TMNT: Ricochet ▶ON HOLD (till gets more reads, votes and comments)◀

Prologue: It All Starts With the End.

The countdown starts. Each beep of the clock beats in time with the pounding of his heart as it ticks its way to oblivion. Donatello watches with his family all around him, his blood turned to ice, each second shaving their lives paper-thin. Five seconds stretch on for years.

5...

They almost missed it. The massive ship stirred like a sleeping titan, breaking free of its umbilicus tethers with a choking burst of heat and smoke. The ceiling opened up, swallowing partygoers like a hungry animal. A table, still dressed in its white linen table cloth, clattered to the floor. It barely made a sound over the deafening roar of the engine.

4...

And with that ship, the Shredder would be gone. They did everything they could to stop him. Ripped off his false skin. Tore him down to his mechanical parts. And then, exposed the fragile alien underneath. But even then, he was too strong. Even then they couldn't stop him. And now he was leaving. Fleeing Earth. With newly gathered strength, he would go on to conquer new galaxies, ravage his native planet that had caused him so much suffering. And then, he would return to Earth with a new bloodlust carved in his alien heart .

In that future that wasn't a future, Don had seen what the world would become if the Shredder wasn't stopped. With the remainder of the party crashing down around them, he could feel the world crumbling beneath his feet.

3...

That's why they jumped; launched themselves from the platform and onto the moving ship in a heart-stopping moment of weightlessness. From that moment on, it was a suicide mission. And Donatello knew-they all knew-there would be no coming back from this.

Lying broken, battered, and bleeding on the ship's cold metal floor, there was only one thing left to do.

2...

Honeycutt had said the situation was hopeless, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Their lives have always been tangled in the threads of a never-ending cycle of revenge. They had been raised and trained as ninjas to avenge the death of their father's Master. His Master, who had fallen victim to his own brand of betrayal and deceit. And in turn, fell into the web of an ancient war of vengeance that spanned galaxies.

All their lives, they had fought the same battle as their ancestors. But as the final countdown numbers his last breaths, Leonardo's voice echoes in his head.

We could end this.

1...

The pillar of light erupts with a volcanic force, pitching him forward in an unbearable wave of heat and rubble that cracks his skin, rattles his heart, and snatches his breath away. The world fades into blistering white.