grabbing him with a set of talons and hoisting him into mid-air "Hey, I'll have you know that we did the flying Turtle thing way before this!" he quickly slashed through the drone with one of his katanas, leaving him to try and get back to a rooftop during freefall… only for the third drone to suddenly ram into him, sending him hurtling towards the ground and crash landing into an alleyway, followed by a barrage of razor bats landing on the ground around him, all of them blinking "Okay, that's not good…"

"If history is any indication, blinking is very bad! MOVE!" Donnie suddenly swooped in and grabbed Leo, pulling him back onto a rooftop before the razor bat exploded "You okay?"

"I'm not dead, so right now I'll take that as a win. Who are these guys?"

"They're the Foot Clan's new dance troop, how am I supposed to know? But whoever they are, they have some fairly advanced tech."

"Well whoever they are, we have to deal with them fast and get to Mikey."

"Don't get distracted by the turtle freaks!" this was when another group of pumpkin soldiers rode onto the rooftops and screeched to a halt in front of Leo and Donnie, all of them sporting bags filled to the brim with pumpkin bombs and razor bats "Remember the mission, keep them away from our objective. Capture the targets!"

"Targets huh?" Leo cast a glance at Donnie "If Mikey's right then they're going after Snakeweed and the Beetle, we have to take them down and get there before that happens."

"Right!" Donnie summoned the naginata blade in his bo staff as the pumpkin soldiers and a group of flying drones began charging at them "So where the shell is Raph in all of this?"

"I don't know, but we can't afford to wait for him!" Leo quickly cut through a series of razor bats being hurled at them and began fending off the group of pumpkin soldiers, knocking one of them after another out without much difficulty, though more were quick to show up on the scene, to which he found himself and Donnie back to back with each other "You seeing these guys?"

"Yeah, their tech is really advanced, and not very dissimilar to what we've seen from the Kraang before."

"And they aren't messing around, seems like they're desperate to try and get their hands on the Beetle or Snakeweed, maybe both. We don't want either of them running around on the loose again. I have to wonder where the shell these guys came from though. Pretty sure pumpkin guys are new for us."

"New for us maybe, but I do remember Pe- Spider-Man telling us about some pumpkin masked thugs that worked for one of the Goblins back before we met him."

"But the Green Goblin and Hobgoblin are both dead, so it's not like-" Leo was cut short by one of the pumpkin soldiers attempting to shoot him, forcing him to grab Donnie and duck both of themselves under the line of fire, and then they went on the offensive 'If nothing else these guys know what they want.' it was then that his T-phone began ringing, and he pulled it out while using one of his katanas to fend off the soldiers "Raph?"

"Leo I heard the explosions, how are things on your end?"

"You know that thing about the hydra and the heads popping up? I think it's like that."

"Just hang tight, I can close in on you guys in just a few minutes."

"No forget about us, Donnie and I can handle ourselves. Get to Mikey and back him up, he's the closest to what they're after." and so Leo promptly hung up and went back to fighting off one group of pumpkin soldiers after another.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the wayward hero…

'Okay, I think that's all of them.' Turtle Titan breathed a small sigh as he cast a look around at the various downed pumpkin-masked soldiers among the wreckage and flames, only to hear the sound of a loud bang and glance out a pair of binocukars to see the prisoner truck down the street, being surrounded by several APCs with harpoons attached to the top of them… which then proceeded to latch onto the prison truck, causing it to screech to a halt and slowly pull the truck towards them "Oh come on, you've gotta be kidding me!"

"I've got you now Turtle freak!" one pumpkin soldier blitzed behind Turtle Titan with a gun aimed at his back, but as he prepared to pull the trigger…

"HEY!" a silver blur sped onto the scene, leaping off his bike and rammed into the soldier at full speed, and then dropped to the ground, revealing an armor clad figure on a motorcycle that got off and turned his gaze to the remaining pumpkin soldiers "Trust me when I say, you don't want to do this. But I do, so go ahead."

"You're going down you Punisher reject!" a few of the pumpkin soldiers pulled out a variety of weapons, such as balls and chains or daggers, and they charged at him in a rage.

"First of all, charging in without thinking makes it more likely to get your ass kicked, unless you actually know what you're doing. That's the big difference between us." the figure did a series of dodges and leaps to avoid the attacks from the soldiers, and once he found an opening he went in and unleashed a series of punches and kicks on the group of soldiers, knocking each of them to the ground with only a few hits "Second of all, I learned a little something about charigng in blindly and the anger that drives it. A guy told me not long ago that you gotta know where to point it, and where not to point it. Guess which category you guys fall into. "And lastly, the name is Nightwatcher."

"That uh… Thanks, I owe you for the save." Turtle Titan picked himself up and wiped a bit of blood from his lip, only to pause when he got a good look at him "Hold up a sec… Raph? Is that you bro?"

"Son of a- Hold up." Nightwatcher dealt another pumpkin soldier an uppercut to the jaw and sent him crashing into the side of his motorcycle, then turned back to Turtle Titan "Let me guess, it's cause I look like a giant metal turtle?"

"Actually cause you're the only guy I know that beats the crap out of people like that. But now that you mention it, yeah."

"Figures, Daredevil said the same thing."

"Wait, you mean he knows-" Turtle Titan cut himself short when the two of them glanced ahead to see officers being hurled out of the prison truck, with a few pumpkin soldiers hijacking it and taking off, along with a squad of soldiers on motorcycles "Crap, gonna have to deal with all that later. Beetle and Snakeweed are in that truck, that ain't gonna be good."

"And it's about to get worse." Nightwatcher pointed to where several more cycles showed up on the scene, prompting him to pull out his sais "Guess we're gonna have to do the whole divide and conquer thing. I'll take care of these rejects, go after the truck and I'll catch up with you when I'm done."

"Got it, just take care out there bro. I wouldn't wanna lose my new sidekick the first day I get one." Turtle Titan gave a playful grin as he mounted the Stealth Bike and took off after the prison truck.

'Yeah right, if anyone's the sidekick it's the dude in spandex.' Nightwatcher rolled his eyes as he turned his gaze onto the oncoming pumpkin soldiers and prepared to charge.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now for the chase with the main Turtle hero…

"Hang tight! I've got you!" Turtle Titan sped down the abandoned streets after the prison truck, only to quickly notice a few officers pinned under debris, but he was quickly able to pull them out using his kusarigama chain "You guys okay?"

"We'll live, that's good enough for me." one of them let out a sigh "Those guys are freaking maniacs, they're running through anything in their path and there's still a dozen of them with that truck."

"Let me worry about them, I got this." Turtle Titan quickly sped off once again, pulling out his T-phone as he did so "Raph?"

"These guys are small fry but there's a lot of them, and a ton of firepower. Who the shell are they anyway?"

"No idea, they call themselves the Goblin Nation or something. Pumpkin masks are kind of a giveaway of some kinda Goblin thing now that I think about it."

"Another one like Hobgoblin?"

"Or something like that, maybe. But what happened on your end, you got the people out of there okay?" Turtle Titan received no response, only the sound of static "Raph? Nightwatcher? Dude you there? If you can hear me then hang tight, I'll be back soon!" so he stowed his T-phone in his suit and continued chasing after the truck, only to find himself being forced to evade bullets and rockets being launched from ahead of him, forcing him to screech to a halt a short distance away from where the prison truck was tipped over on the side in the middle of the road 'Dammit, these guys are everywhere! It's like they got no idea who they're dealing with… Which they probably don't."

"Help! Is anyone out there?" a voice called out from inside the truck, followed by the sound of loud banging "It's Snakeweed, he dug out from underground and trapped me in here!"

"Hang tight, I'll get you out of there in just a set!" Turtle Titan quickly latched onto one of the doors to the truck with his kusarigama and ripped it open… only to find a hulking green figure in a damaged crate now looming over him 'Oh… Aw shell…'

"There you are Turtle!" Snakeweed let out a snarl as he latched onto Turtle Titan's leg before he could react and slammed him into the grogund over and over again, and then held him up in front of him "Now I can get my revenge…"

"Hey, I just saved you man!"

"You and your kind did this to me in the first place! Now I'm going to relish making you suffer, and the rest of your kind will follow!" Snakeweed threw Turtle Titan to the ground and brought down one of his giant legs.

"You ain't getting through me you freaking grass stain, and you sure as hell ain't gonna touch my brothers!" Turtle Titan leapt out of the way of Snakeweed's leg and used his kusarigama to cut it clean off, alone with one of his arms, causing him to shriek in pain, to which he let out a loud battlecry and launched himself upwards, dealing him a solid kick to the face, during which he caught sigh of a downed rocket launcher lying on the other side of the debris "You wanna get me ugly? Come and get me!" and so he started taking off through the debris, with Snakeweed hot on his trail, only for him to eventually be cut off in the middle of the wreckage and met with a plant arm backhanding him across the face, sending him crashing into a wrecked car.

"You're not going to get the best of me! I'm stronger than I ever was before!"

"Yeah well funny thing about that you Swamp Thing reject, so am I! Why don't you come and find out how much." and so Turtle Titan continued weaving through the wreckage, avoiding the snapping plant hands of Snakeweed as he did so, but once Snakeweed caught up to him again he leapt up and dealt Snakeweed a kick straight to his exposed heart, causing him to recoil, and at the same time he used his kusarigama to grab hold of the abandoned rocket launcher "I never got to say this last time: Booyakasha!" and then he fired a single rocket at Snakeweed, blowing him to bits in the explosion that followed and leaving body parts scattered everywhere. With the fight apparently over, he breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down the rocket launcher 'He wasn't joking about being tougher… Good thing I wasn't either. Now to get Beetle and-' his thoughts were cut short when a sudden explosion caused him to recoil and sent him tumbling backwards and crashing into the wall of a building, leaving him unconscious among the rubble.

As it turns out, another group of pumpkin soldiers were closing in from a nearby alley, and they quickly stepped out into the open "We have eyes on the plant creature… or what's left of it, and the Turtle wearing the stupid cape. What do we do?"

"Hold on, check it out." another soldier directed the attention of the others to where the remains of Snakeweed lay scattered, with his heart in the middle, still beating slowly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Come on, come on!" Casey gritted his teeth as he tried to pry open the containment sphere, albeit to no success "Dammit, first I'm wrong about you being the brains behind this whole clone army of you thing, and then I get thrown in this stupid thing! Worse is, Ghost Spider is probably gonna rub it in my face when she finds out I was wrong."

"You talking about that new Spider chick that's been running around?" Sandman shot a raised eybrow at Casey.

"What of it?"

"Just curious. Look it's pretty obvious neither of us can do this on our own, but maybe if we try and team up or something we can get out of this thing."

"Still sore about the whole "trying to kill me" thing if ya hadn't noticed. Besides, Casey Jones is a born warrior that doesn't need help from anyone."

"I used to think the same way kid." Sandman paused and let out a sigh as he slumped down onto the ground of the containment sphere "I screwed up in the past, I know that. I kept thinking that all I really wanted was to get my hands on a big score. But then I ended up getting dragged into one bag of crazy after another, like the Sinister Six and Master Planner, and now all this stuff with the Kraang. They're just trying to use me for what I can do."

"They don't see past your powers?"

"Guys like that are the only reason I got them in the first place. But eventually the Spider got to me, made me realize that I oughta start doing something for other people instead of just myself all the time."

"Tell me about it. Freaks like that are why I got into this in the first place. I wasn't about to just sit around and do nothing while they went out and hurt my family, and now I'm into this whole conspiracy to stop an alien invasion."

"That's life in the big city, basically. Gotta work with what we've got I guess."

"Yep." this tender moment of bonding was cut short by a loud crash coming from above the two of them "What the hell?"

"Hey there." this was when Ghost Spider came crashing down through the roof and into the lab, covered in cuts, bruises and a fair amount of sand as she landed on the ground "I guess you met the real deal huh? Well that makes this easier for us. I hope."

"Yeah yeah, I learned the whole "don't judge a book by its cover" thing, now get us the shell out of here."

"Right, I just need a minute to-" Ghost Spider cut herself short when she looked back to see a large wave of sand burst through the lab doors, and take on the form of multiple Sandman clones towering over her "Or a few more minutes, because that just got a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be."

"The level of difficulty here is irrelevant." Jackal pounced towards Ghost Spider and unleashed a surge of electricity from one of his gauntlets, forcing her to go on the evasive "Because none of you will be leaving this place alive. Go my Sandmen, kill them all." and so he had the Sandman clones fire a massive barrage of sand arrows at Ghost Spider.

"And you're a terrible host, but given your background I'm not surprised." Ghost Spider leapt to the ground once her webline was cut, using the motion to deal a Sandman clone a kick to the head, and then she launched herself through several more of them, along with the clone that had stolen Casey's gear, hurling it into several other clones "You know when I first imagined being brought to someone's secret lab, I thought there would be snacks or something, maybe a nice cheese platter since you seem pretty classy, but nope, just straight to trying to kill you with something straight out of the Clone Wars." she landed on the ground after evading another series of attacks, only for a Sandman clone to catch her in a pile and uppercut her with one of its giant fists, sending her flying into the air "Probably a stupid question, but can either of you give me a hand here?"

"Forget it Spider chick, we're both stuck in here." Sandman told her flatly.

"Fine, give me a minute to- Crap!" Ghost Spider leapt through the to avoid the barrage of sand shuriken being hurled at her "Sand shuriken? Okay now you're just throwing off Naruto. On a related note, 12 year old would probably be geeking out so hard right now. But seriously, one of you has a whole new level of creativity and guts, and the other can turn into any possible shape, so there has to be something you can do with that!"

"I ain't freaking genius like you or Donnie, so what do I- Wait." Casey paused as he lookd down at the sphere, then back at Sandman "I got one idea and I don't know if it's gonna work, but it's crazy and sounds awesome. How much can you stretch that sand stuff you got going?"

"Whatever you're going to do, do it fast!" Ghost Spider managed to pin the Sandman clones to the ground with her webs, only to be met with a blast of electricity that sent her tumbling to the ground.

"I have to say, it is rather ironic." the Jackal gave a smirk as he stepped forward "My benefactor had asked me to find new recruits for his organization, with one of the primary objectives being to eradicate any bothersome arachnids such as yourself, or the original. But thanks to this stroke of genius on my part, we may not even need to bring in the entire Goblin Nation."

"Goblin Nation? What the heck is that?"

"A good question, but of course I'm not going to answer that."

"Fine, cause we're tired of the overcomplicated science crap!" Sandman on the other hand was taking the chance to stretch himself out to cover the entire containment sphere "Okay I'm doing it, now what's the game plan here?"

"I'm thinking if you can make yourself stretch enough, maybe the ball is gonna burst so we can get out and-" Casey was cut off by the sound of a beep, and the doorway opened "Or that, that works too. Okay, let's move it."

"Works for me, just sit back and enjoy the show." Sandman let out a battle cry as he leapt out of the sphere and unleashed a powerful wave of sand that blew most of the clones away, and then he began ripping through one of them after another.

"Wait, you guys actually worked together?" Ghost Spider looked over at Casey as he leapt to the ground next to her "To be honest, I would find that a lot more touching if we weren't fighting for our lives."

"Fair enough. So what's the plan?"

"That depends, is there any way that you can control your clones?"

"Nope, don't think I haven't tried either. The bottom line is that as long as the Jackal has that thing, we're screwed."

"The remote control you mean? On that note, do you still have your taser with you?"

"That sand reject has it, along with all my gear."

"In that case, I know what to do. Hang back and try to draw their attention, and let me do the rest." with that in mind, Ghost Spider leapt forward and charged through the army of clones until she came across the one with Casey's gear and knocked it to the ground, using a webline to pull out the taser from its arm, and a small object from its bag "Quick science prompt for you Jones, what happens when you mix a taser with an electro-static bomb?"

"...You blow up?"

"Good guess but no, in this case you get an instant electromagnetic pulse!" Ghost Spider drew the electro-static bomb into the taster, unleashing powerful wave of electricity that covered the entire area until it reached the Jackal, shorting out his gauntlets… and the remote he held in his hand.

"No, no you can't just-" Jackal let out a snarl as he watched the Sandmen fall into literal piles of sand, allowing the original to absorb them.

"I think we just did." Ghost Spider gave a smirk under her mask, then glanced back at Sandman and Casey "You two hang back, I'll take care of Jackal myself."

"You won't be taking care of anything wench. Activate emergency self destruct sequence, Jackal Alpha!" Jackal gave the voice command, and then disappeared through a purple doorway that had appeared beneath him.

"Crap, that can't be good. They always have a self destruct sequence."

"To hell with that, I'm as sick of this place as you can get." Sandman enveloped the three of them (along with Casey's discarded gear) in a ball of sand that subsequently shot into the air a few seconds before the entire building came down, allowing them to land in the middle of the forest, unharmed.

"Okay good, we made it." Ghost Spider let out a sigh of relief as she and Casey made her way out of Sandman's protective ball "I'm just going to say it, I don't think I'll be looking at a beach the same way again anytime soon."

"And now I got sand in places I didn't even know I had places." Casey let out a sandy cough, then paused and glanced over at Sandman "No offense dude."

"Nothing I hadn't heard before." Sandman gave a shrug.

"So what now?"

"Well if I had to guess-" Ghost Spider cut herself short when her cell phone began ringing and she pulled it out "Hey Raph, what's up? Hold on slow down, I can't understand you. Where is it now? Okay, we'll be right there." and so she hung up "Duty calls again."

"What's the damage?"

"Apparently an army of mercenaries in pumpkin masks attacking a prison transport, and Raph and Mikey are caught in the middle of it. We have to go help."

"Hang tight, I'll give you guys a lift back to dry land." Sandman was quick to take on a much bigger form, lifting up Ghost Spider and Casey, and quickly

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the incapacitated hero…

'Aw man, my head…' Mikey let out a pained groan as he opened his eyes, only to find himself in what looked like an endless black void, without the costume "Okay, that's kinda freaky. How the shell did I end up here?"

"I knew what the mutation was like… but I didn't think it was gonna hurt this much…" the sound of that voice was enough to make Mikey freeze in his tracks.

"That voice… Pete…? Pete is that you?" Mikey took a frantic look around "Pete where are you, can you hear me?"

"Mikey listen… I'm gonna be gone for awhile… Not sure when or if I'm gonna bounce back… Remember what I said, back in the Technodrome? Aunt May and Gwen… look out for both of them, especially Gwen… I think she's gonna need a good teacher going forward…"

"Pete come on man, you gotta come back!" Mikey tried to rush towards the source of the voice, only to fail to locate it, and then he ended up hearing more voices.

"Then why the shell doesn't it feel like you think it? When the shell are guys gonna stop treating me lik some kind of stupid idiot that screws up all the time?"

"How about when you stop acting like one."

"What?" Mikey froze at the sound of those voices "Is that… me and Raph?"

"Mikey… Why did I ever bother calling you a partner? Frankly I'd be better off with just about anyone else."

"Pete? No don't say that, you wouldn't!" Mikey looked forward and saw an image of Peter Parker standing before him, and he made a beeline towards it.

"You promised me you'd look after May and Gwen, but look at them now. Gwen's been hurt more than once in a fight, and May's working herself to the bone at her new job. If you really wanted to help, you'd be doing something about that."

"I am! I'm trying!" Mikey continued running towards Peter and reached out to him, only for him to disappear at the last second, and then he fell to his knees "I'm sorry… I'm trying my best, I really am…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And now back to reality…

"Mikey! Mikey get up!"

"I'm trying!" Turtle Titan bolted upright, sweat dripping down his face, and he quickly noticed the Nightwatcher kneeling next to him "Raph what's- Where did-"

"Hey hey, take it easy. You're okay." Nightwatcher slowly helped him to his feet "You gonna be alright?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I think I just need a minute. Snakeweed was just one of them though, they got another one out there."

"Yeah I know, the armored guy that calls himself the Bug or something. Pretty sure he's the one that crash landed over there." Nightwatcher jerked a thumb at where a a silver purple figure clad in a metal suit bound in a high-tech straightjacket could be seen lying among the wreckage "So what do these guys want with them?"

"I dunno, but it can't be good. Let's go get him." the two of them prepared to advance towards where the Beetle was still bound, only to be stopped by another explosion going off, sending both of them crashing back to the ground.

"The opposition is stunned, now's our chance!" this was when a chopper flew onto the scene with a group of pumpkin soldiers jumping to the ground and attached cables to Beetle's harness, allowing the chopper to hoist him into the air "You're in the clear!"

"Like hell he is!" Nightwatcher pulled out a sai in one hand and a ball and chain in the other, and then he charged towards the group.

"Yeah come on R- Nightwatcher, let's smash some gourds!" Turtle Titan drew his kusarigama and was about to charge as well, only to stop at the sound of his phone ringing "Yeah?"

"Mikey it's Gwen, I'm on my way and bringing backup, but how are you guys holding up with all of this?"

"Trying to, but these guys have a ton of firepower and they're after Beetle. I think they might have gotten Snakeweed. Or what's left of him. Anyway I'm with R- Nightwatcher fighting a bunch of them right now."

"Wait, Nightwatcher? As in that new vigilante?"

"Yeah, that's a long story. We wouldn't say no to some backup!"

"Hold on, we're on our way and we'll be there soon. Just hang in there!"

"Will do." Turtle Titan broke off from the call and charged into the fray, taking out a small group of pumpkin soldiers with ease and using his kusarigama to grab hold of the one that was trying to sneak attack Nightwatcher, using it to pin him to the ground "You good?"

"I am now. What took you?"

"I got a phone call, and now we got backup on the way."

"We ain't the only ones." Nightwatcher jerked a thumb at where more pumpkin soldiers were riding up to them on motorcycle "I'll handle them, go get the Bug or whatever the shell he's calling himself."

"Alright, divide and conquer." Turtle Titan caught Nightwatcher in a quick fist bump, then took off after the chopper carrying Beetle's bound form, latching onto the chopper's engines, causing one of them to burst into combust and sending the chopper crashing to the ground in the middle of another busy street, drawing the attention of multiple bystanders 'Okay, that could've gone a lot better. At least they didn't get away with Beetle.'

"You're gonna pay for that one freak." the pumpkin soldiers climbed out of the wreckage of the chopper, all sporting rifles and/or spears and mad as all hell "The Beetle is coming with us, but only after we rip you out of your shell for that little stunt."

"You guys ain't gonna touch him, not as long as I'm still kicking." Turtle Titan was quick to brace himself as he met the pumpkin soldiers' charge head on, blitzing through the onslaught of bullets and wrapping around a small group of them with his kusarigama, then subduing another few of them with a quick smoke bomb to the face, before using his chain to send both of these groups crashing into each other.

"Watch your heads idiots!" another soldier leapt towards Turtle Titan with a large battle axe in his hand, followed by several more armed with guns and knives.

"I don't know what the deal is with you guys…" Turtle Titan continued fighting his way through the group, albeit it taking a few cuts and slashes along the way, one of them cutting through the cowl on his head and revealing part of his face, but he used this chance to grab the soldier by the arm and throw him into the others "But you ain't messing with my city!" and so he was quick to brace himself, fighting his way through every pumpkin soldier that came his way, until all of the fighting came to a halt 'Is… Is that all of them?'

"I was wondering when I'd get to fight you again."

'Nope.' Turtle Titan looked up to see another chopper fly onto the scene, but he paled slightly at who he saw standing in the doorway "Slash?!"

Sure enough, Slash stood on the edge of the chopper, morning star in hand with a blinking purple light visible on his forehead and a malicious smirk spreading across his face "Sad to say that I'm gonna be stuck following orders right now, but go ahead give my regards to Raphael… If you live long enough to see him again." he pulled out a large object from the chopper, a giant barrel of oil, and threw it to the ground, before throwing his morning star at it, spreading the oil over the flames of the wreckage and creating a sizable explosion.

'Crap!' Turtle Titan leapt away from the flames and pulled out his T-phone "Raph you gotta get over here, things are bad!"

"I'm trying to avoid the idiots in pumpkin heads shooting at me, how bad could things be on your end?"

"Things went from bad to entire freaking street on fire bad and it's spreading, and we got people over here!"

"...Dammit, I hate when you one up me. Hang tight, I'll find a way to ditch these Joker rejects and be right over."

"Got it." Turtle Titan hung up as he glanced over to see a taxi being surrounded by the flames as they continued spreading, to which he leapt through the wreckage and landed on the hood of the taxi, finding the driver and three passengers inside "Hey, you guys gotta move it!"

"Don't you think I'm trying!" the driver barked at him "The damn thing won't start!"

"Got it, hold that thought." Turtle Titan busted the windows of the taxi and used his kusarigama to wrap around the driver and the passengers, pulling them out of the taxi and onto the sidewalk just before the taxi was engulfed in a smaller explosion. With that done, he let the people run to safety as he turned his attention to where a group of flying drones were picking up the Beetle and carrying him away, to which he latched onto one of them with his kusarigama and used the momentum to rip through the others using a pair of nunchucks, sending the Beetle crashing to the ground 'I got him, now to-'

"RUN! GO GO GO!"

'-deal with that.' Turtle Titan glanced over to see the flames continuing to spread over to another crowd of civilians 'Come on think, there's gotta be a way to douse the flames. Why the shell is there never a Water Man or something when you need it? Wait a second.' he quickly turned his gaze towards a nearby fire hydrant, using his kusarigama to yank it open and let it douse as much of the flames as it could "Don't worry people I gotcha, just get moving! Nobody is dying here on my watch!"

"Wouldn't bet on that you lizard reject!" another pumpkin soldier dropped to the ground in front of Turtle Titan, with a sizable group of them closing in on the Beetle as the former readied his blade and pounced forward.

"I would." Turtle Titan leapt over the attack and dealt the pumpkin soldier a sharp kick to the back of the head that left him sprawled out on the ground… only to suddenly be met with a morning star slamming into his side and sending him tumbling into the wreckage of a nearby car, leaving him battered and bruised.

"Not a bet you wanna make Michelangelo, not with you at least." Slash let out a chuckle as he loomed over Turtle Titan, preparing to bring down his morning star once again "Do yourself a favor and stay down, this is gonna hurt a lot more if you get back up."

"Yeah well… too bad for you…" Turtle Titan spat out some blood as he pulled himself back to his feet "I ain't letting you get Beetle… or hurt anyone else… No matter what!" he readied his kusarigama and nunchucks as he leapt forward, sliding under Slash and dealing him an uppercut kick to the jaw that sent Slash staggering backwards, but as he turned to the pumpkin soldiers his leg was grabbed and he was smashed into the ground.

"I don't know what it takes to get this through your head, I knew you were dense but I didn't think you were that dense. That's a lie, I totally did. Beetle comes with us."

"That… That ain't gonna happen!" Turtle Titan dug the blade of his kusarigama into Slash's arm, causing him to roar in pain and throw him off, sending him hurtling towards the ground, until…

"Get the shell off of my brother!" Nightwatcher sped onto the scene on his motorcycle and was able to catch Turtle Titan before he hit the ground, but quickly screeched to a halt when he took notice of Slash standing before him 'Okay, that is not where I saw this going.'

"So another idiot in a costume trying to play the hero. Why Raphael bothers to hang around with the likes of you, I'll never understand." Slash let out a snarl as he prepared to advance on the two of them, only to pause as the light on his forehead began pulsating, causing him to roar in pain, but after a moment it subsided and he turned to the pumpkin soldiers as a purple doorway opened up behind him "Remember our objective, secure the Beetle! I'm needed back at the base."

"No!" Nightwatcher prepared to charge at Slash, only to end up falling to the ground as Slash took a step back into the portal, with it closing as soon as he did so 'Spike…'

"Go ahead and think about this defeat turtle freaks." one of the pumpkin soldiers took the chance to gloat as he and the other soldiers hoisted Beetle into the air "This is just a taste of what's to come, and know that there's no stopping what's coming. Not that you ever had a chance in the first place." and then they took Beetle through the doorway, with it closing behind them.

'Great, so much for the big hero act. I don't know how they do it.' Nightwatcher breathed a sigh, but it quickly died out when he saw the flames beginning to spread again "Oh come on, you've gotta be freaking kidding me!"

"I've got this one!" lucky for them, this was when Ghost Spider showed up on the scene, along with Casey and Sandman, using a few quick shots of webbing to snuff out the flames, with the Sandman using his sand to soak up any remaining oil patches before they could ignite, and then she turned to the others "You guys okay?"

"What the shell do you think?"

"Right, stupid question. Anyway I'm guessing there's a lot to unpack, but we've got a fair bit of cleanup work to do too. Let's meet up with Leo and Donnie and try to do some damage control of… well, everything."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About an hour passed, and damage control was well underway.

"Okay I checked it out, first responders are on the scene. My dad says that the police are in the middle of searching, but there's no sign of them." Ghost Spider landed on a rooftop and found Turtle Titan, Nightwatcher and the other Turtles, along with Casey and Sandman, already there waiting for her "I don't suppose there was any luck up river or in any other areas?"

"No sign of anything but debris, and a lot of questions." Leo cast a glance at Nightwatcher "First of all, when the shell were you planning to tell us about the whole vigilante thing that you had going on?"

"Hey watch it, I don't tell you how to live your life." Nightwatcher rolled his eyes as he took off his helmet, revealing the mask of Raphael underneath "But if you're gonna grip over me then do it later, we got bigger fish to fry."

"Fine. So who were those guys? They weren't particularly strong, but they had strength in numbers and some pretty heavy weaponry and tech."

"Not to mention that now they've got that, plus Beetle and Snakeweed. And Slash, turns out he's working with them too." Raph let out a sigh "So much for the big bad Nightwatcher swooping in to save the day."

"Hey come on bro, don't be like that." Turtle Titan pulled himself to his feet and patted Raph on the back "Whatever these guys are planning, we're gonna figure it out and take them down. It's a big part of what we do, right? Plus you swooping in like that pretty much saved my shell a few times today."

"Yeah, true…"

"Easy Raph, I don't need my partner getting bent out of shape over one thing." Casey was quick to step forward and catch Raph in a fist bump "We're gonna find those guys and take them down, and we're gonna show them why they don't screw with us."

"...Okay yeah, busting some heads and showing them why they don't wanna screw with us, I can get behind that." Raph gave a smirk and met Casey's fist bump "So I guess you got up to a lot of stuff today too, huh?"

"That's one way to put it. I got sand in places I didn't know I had places, and I don't just mean my gear either." Casey pulled off one of his gloves and shook some loose sand out of it to prove his point "Better, sort of."

"Hey think of it this way kid, it beats being stuck in the basement of Yoda's evil cousin for weeks on end." Sandman cringed slightly at the thought "Feels good to finally stretch out a bit again."

"So I have to ask then, what are you going to do from here?" Ghost Spider raised an eyebrow under her mask.

"Probably get back to trying to do the whole "Hero" thing, but first I need a little bit of alone time, take the chance to spread out a little bit further. I'll leave busting the Kraang to you guys for the time being, but if you need help with all that, give me a shout."

"I'll remember that, thanks."

"Don't mention it. And for what it's worth, you remind me a lot of the other Spider. Only a lot less annoying." Sandman gave a quick two-finger salute, and then he disappeared off the side of the building.

"...I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"Then try taking this one on too." Casey glanced over at Ghost Spider "Don't get too used to me saying this but… you were right. I guess the whole "good vs evil" thing ain't as black and white as I thought. Guess not all bad guys are rotten to the core like the Purple Dragons. Then there's the whole thing with April's dad."

"Is this going to be something about being soft on him getting us thrown into Jackal's trap?"

"I doubt it. Didn't seem like he was expecting us to crash his little party."

"You think that Mr O'Neil took you both there to save Sandman from the Jackal?" Donnie was the first one to break the silence after that "As in, on purpose?"

"I guess he trusted Blondie over there, she said she wanted to help and he led us to the guy that needed it more. Besides, what were we gonna do with him when we found him, trap him in a cage or something?"

"Um… You know, we never really figured that part out." Leo glanced over at the others "But it raises a few ideas. I think we have seen a few signs that Kirby is still in there, then we just have to work harder at finding the rest of the Mutagen canisters, turning him and the others human again, and shutting down this Goblin Nation before they can follow through on whatever it is they're planning. And we'll do it together." he shot a look at Raphael, and the two of them shared a quick fist bump, with Donnie, Turtle Titan, Ghost Spider and Casey all joining in as well "So let's get started."

A/N:

Happy New Year everybody, and welcome to the first chapter of 2024. Here we see that even though he's joined the Turtles and Spiders, Casey Jones still has a fair bit to learn about being a hero, and understanding that things aren't so black and white when it comes to good vs evil.

On another note, the others learned about Raphael taking on the mantle of the Nightwatcher, and he revealed himself in a blaze of glory amidst the fires of unholy chaos, as the Goblin Nation makes their first official move against our heroes by taking in a few new potential recruits. I'll be expanding on that next chapter, so bear with me until then.