"Half Shell Heroes of Hell's Kitchen" - Part Four

 

Part Four

            Craig hated it when he allowed his attitude to get the better of himself. It always happened around those he cared about the most – his friends and family. And now, his most recent outburst was towards his greatest friend of all, Rania. She was the kindest and most loving person Craig ever met (other than his own mother), and he blew up at her as if she had pilfered his last Choco Roll.

            Riding in the backseat of the Channel Six news van, he was feeling a lot of guilt.

            During the car ride, he took out his phone and searched through his photos for one that he had been keeping in the album for quite a long time now – one of himself, Thomas, and Rania together in the Creek.

            “You alright, kiddo?” He heard April ask him. She sat right beside him.

            “I’m fine,” he huffed, not exactly convincing the intuitive reporter otherwise.

            “I don’t need journalistic integrity to know you’re not as ‘fine’ as you sound,” April teased. “I saw how you blew off your friend back there – the pretty young brunette in the turtleneck. I’m figuring that’s the source of your guilt, right?”

            Craig huffed again, neither confirming nor denying April’s suspicions.

            April scooted closer to him, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Listen, Craig…there’s someone I know – other than the Turtles – who I think can help you get over this funk. Ya see, there’s this wise old master, who’s also their father. They call him ‘Splint—”

            SCREECH!!!

            Their driver brought the van to a sudden halt that nearly threw Craig and April forward; they would’ve flown right out of their seat, had it not been for their seatbelts. “Vernon!” April yelled at the driver. “What’s the big ide—!” She stopped when she looked out through the front windshield and saw the reason for Vernon’s impulsive braking. “Oh, no!”

            Craig heard the fear in her voice. He followed her gaze towards the street.

            There, blocking their path, was a guy wearing fierce armor that was a cross between samurai and Viking. It looked ancient yet pristine with razor-sharp bull horns. He looked to be seven feet tall – perhaps even taller, from the way he towered over the purple ninjas that flanked him.

            “What is that?!” Craig pointed to the imposing figure.

            “It’s the Shredder and his Foot Soldiers!” April whimpered.

            “APRIL O’NEIL!!!” The Shredder roared beneath his helmet, pointing directly to April herself. Craig could see her quivering. “Hand over the boy!” Now Craig was quivering, too.

            “What does he want with me?!?!” Craig cried.

            “It might have something to do with taking down Joey Alpo – he had dealings with the Foot Clan,” April surmised. “Alpo may run the streets, but Shredder runs the city!” Amid her explanation, she reached into her purse and pulled out some type of device shaped like a turtle shell. “I’ve gotta call the Turtles on the Turtle Comm! We need them to come to us now!”

            Craig wasn’t sure how this ‘Turtle Comm’ functioned, but if it provided them with a direct line to these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles he had been hearing so much about, he was glad to know April had it ready on her.

            However, just as she was about to make the call, something fast and red swooped down from out of nowhere and laid waste to the Foot Soldiers flanking Shredder. “WHAT?!” he growled, turning so sharply that he sliced the air. He saw a man clad in red body armor, topped by a helmet with devil horns, using swift and speedy forms of martial arts to subdue the Foot Soldiers.

            Shredder had heard of this masked vigilante before; his interference in his matters were just as much a thorn in his side as those pesky Ninja Turtles.

            So, this is the Daredevil of Hell’s Kitchen!

            With the last Foot Soldier downed, Daredevil set his sights on Shredder.

            Craig watched in awe as the two men combated among the floored bodies of the Foot Soldiers, which turned out to have been robots the entire time. “Craig,” he heard April say to him urgently. “There’s a manhole cover right behind the van! Use it to get down to the sewers and find the Turtles!”

            “The sewers?” Craig cringed with disgust. “Seriously?!”

            “It’s where their lair is,” April said. “Now, go!”

            “What about you…and him?” Craig pointed to Daredevil, who found the Shredder to be more of a challenge than he realized.

            “I can’t speak for him, but I’ll be fine,” April reassured Craig.

            With heavy reluctance, Craig did as she told him and escaped through the rear doors of the Channel Six van. He could hear Daredevil and Shredder grunting barbarically in the near distance, wanting so desperately to stay and help the former. He caught a quick glimpse of the fight, peeping around the corner of the van; he was disturbed to see Daredevil in rough shape – parts of his body armor in shreds, and some of his blood oozing out from his mouth.

            In that fight-or-flight moment, Craig remembered Rania’s advice:

            Think smarter than your opponent and you don’t ever have to worry about their size or whether they are the one who choose to fight.

            “Think smarter…”

            Craig rushed for the manhole cover, using all of his strength to move it. It practically weighed a ton, but he managed. He climbed down into the stenchy bowels of New York City, hating every second of it. Once he was down the ladder, he pinched his nose and breathed through his mouth. “YUCK!” That turned out to have been an even worse idea, as he could taste the smelly air.

            He wandered endlessly through every tunnel in search of the Turtles’ lair.

            It was just one dead end after another until…

            “What up, lil’ dude!” He heard a guy with a Californian accent call out to him.

            As he turned around to face the speaker, Craig wondered who else would be dumb enough to wander around the sewers. He jolted in surprise when he saw four anthropomorphic turtles, each wearing different colored ninja eye masks (blue, red, orange, and purple), standing right before him.

            He had finally found the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.