She stabbed a sword to his chest in the absence of virtue.
Instead, her furious blade jabbed the air almost an inch beside him as he rolled out of range. His body was clean, but just then almost not.
"Come on, you freak, is that all you've got?" her voice was iced with dominance.
The slim figure of the female ninja, the Kunoichi, dodged the blades of the snake-fang-sharp blades of the turtle's dual katanas. Try as hard as he might, slashing a cut on her small body only held a small chance with her nimble, smart movements.
A ninja is always aware of his surroundings if he wants to win. His sensei's words rang through his mind, causing him to pay attention to peripheral vision. On the right of the dual-bladed warrior was his feisty brother, Raphael, grunting with fury while he stabbed two of the kunoichi's robot ninja slaves with his sai. His motions smouldered with ruthlessness.
His other brother, Donatello, spun his elongated wooden staff on his right. The stick rotated so quickly it altered into a blur. Donnie's weapon kept his enemies at a distance before knowing the right time to strike.
Behind him is Michaelangelo- making over-exaggerated sounds that mimicked a monkey, like the ridiculous word "booyakasha". It seemed to be his battle war cry. The spunky little turtle kicked one robot ninja with his left foot then combined the move with a snapping blow of his thrashing numb chucks. With the other footboy behind him, he chained it around the metal shoulders with speed, then hurled the machine to the first. Both the servants plummeted down the rooftop they were fighting on and landed in a flurry of trash down the dumpster noisily.
The ninja turtle who was battling with the Kunoichi winced. Ninjas were supposed to be quiet.. What if somebody saw random green monsters trying to kill ancient ninjas on top of an average building?
The distraction slowed down his movements, thus the girl's Wakazashi sword nearly hit his head. It only sliced off a miniature fragment of his bandana in a flash. In an instant, he sent all disturbances into exile and burned his gaze into hers. All he could distinguish in them was hatred. Much like Shredder, her vigorous father fuelled by revenge for the turtles' sensei, once Hamato Yoshi.
"Leo," venom dripped from every word the short-haired ninja hissed. "Keep on fighting as you might, but me and Shredder will eventually end your misery." Her piercing yellow optics narrowed as her swords met with a deafening clash. Effort charged into Leonardo's teeth, making them grit as both of their shiny weapons wrestled against one another, trembling from brute force from both sides.
Their staring contest wasn't stopping. Leo wasn't going to flee from her catty snake-like glower. However he gasped as her surprising strength nearly knocked him over his bandaged three-toed feet. Yet he didn't break their gaze. "All you do is follow Shredder's orders." His whisper whisked over their grappling swords and inflamed her glare further. "And let me tell you, he's crazy!"
With a grunt of relief, he won the sword-wrestle, but not for long. All of a sudden there was a flash and the whole world instigated beneath him.
Thump.
Air was mercilessly knocked out of his stomach and again as Karai planted her petite foot on top of his shell. Leo let out a small groan as his brain put the whole scene together for Karai and his brothers to see- lying on his stomach, stepped on by a girl.
The blue-masked turtle forced all his strength to flip himself back to his steady feet. Alas, it was no use. The cunning ninja grasped his right arm so it was jutting out behind him, then slammed his body to the ground again. Physical pain rippled through his entrire five-foot-seven body, making his head ache. Man, she was tough.
Karai's wrathful voice sliced the air with her tone of loathing, as if he were something at the bottom of her black shoe. "I'm thinking of killing you now, however, that would be too easy." Leo didn't think it was possible for her voice to darken, but it was. A blossoming yet unexpected wave of sympathy washed over his heart as she continued.
"But you and your brothers tried to kill my father- the only parent that I had- and with the missile launcher that I gave you. I trusted you guys, but all of you stabbed me in the back." Agony pulsed through Leo's shell and whizzed to the tip of his fingers. Was this how ants felt being squashed by Raph's finger?
Karai's golden gaze boring as hard as steel into the back of his head wasn't hard to sense. "Do you think I'd just sit and do nothing? Now that my father's away to Japan, I can do anything that I'd like."
Leo's body throbbed as it wished itself an utter, weak goodbye. But his mind was fighting for it to persevere. Determination fleshed into existence for Leo to find his inner strength, manifested from his desire to live. Nevertheless, the waterfall that wiped it out to nothing was empathy for Karai. Pity sank into his soon-to-be-dead heart just thinking about her. Whether it was love, he did not know, but he would rather she kill him than the alternative.
Nonetheless, the back of his mind roared over all the commotion in his sentiments, insisting he had to live- even if he was trapped under the unyielding grip of Karai. He cast his frantic gaze all over his surroundings- gosh. There were a lot of footbots- the robot servants- than he had memorised. Leo's brothers, Raph and Mikey, were held still by about eight of the robots each like tiny mice wrapped inside hungry snakes. Donnie was cornered by about fifteen, and one more step backward he would fall into the shadowed, dead streets of NYC eighty feet below.
But damn, Leo's body ached a whole more lot than usual. Was it Mikey's pizza earlier? He knew for a fact his immature brother liked to keep pizza longer than he should be allowed to. Or was it because of his own sleeping posture that night? Hey, it was hard to sleep with a round shell glued to your back the moment you were born.
Time was running out. Leo's peripheral vision informed him that the slender Kunoichi already had her sword poised above her head, more than ready to strike down. Her voice resembled Shredder's perfectly.
"Goodbye, turtle."
Everything else happened in a racket before Leo could think properly.
A chill burst up from the tip of his toes, possessing the higher parts of his body in an ascending motion. Then came agony. It flurried within him, twisting, turning, rocketing, making his scream echo into the oblivious streets of their city below.
With remorseless pain, he managed to twist his green head to catch sight of what was happening to his feet.
He couldn't believe it.
Instead of three green toes there were now five. His skin was repainted into a pale peach tone- a human's skin tone. The supernatural replacements were climbing up to his ankles where it slimmed, and almost up to his knees. All he could do was witness the change in astonishment. Was this a dream?
He compelled his worn-out muscles to try to turn himself over out of Karai's clutch once more, but the girl resisted stubbornly. She, of course, noticed the change too and stared with him.
"Karai," Leo spluttered, the air in his lungs dribbling out like ink out of an oil pen. "Karai, I have to go to see what's going on."
After a moment of fascinated silence from the mule, she shook her head. "Not unless you tell me what's happening to you," she jeered. Dang it. Of course she wouldn't listen to anybody but herself. She was Karai. Karai never agrees with anyone except for Karai.
A wheeze of distress automatically escaped from Leo's throat as the... change started to overlap his kneecaps to make it bonier.
His optics darted around- it was happening to Raph too. His brother who was usually gutsy let out a howl of horror, mimicked by Donnie and Mikey as they experienced the spell as well.
Then a lightning bolt of sudden comprehension struck Leo, hard. Oh god. At that second, he thrashed against her grip once more. Oh god. Listen. To. Me. "Karai." He couldn't help the fear frizzing in his voice. "Let me go now before you regret your actions."
Her laugh was tinted with mockery. It was obvious she didn't know what was going to happen. "What do I want to regret-"
Her placid talk was cut off from the horrid sight of the mystical conjuration that, when Leo flipped around on his back, reached his thighs and almost above. The blinded Kunoichi blasted out a strangled cry and her clench disintegrated.
Leo, half-turtle half-human now, wasted no time to spring to his human feet. The rooftop's floor routed into his new soft skin and made him shudder. "Guys," he called, making his brother's heads whip around. "Let's move!"
His brothers finally thrashed out of the footbot's reach. The cold, brittle wind of Fall buffeted in Leo's cobalt-blue eyes as they careened over blurring buildings. Their strength didn't diminish with human body parts- they were still as strong as the turtles who once trained every single hour, every single day. Leonardo's group leapt down the buildings into a random balcony, snatching random clothes on the laundry stand blindly and rapidly.
Pure red blood rushed into Leo's now-human cheeks as he recalled the recent memory spiralling within him- a girl, that had to be Karai, nearly saw him bare. Just having it in his memory made Leo cringe, making him desperately banish it gone.
I wished we wore clothes as turtles, Leo mused dryly. Then we'd be prepared for random stuff like this.
Now, fully transformed into an evolved ape, Leo flung on a white T-shirt and black shorts which impressed him about how well it fit on. When he was a turtle, no human clothes from the dumpster ever fit him with his shell poking out.
Beside him, a random boy- he meant... Donatello? Donnie had brown hair that protruded in a smooth forward manner that twined up at the front. He was directly cloaking on a brown leather jacket over his thin but muscular structure, and below dark blue jeans- embodying one of those male models that matched male magazines Leo often found in the sewer.
"Lookin' good, D," Leo chuckled with a wink that was on the fence between mockery and sincerity.
Adjoining the leader ninja, a messy blonde-haired kid... he meant Mikey, popped his small round head out of the collar of a football tee, swivelling his short legs through black trail that trailed way past his feet; looking like a kid trying on their parent's clothes without wanting them to know.
Leonardo straightened up, feeling the end of his short hair brush the back of his neck. "If we're all set, let's head back and figure out what the heck is going on," he declared wearily. The boy crouched like a frog on the balcony's fence, posed to jump, when Raph's pleading cry told him otherwise.
"Wait, guys, you took all the clothes!" His whine was like a toddler's.
Well, it's not like Leo pretended to leave Raph behind on purpose just to annoy him.
Totally not.
Raph was covering himself behind some bedsheets, hissing with resentment when the rest of his brothers looked over their shoulders. "I literally have nothing to wear!"
After a few heartbeats of silence, a hyena's laughter hooted out of Mikey. "Well," he guffawed, "is that a dress I see on the laundry stand?"
Raph snapped with flaring eyes that would send children back to their mother. "I am not-"
"-No other choice!" Leo interrupted snakily. The edges of his new human lips curled up as Raph spat out enraged, immature utters of resented helplessness. The walking storm cloud had never done anything so grudgingly before- he weaved through the sparkly purple cloth, making the rest of the team unable to hold it in their laughter.
The round-eyed blonde- oh, Mikey- barked, "It totally suits you, bro!"
Before Raph could beat him out of his shell- um, skin, Leo put in their vital needs first with a brisk tone of voice.
"We head back to the lair and find out what's going on- Donnie, we'll need you. We also need to get some proper clothes," he commanded as they flew across the familiar night air to their manhole.
Still and all, the image of Karai still remained a scar inside Leonardo's mind- her dignified feminine figure overlaying herself over the vast canvas of the mysterious sleeping sky- an ominous yet breathtaking night beauty. She was the promise to life in the darkness, a sense of warmth springing from the cold. No matter their complicated history in the past, Leo saw each time he met her that she was more than just a foe. It was every moment he caught sight of her that his eyes would smile and his breathing deepen just a little.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
