ARC: Kryptonian. I'll try to include the old characters in this arc. Oh, and big chapter since I was late.
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[One Month Later][New York City]
Smoke rolled through the shattered warehouse like a living thing.
Concrete dust hung in the air. Sirens wailed somewhere far away. The skyline glowed orange from fires spreading block to block as civilians ran in every direction, screaming, tripping, and helicopters kept their distance because nobody wanted to be the idiot who flew too close to a walking extinction event.
The Turtles had planned this raid carefully. They had maps, timing, backup routes, and Donnie had hacked half of Kraang's systems before anyone even stepped inside.
None of that mattered anymore.
The giant portal tore open above the street. Purple energy spiraled outward, warping the air, and one massive Kraang robot stepped through.
Then another.
Then another.
Then two more.
Each one is a towering twenty-five-foot nightmare of metal and alien tech. Thick armored plates overlapped like insect shells. Long mechanical tentacles slammed into the streets, ripping up asphalt and concrete like paper. Their head-mounted cannons charged with a rising electric whine that made everyone's teeth hurt. And they were being controlled by tiny clones of Kraang.
Michelangelo stared up at them, jaw hanging open. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a couple of times.
"…Okay," he said. "That feels excessive."
The original Kraang hovered higher than the rest, his core glowing brighter, his voice echoing through external speakers.
"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. THIS CITY WILL BE RE-PURPOSED."
One of the robots fired a blast.
A skyscraper's lower floors evaporated in a flash of violet light.
Leonardo skidded across a rooftop and barely caught himself on the ledge. He looked up at the destruction, jaw clenched so tight it hurt.
"CIVILIANS FIRST," Leo shouted. "MIKEY, RAPH, GET THEM OUT."
"Already on it," Raphael yelled as he ripped open a crushed taxi and hauled a family out.
Michelangelo vaulted over debris, herding people toward the subway entrance. "Anyone who survives this gets free pizza from me. Assuming I survive."
Donatello slammed into the side of a building after deflecting an energy blast with his enhanced staff. He rolled, sparks crackling along the bo as the force nearly knocked it out of his hands.
Leo rushed in, dodging the tentacles, and came up slashing. His twin katanas bit into the robot's ankle joint, sparks spraying as alien alloy screamed under the impact. The cut barely went in an inch.
"That is new," Leo muttered as he flipped back onto the side of the building and climbed down.
The robot answered by swinging a tentacle the size of a bus. Leo barely jumped in time. The tentacle smashed through a storefront, glass and steel exploding outward. Leo landed in a crouch, chest heaving, eyes locked upward.
Above him, Splinter leapt.
The rat moved like living smoke. Thanks to John's healing back then, he has regained his peak form. So, he was much stronger. He ran straight up the robot's leg, staff cracking against joints and sensor clusters. Each strike would have crippled older models. This one barely staggered, and the damaged parts were getting repaired almost instantly.
A cannon charged.
Splinter felt the vibration through the metal a split second before it fired.
He twisted, vaulted off the machine's shoulder, and landed beside Leo just as a beam ripped through the space where his head had been.
The building behind them vanished.
Splinter's eyes narrowed. "These machines are reinforced far beyond previous encounters."
"No kidding," Leo replied as he blocked another blast that sent him sliding backward across melted asphalt.
A second robot joined the fight.
Then a third.
They moved together now.
One robot slammed both tentacles down. Leo crossed his swords and caught them, knees bending under the impossible weight. The ground cracked beneath him. His arms shook.
Splinter struck from the side, staff glowing faintly as he poured chi into the blow. The impact rang like a cathedral bell.
The robot barely flinched.
It backhanded him.
Splinter flew through a delivery truck, metal folding around his body as he crashed through and skidded across the street. He rolled once, twice, then forced himself up, leaning heavily on his staff.
Leo's heart dropped. "Sensei!"
"I am still standing," Splinter said, though his voice was strained.
A cannon locked onto them both.
That was when Leo snapped his head toward Donatello.
"DONNIE!" he yelled. "CALL THE PIZZA GUY!"
Donnie was halfway down a subway staircase, ushering people into cover while rerouting power to keep the tunnels lit. He froze for half a second.
"Signal going out," Donnie said. "I really hope he is not busy saving the planet or getting married or enjoying his honeymoon. In the latter case, he might just snap on us before the mega bots."
Back on the street, Raphael and Michelangelo were still moving civilians.
Raph ripped a bent steel door off its hinges and used it as a shield while ushering a group across the street. "MOVE MOVE MOVE! Subway entrance two blocks down!"
Mikey skidded in beside him, catching a falling kid with one arm while deflecting shrapnel with his nunchucks. "I swear, every time I say things cannot get worse, the universe takes it personally."
Above them, the robots advanced.
Splinter stepped forward again despite the pain burning through his body.
"These machines will not stop," he said to Leo. "So we must slow them."
Leo nodded grimly. "Just like old times."
They charged together.
Leo went low, blades flashing as he targeted servos and joints, forcing the robots to shift their weight. Splinter went high, striking sensors, disrupting targeting systems, and redirecting fire away from the evacuation routes.
A beam clipped Leo's shoulder and sent him spinning. He hit the ground, rolled, and came up with a groan.
"You good?" Splinter called.
"Ask me after this," Leo replied as he hurled a sword straight into a cannon barrel.
The blast backfired, blowing the weapon apart and staggering the robot.
The Kraang shrieked in rage from above, their portal flaring brighter.
More energy surged.
Splinter planted his staff into the ground and steadied himself beside Leo.
Suddenly, thunder rolled across the city.
Not from the sky.
From everywhere...
The air charged so suddenly that every piece of metal on the street vibrated. Loose debris with metal parts lifted off the ground.
The Kraang machines paused.
Then lightning fell.
White gold bolts slammed down from the sky, striking the robots. One lost its head. Another collapsed as its core detonated inward. A third was driven into the street like a nail, pinned by electromagnetic force.
"Someone called for backup?" Static said with a large grin as he stood on top of the third robot.
Another bolt of lightning cracked as John appeared before Leo and Splinter. He was in his Shazam mode.
"C'mon, first Shredder turned into a giant dragon and now, five giant alien robots with a giant gooey alien... What's up with you guys and giant freaks?" John said, pointing his thumb back.
"YOU!" Kraang's voice boomed. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"
"Seriously, dude? You don't know him?" Static looked up at the Kraang Prime. "You living under the rocks or somethin'?"
"He was in Dimension X for a few years, so he doesn't know you," Splinter said to John.
"Well, no worries, he will..." John flew up into the sky and faced the Kraang Prime. "Static, you think you can take those two robots down?"
Static grinned as he released a burst of electricity, completely obliterating the third robot. "I've been waiting for you to say that. Leave it to me."
He cracked his neck and shot straight up, boots sparking as he landed on the hood of a wrecked fire engine.
"Alright, tin cans," he said, rolling his shoulders as electricity danced over his arms. "Who wants seconds?"
The two remaining Kraang robots turned toward him in perfect sync. Cannons rotated. Tentacles spread wide and slammed into the street, anchoring them like walking fortresses. Power surged through their frames, purple energy pulsing brighter as they recalibrated.
Static whistled. "Y'all really coordinated. That's cute."
The first robot fired.
Static vanished in a flash of blue-white light. The beam tore through empty air and carved a glowing trench across the street. Static reappeared on the side of a building, running sideways along the brick like gravity was optional.
He snapped both hands forward.
Electricity exploded outward.
The bolt slammed into the first robot's chest plate, frying sensors and blowing armor panels off in smoking chunks. The robot staggered back, joints locking for half a second as systems rebooted.
Static grinned. "Yeah, you felt that. That's the result of one month of nightmarish training."
The second robot didn't wait.
A tentacle whipped toward him, faster than the last ones. Static dropped flat, electricity surging through his boots as he slid across the wall and kicked off into open air. The tentacle smashed through the building where he had been, bricks raining down into the street.
Static twisted midair and fired a sustained arc of electricity downward.
The electricity wrapped around the robot's tentacles like glowing chains. Metal screamed as electromagnetic force crushed joints inward. One tentacle snapped completely, crashing into the street and skidding through parked cars.
The clone Kraang inside the robot roared in static-filled alien rage and fired again.
Static caught the blast on a raised forearm, electricity flaring into a shield that bent but held. He was pushed backward through the air, boots digging sparks against the pavement as he skidded to a stop.
"Okay," he said, shaking his arm. "That one stung a little."
Both robots are charged now.
They moved faster. Heavy steps cracked the street as they closed in from both sides, cannons charging, tentacles whipping out to box him in.
Static laughed.
"Oh, nah," he said. "You ain't flanking me."
He slammed both hands into the ground.
The street lit up like a circuit board.
Electricity surged through rebar, sewer lines, buried cables, and every scrap of metal beneath the pavement. The robots froze mid-step as current ripped up into their legs, frying internal systems from the inside out.
Static shot straight up between them in a vertical lightning bolt.
As he passed, he grabbed one robot by the head and spun, slamming it face-first into the other at full speed. The impact sounded like a train collision. Both machines crashed into a warehouse wall, the entire structure folding inward around them.
Static hovered in the air, hands on his hips.
Smoke poured out of the wreckage.
Inside the collapsed building, the robots tried to rise. Their systems sparked wildly, movements jerky and uncoordinated.
Static extended one hand.
"Night night."
A focused bolt speared down and punched straight through both cores at once. Purple energy flared, then collapsed inward. The warehouse caved in completely as the machines went dark, metal screeching as they crushed themselves under their own weight.
Static landed lightly on a streetlight, breathing a little harder but smiling widely.
"New York still standing," he said. "You're welcome."
...
High above the city, clouds churned as John hovered effortlessly in the air, lightning rolling around him like a living storm.
Across from him, the Kraang Prime floated on anti-grav fields, his massive robot body bristling with weapons.
John tilted his head and smirked.
"Anti-grav? Don't tell me you can't fly," he said. "That's embarrassing."
The Kraang Prime screeched in fury.
"I WILL DISSECT YOU AND CLAIM YOUR POWER."
He shot forward.
The sky detonated.
They collided midair, lightning and alien energy slamming together in a blinding explosion that sent shockwaves rippling across the clouds. Windows shattered for blocks. Helicopters spun away, alarms screaming.
John didn't budge.
He caught the Kraang Prime by the face and drove him straight up, punching through cloud layers in seconds. Purple cannons fired wildly, blasts ripping past John's shoulders and exploding uselessly into the sky.
John laughed. "You hit like a generator with stage fright."
He headbutted the Kraang Prime.
The impact caved in part of the robot's faceplate and sent the alien spinning end over end. John was already moving, blinking ahead of him and slamming a lightning-covered fist into his back.
The Kraang Prime screamed as his systems overloaded, energy arcing wildly across his frame.
"You do not understand what you face," the Kraang roared. "DIMENSION X WILL CONSUME YOUR WORLD."
"Do you?" John said with a grin as he pointed his finger at the sky. "SHAZAM!"
The living lightning crashed down as he redirected it at Kraang Prime.
The alien shrieked as systems flared red across his armor.
"RETREAT INITIATED," he screeched. "DIMENSIONAL EXTRACTION."
Purple light tore open behind him as a portal began to form. Reality twisted, folding inward like wet paper. The air screamed as gravity buckled and nearby debris was yanked upward.
John's grin vanished.
"Oh no, you don't," he said. "You are not bringing that mess back later."
The Kraang Prime threw himself backward toward the forming portal, cannons firing wildly to buy time. Buildings below shook as the pull intensified. Cars lifted off the street. Streetlights bent and tore free.
John moved.
He crossed the distance instantly and grabbed the Kraang Prime's robot by the torso. Lightning wrapped around his arms, bright enough to bleach the clouds white. The living lightning was still at work, transforming John into Black Adam and then back to Shazam mode... over and over again.
"You do not get to leave homework unfinished," John said. 'Nice, the constant transformation is smooth and I don't sense any backlashes.'
The Kraang Prime screamed as the portal fought to finish opening. Unstable dimensional energy surged violently. The edges of the rift cracked and splintered as if it could not decide whether to exist.
John tightened his grip.
Lightning detonated outward from his body in a controlled sphere. Every bolt converged inward, compressing instead of exploding.
The Kraang Prime tried to speak.
He never finished.
His entire body collapsed inward and then vanished in a blinding flash.
The portal reacted badly.
Without its anchor, the rift destabilized instantly. The purple vortex shuddered and imploded, collapsing into itself like a dying star. A shockwave blasted outward, ripping through the clouds and slamming into the city below.
Loose debris was hurled outward instead of pulled in. The air boomed like thunder rolled inside a drum.
Then silence.
The sky cleared.
John hovered in place for a moment, electricity fading from his body. He exhaled slowly and rolled his shoulders.
"Yeah," he muttered. "Definitely not letting those guys set up a franchise."
Below, the city slowly realized it was still standing.
...
[Somewhere in the space...]
A Kryptonian ship flew straight toward Earth. It was still years away from reaching its destination.
Suddenly, an unstable portal appeared in its way, pulling the ship inside...
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