Chapter III
Don signed. For the past twenty minutes, he thought about closing the door of his laboratory. There were just too much noises in the living room and he was working with delicate technology here. Since Yoshi and Machiavelli had grown tall and old enough to walk, run and speak, the turtles’ lair was as loud as the time, Don and his brothers had been teenagers.
The genius turned around and tried his best to hide his annoyance. Mona was sitting at the living room table, busy with a little project of her own. The rest of the family was in the dojo at their training exercise. The only reason, Don and Mona didn’t join them was, that someone had to keep an eye on the two over energized tots. So far, the noises of the electronic toys of the children filled the lair. Yoshi had his train station build up and was watching the vehicle going around in circles at the large area. Machiavelli had been busy with his own building of a big castle and let the knight attack it, constantly putting them on the fields that made fake battle cries. But now the attention of the younger one was more and more drawn to the moving train.
Don sensed the trouble before it was even happening. At first, Machiavelli simple watched. But then he pleaded his cousin to give him the remote to control the train. Yoshi of course refused. But not only because he didn’t wanted to share his toy at the moment (actually the little turtle was surprisingly selfless for a child and shared often with his cousin), but also because Machiavelli was too young to handle the remote. And so the conflict emerged.
“Please, Yosh, please, let me have”, Machivaelli cried and reached for the remote.
“No, Macy”, came the firm reply of the older boy. “You’re too small to have it. You only break it.”
“Do not”, Macy said and his face became angry. “Gimme!” He tried to snatch the remote from Yoshi’s hands, but the small turtle was quicker. He elegantly managed to keep the electronic device out of Macy reach.
Two month ago, Yoshi’s own training of Ninjutsu had started. The family had agreed, that the age of five was a perfect time for the start and being Leonardo’s son, Yoshi had received the best of the best training. Leo was so proud, to start educating his boy and even though he didn’t show it openly, he was delighted to see Yoshi proceed.
“No fair!” Macy was now chasing after Yoshi, which was in no way a real race. The little lizard was only three years old and his legs wouldn’t carry him as steady and fast and he wanted to go. His cousin was watching him constantly with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. “Give it up, Macy, you are too small to catch me.”
If there was one thing, Machiavelli hated, that it was being called “too small”. The little lizard had inherit the short patience and hot head of his father and tried to run even faster, which caused him more than once to stumble. But he never fell, but came to the conclusion, that he was indeed in no shape to keep up with his cousin yet, so Macy ran over to his castle. He picked up a few pieces of hard plastic and followed Yoshi once more. When the young turtle began running again, Macy through the pieces at his feet. Yoshi hopped and had now a hard time, keeping his balance. “Cut that out!”, he cried.
Macy might got the hot head from Raph but he also got the smartness of his mother. Don had early discovered, that the small lizard was learning very fast. He had begun to speak very early and knew how to use his cute face to get what he wanted. Donny had already made small plans for the clear talents that slumbered inside his nephew and wanted to take personally care of their flowering.
“Macy, don’t throw those blocks at your cousin”, came the calm but strict voice of Mona from the living room table.
“Yoshi’s mean”, Macy cried and pointed accusingly towards his cousin. “Yoshi won’t share.”
“I’m mean? You’re the one throwing toys at me”, the young turtle said and put his hands on his hips.
Just as he said that, a brick hit his shoulder. “Ow”, Yoshi called. Now, he was angry too. He put the remote on the ground and rushed over to his cousin. Macy had still two pieces left, but none hit its target, because Yoshi avoided each of them with ease. Now it was Macy turn to run and he did, but he didn’t came far. Yoshi grabbed his arm and hold him in place. Macy cried out. “Stop that!” he said sternly and pushed the little lizard to the ground. Now the other child was screaming even louder and kicked at his cousin.
That did it for Don. Before Mona, who had already risen from the couch to take care of this fight, could even take a step, the turtle with the purple bandana established himself before the two arguing younglings. He looked down at his nephew, who felt silent. Somehow Don and Mikey managed to command more respect than the parents. Mikey took great pleasure in that, because it was hard to not be intimidated, as soon as an angry Raphael approached you.
“You two are going back to your toys now”, Don said in his most annoyed voice. “You are way too loud around here and I need to concentrate. I don’t want to hear a single sound from you. Play with your toys and be quite.”
Both Yosh and Macy nodded in union. “Sorry, Uncle Donny”, they said and walked back to their train and castle. Immediately Dons face became much softer and he winked at Mona. Don hardly raced his voice at his nephews, which was probably the reason why he commanded so much respect when he was. Usually, he would be the nice uncle, who would give his nephews ice cream, read a story, took them for a quick swim in the pool and be so much more understanding than Mummy and Daddy.
Just as Don walked back to his lab, a shrill sound filled the lair. The red lamp above the front gate of the lair started to blink bright red. Macy cried out and covered his ears, Yoshi did too. The door of the dojo opened and Leo, Raph, Vee and Mikey rushed out. “What’s going on?”, the turtle leader demanded to know. Don rushed to the security system and checked the screens. What he saw was anything but good. Through one of the many tunnels of the New York City sewers came Foot soldiers.
“How did they find us again?” Raph growled, reaching for his sais.
“No idea, but they won’t get here”, Leo said, his eyes fixed the screen. “Don, can you say how many they are?”
Don switched to sensor mode and scanned the area. “I spot five living forms.” The genius grabbed his Bo from the wall. “I’ll take care of them.” He sprinted to the front gate.
“Take your shellphone with you and call when you need help or if you see more”, Leo called after him.
Don nodded and headed out into the sewers. With his portable tracker he found the intruders easily. The small group had grown to eight. But the turtle was pretty sure he could take care of them, still. Muting his tracker, Don blended into the shadows of the tunnel walls and waited until the eight figures would separate a bit. When that happened, Don followed the smaller group until they all reached a fork, where the tunnels lead into three different directions.
Than Don stroke. He put out his bo staff from behind his back and knocked two soldiers of their feet. They landed in the water with a big splash. The third one jumped around and from afar the turtle already heard the rest of the team approaching. But the genius acted fast. He hit the two foot soldiers, who were in the water directly on their chest. They gave a gurgling sound and then felt silent. Then Don grabbed the third one and through him against the wall, ramming the staff into his stomach. The man fell over and landed face down in the sewer water.
That won’t be a pleasant wake up, Don thought. He hid himself in the tunnel to his right, just in time, as the rest of the foot team arrived at the scene. They looked down at their passed out comrades. The turtle jumped out of the tunnel and directly into their middle, landing on the back of the soldier, he took out last. “Looking for me, guys?”, Don asked the foot. Then he spun around with the bo staff held behind his back. He knocked his enemies to the ground again, but this time he only managed to knock two of them unconscious before the other three were back on their feet again.
The turtle jumped out of their reach and against the nearby wall. He pushed himself off of it, using his staff as a tool for balance and drive. He kicked one foot soldiers straight in the chest and stomach. The man’s back made a hard contact with the wall behind him and he slid down. One of the other soldiers came at Don from behind, grabbed his staff and tried to rip it out of his hands.
“Hands off the merchandise”, Don warned him. He raised his right leg and kicked the man away. In the next moment, he felt a fist connecting with his cheek and he stumbled back against another sewer wall. The two remaining soldiers came at him. Don jumped over them again, rammed the staff into the low water and swung himself around, knocking his enemies of their feet again. He let the staff go, landed on top of them and punched them in the face so hard, they fell unconscious as well.
The turtle was quite pleased with himself, when he stood up and looked around at the eight bodies around him. Too easy, Don thought. Then he knelt next to one of the foot and searched for a communication unit. To his surprise, he found none. He searched all of them, but none had a device to contact the foot headquarter. That is strange, Don thought. He took out his shellphone and called Leo.
“What’s up, Don? What are we dealing with?”
“Not much, if you ask me”, Don answered. “I took out eight foot soldiers, but none of them have a communication device.” The genius took out his tracker too and scanned the area. “And according to my reading, they’re no more of them down here. You know, I think, they didn’t found us at all. But they were obviously searching.”
“Okay, Donny”, Leo said, but Don was suddenly not paying attention anymore. Something on the neck of one of the soldiers caught his attention. He put his fingers on it and it proved to be of metal. At first, the turtle had taken it for a simple button. But it was warm, as if there was something working behind it. Don tried to rip the metal button of. When the fabrics gave in, he found a small chip. The construction of it let all alarm bells inside Don’s head ring at maximum sound.
“Leo!”, he called into the shellphone. “Get out of the lair. I was wrong, they might be more…” But Donny couldn’t finish his sentence, because suddenly there was a loud sound, almost like a thunder crack exploding out of the shellphone and then the line was dead.
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“Not much, if you asked me.” Leo couldn’t deny the relief that he felt as he heard Don’s report. According to his genius brother, the foot had searched for them again, but hadn’t found any clues yet. That would give his family an advantage.
“Okay, Donny”, he answered. “Come back and make a full scan of the sewers from the lair. We others will also go on patrol.”
From behind him came the voice of Mona. “Macy, don’t go to close to the pool, honey.” Leo saw the little lizard walking towards the pool and smiled, glad, that he didn’t need to keep such a close eye on Yoshi all the time anymore.
“But there”, Macy said and pointed towards the water.
Then everything happened so fast, that none of them could have reacted in time. The surface of the water began to bubble and then a big fountain emerged, knocking them all of their feet and washing them half across the lair. When Leo could see again, he spotted three big machines and a fourth coming out of the water behind them. He looked around to see, if everybody was alright. Apparently Mona and Vee had been quick enough to produce a reaction. The female lizard must have jumped forward and grabbed her son just in time before the water hit them. Vee laid half across Yoshi, covering him with her body. Mikey and Raph sat side by side near the entrance of the dojo.
A loud stamp got the leaders attention. The machines, now there were four of them, marched towards them, pointing their huge fire vessels at them. “Move!”, Leo shouted. All jumped out of reach as the machines began to shoot at them. Raph was the first to attack, running towards one of the machines. Leo followed his example, attacking the one directly in front of him. He dodged the bullets and lasers and used the different parts of the machine to reach the top. He was greeted with a small window that revealed a foot soldier inside, controlling the large robot. Leo took out one of his katanas, cut through the window and swung inside. There, he grabbed the man and threw him out. Then he rammed the blade inside the monitoring desk. The machine gave out a shirking sound and the turtle jumped out of it, just in time, before the robot came crushing down on the floor.
“Get the children out of here!”, he called over to Vee. His mate was already at the door, Yoshi in her arms. But Leo saw her handing him over to Mona. They talked for a few seconds, than Mona knelt down on the ground. Yoshi climbed on her back and then the female lizard rushed out of the lair. Vee turned around and jumped back into the fight.
“Guys, look out!”, she shouted. Leo turned to see, what she mend. Out of the water came three new robots. Two were gold and had buzzsaws instead of hands, the third was silver the arms ended in blades. All of them looked exactly like Karai.
So much for how long it would take her to find us, Leo thought bitterly and dodged again as another stream of bullets and lasers came in his direction once more. He was chased around the lair, hearing a lot of things crushing and shattering behind him. His home was being torn apart. That must be, what had happened to his family once, when Leo was in Japan training with the Ancient One.
The leader felt the same dark anger rise inside of him again, that ugly force, he thought, he had destroyed. How dare she do it again? In this moment, Leo regret, that he stopped Vee’s hand after she had defeated Karai in combat. If he would have given up on the illusion, that she was different from the Shredder, gave up on his will to see the good in her, if he hadn’t been so blind, all this would not happen now. So Leo made another decision. This time there would be no mercy, this time he would end this for good, even if it mend to end Karai’s life too.
The turtle first focus landed on the one golden Karaibot, which was currently destroying Don’s laboratory. Leo lured the robot, that still aimed at him towards the other machine. When the Karaibot spotted him, it ran towards him as well. Leo waited for it to jump – and it did. At that moment, he threw himself to the side and both robots crashed at each other. The buzzsaw landed inside the right side of the other robot, cutting of the right arm. The Karaibot had taken a lot of bullets, so much in fact, that, after a few last twitches, it exploded, taking the other machine with it.
The force of the explosion shook the entire lair, the huge TV station exploded too, glass and gears flew around the room, smoke covered the air. But the fight continued nevertheless. Raph had managed to take out another robot, too. He kneeled over it, breathing heavily but as he rose his head, Leo could see, that his hot headed brother was as angry as him. The green eyes were narrowed to slits and his mouth made an ugly grimace with barred teeth. With a loud roar, Raph jumped of the robot and ran towards the silver Karaibot. Mikey was very busy, keeping out of the reach of the blades. Raph slid under the bot, blocking an attack with his sais. “Get the robot over there. I deal with this bitch here.” Mikey complied immediately.
The short tempered turtle managed to break one of the blades with his sai, but then had to retreat for a moment, to make sure, he kept his head on. The Karaibot swung the remaining blade viciously at Raph. The hot head dodged and kept jumping from one side to the other.
“Raph, get the bot over here!”, Leo called over to him. He had taken on the last remaining robot and planned to do exactly, what he did to the other. Let the two robots collide. Raph started running, the Karaibot followed him. “You sure, you know, what ya doin’?”, he asked.
“Just follow my lead”, Leo answered and kept running towards his brother. “Jump to the left, when I tell you to.” They kept running for a few minutes more, then Leo screamed: “Now!”
They both jumped and once again the robots collided. In a buddle they landed on the floor. “Three down, one to go”, Raph said.
Just as he said it, he scream came from the other end of the lair. Mikey had tried to get inside the last robot, but apparently, this one was controlled by a smarter foot soldier. The bot had tiny canons installed on his top and these were shooting at the youngest turtle brother. Mikey managed to get out of the reach. He hang on one of the arms, put his feet against the side and swung himself back on top. There, he wrapped his nunchakus around a canon and bend, so it was now shooting at the vessel. He managed to do it to another. The robot was trashing around in the lair now, stumbeling over to the pool. While he did, the bot threw his arms around, trying to knock Mikey.
“Mikey, get off!”, Raph screamed at him, seeing, that the machine was getting dangerously close to the pool. Just as the turtle with the orange bandana was about to hop off, the bot swayed one last time and then fell into the pool. The large arms kept swinging around and in the process, hitting Mikey and throwing him against the hard metal front side, taking the youngest turtle brother with him.
“Mikey!” Leo and Raph both screamed this time and ran over to the pool. Just then another explosion shook the lair. This time it came from the kitchen, fire leaked out of it and some pieces of the fittings came flying in the living room. Leo and Raph had to dodge, in order to avoid damage. But they also had to ran away from the pool.
Beside the turtle leader, Raph was panting hard again, his eyes were watery and he growled deeply. “They pay for this.”
Leo understood him. “Raph…”, he began, but the hot head was on the move again, running towards the remaining Karaibot, which was the current business of Vee. Leo was about to follow, when he heard a shrieking sound behind him. Out of the bundle of metal, that had been the sliver Karaibot and one of the large robots, an arm with a gun emerged. Than another shriek came and both bots stood up again. The large robot swung around, pointing his gun towards Vee and Raph.
Raph had reached the second golden Karaibot too and launched himself at one arm. Or more, the only arm, it head, the other had been cut off by one of Vee’s tessens. The bot trashed and shook it’s arm, the buzzsaw roaring angrily. Vee ducked her head, when the arm swung in her direction. Raph fell off, but landed save and immediately jumped back at the bot.
That was, when the gun of the other large robot went off. I rapid sound of many bullets rushing out of their holes. The first few hit the Karaibot and the wall, but the most didn’t miss their target. That sound was soft, almost not audible. The same went for Raph’s surprise. He just opened his mouth for a second, his eyes went big as if he couldn’t believe it. Then they were closed tightly, the hot heads whole face became a grimace of pain. The body seemed to stand still in the air for a moment, before it fell down like a sack full of stones.
“Raph!” Leo thought at first the shock made his voice extremely high, when he realized, it was Vee’s high shriek. She stared with impossible wide eyes at Raph’s body. “Raph, can you hear me?” Vee ran over to him. Leo realized another thing, he was running too. His eyes fixed the body of his brother, a chant of no run through his head. That can’t be, that must not be.
The sudden impact of a breathtaking force against his plastron came so surprisingly for the leader, that he couldn’t even vocalize his pain. His shell made a hard contact with something strong too. Leo understood that he had been thrown across the room. For a moment his vision was a blur, that he saw the silver Karaibot coming towards him. Little sparks flew out of the broken parts, but the machine was still working. It lifted the remaining blade. But before it could hit or Leo could raise his katana in defense, a sound, like a razor cutting through metal got their attention. The second Karaibot cut into the side of the last large robot, but one arm of the bot stuck into the other machines chest. Leo could see Vee climbing out of the broken window of the controlling chamber. The Karaibot on the mechanic arm was shrugging and spasm. Vee looked over at the bot. The following explosion was again ground shaking and it knocked both Leo and the last Karaibot across the lair. More smoke covered the room.
Even though his world was still shaking and a blur, Leo ran towards the fire. Around him, he could hear soft cracking, which possibly mend, the roof was about to collapse. But he didn’t care. Now, he only needed to know, if Vee was alive. He saw a dark mint colored arm from behind one of the massive pillars, still somehow holding the roof. She’s just unconscious, Leo told himself. Who wouldn’t after such an explosion. She has a shell, it protected her. He was passionately ignoring the small voice in his head, saying, she might not have made it.
For the second time today, the leader was knocked across the room and again it was the Karaibot stalking towards him. Now, the turtle leader had enough. Seeing the face of the woman he once had even feelings for, responsible for all that mess, was too much for him to bare. She would pay for everything. He would blow her tower skyhigh, kill every single one of her soldiers and destroy everything that only looked slightly like it could remind Karai of the Shredder. And then he would kill her.
Leo’s vision was crystal clear now. He took his katanas, fixed the robot and waited for it to come to him. The shining blades made smooth cuts through the metal construction of the machine. It separated it into two halves. The underside remained still immediately, but the other half was still moving, crawled the best it could. Leo lifted his katana again and removed the head. Finally, the bot stilled.
The silence was almost like a thunder, only broken by the spit of the fire from various corners of the destroyed lair. Leo fixed the ground and walked back to where he had seen Vee’s arm. He walked around the pillar and found his mates body covered with some fallen piece of the lairs structure. Leo lifted it up. It was heavy, but he would get it out of the way. He almost had it completely off of Vee’s body, when the room was shaken again. This time the explosion came from outside the lair. The door was ripped out of it’s retainer and flew into the room. The ground shook strongly, almost like an earthquake would happen. Leo let the lifted piece go, but not, because, the force had caused him to let go. No, he was pushed back against a wall again. Only this time, it hadn’t been as harsh as before and he didn’t flew far. He landed against the pillar, his eyes fixed the big brick, that fell down on Vee’s body again. But Leo couldn’t move to pick it up again or to even take a step. He tried to lift his arm and remove the shiny blade of the Karaibot’s arm, but too much of the body still hang too it, as it had come flying at him, the blade cut through his plastron and shell, pinning him to the stone pillar. The irony, Leo thought. He wanted to think of how he hoped, Vee was still alive, that Donny and Mona would find her and save her, so that Yoshi had at least his mother to grow up with. He also wanted to hope, that Raph somehow survived too. But Leo couldn’t, his life ran from him too quickly.
