New Girl in Town - Chapter 1 - Introductions
My first fanfic ever! Helpful advice/feedback both welcomed and appreciated. :)
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"Fine, Raph. The team's yours. I'm outta here."
And with that, Leonardo stalked away from his brothers, gritting his teeth. He could feel their eyes following him, but he didn't care. All he wanted was to get away from Raphael. Raph had NO IDEA what it was like to lead. Living under that pressure, the knowledge that if your team succeeds, you all get to live to face the next fight, and if your team fails, it's your fault. YOURS. Your plans that work, or don't. Your job to make sure everyone gets home in one piece, and, preferably, alive. And not just any teammates – your BROTHERS. Family. If anything happened to them, Leo was the one who'd get to stand before their master and father, and explain why. Leo shuddered, then grimaced, at that thought, of facing his Sensei with the crushing guilt and shame of failure. Leo looked up to Splinter more than any of the brothers, wanted to be like him; focused, wise, powerful, strong, and fearless. Deserving, and commanding, respect. Like Captain Ryan.
Leo paid no attention to where his feet were taking him. He wandered among the rooftops as the night thickened, his path straying as far as his thoughts. Ugh, that…hot-tempered, ungrateful, smart-mouthed, know-it-all, Raph….
He paced back and forth; kicked the rooftop. Leaned back against an AC unit. He could still picture Raph's face before him, hear his words: "And the award for worst leader goes to…" Leo glared at the memory, turned, and kicked the turbine vent. He may or may not have been wishing it was his pig-headed brother's face.
The blue-masked ninja leapt from building to building, lost in thought. If Raph knew what it was like, for just one week, or even one day – the pressure, the responsibility on his shoulders – maybe then he'd understand, and be more appreciative of Leo's position. Maybe letting Raph lead for now would help him see. Probably not, Leo thought with a curl of his lips. After all, Raph's motto is 'Punch first, think second.'
Leo rarely let his guard down. He did his best to maintain situational awareness at all times when he and his brothers were on patrol. Mikey might goof off, Donnie might be daydreaming of April or quantum physics (both were equally likely), and Raph might be grumbling about their leader's plans, but Leo didn't have that luxury. Even in the lair, he was the most focused and alert – and the hardest to sneak up on (much to Mickey's disappointment when he was trying to prank his big brother).
Tonight was different. Raph often picked fights with Leo, and all his brothers, but this time, he had really gotten under Leo's skin. He couldn't remember the last time he had gotten this angry. What he really needed was to punch something. HARD. Repeatedly. Blow off some steam.
Leo stopped at the edge of a rooftop, a large Boboco Cola billboard looming into the night sky behind him. Leo heard, and sensed, the presence of enemies at his back; his eyes cut to the left, but he never flinched. The surge of adrenaline that usually accompanied an ambush was hardly noticed, this time. It had never really left his system since his confrontation with Raph, and he was already itching for a fight.
In one smooth motion, Leonardo turned and pulled his katana from their sheaths, the scrape of metal cutting through the silence of the night. "Foot clan?" he scoffed, eyeing his attackers. "You guys just made my night." The ninja were easily dispatched. Leo ducked, blocked, punched, and kicked, and with a half dozen moves, all four Foot soldiers were down for the count. "Ahh. I feel so much better," he remarked with a smirk. But before he finished the sentence, a noise from the top of the billboard drew his attention. He looked up, expecting to find more Foot. What he saw did not disappoint.
This was definitely a Foot soldier, but unlike any he had encountered before. She wore a mask that only covered her face from beneath her eyes to her jaw line. All of the other Foot Leo had fought had their heads covered. Most of her was hidden in shadow, but he could see she was crouched on the billboard, studying him like a panther in a tree watching her prey. Leo tightened his grip on his katana, and tensed himself, ready for what he felt would be an imminent attack.
She leapt gracefully from the huge sign, somersaulted in the air, and landed on her tabi and zori-clad feet. He didn't have long to look, but in the light of the billboard, he could now see she wore a thin metal breastplate (not dissimilar to Shredder's, he observed), as well as light armor on her shoulders, forearms, outer thighs, and shins. The fabric beneath the metal was black; the sash at her waist, a deep shade of plum.
"Not bad," she said, her voice smooth as silk. Leo's eyes widened to the size of saucers. That was the last thing he had expected to hear, if anything. "Uh, thanks…?" came his puzzled reply. "You might actually be a challenge," she added smugly. He narrowed his eyes.
Cat-like indeed, Leo thought, as she sauntered toward him with feline grace. Her form was slender, yet springy. Leo knew that what a warrior lacked in strength could be made up for in speed, and he stood poised for her to strike.
Instead, she stopped a few yards from him, and shifted her balance from one foot to the other. Leo stiffened as he watched her, determined to be ready for her attack. Their eyes locked, and for a breathless moment, the world seemed to stop turning. It was the calm before the storm, that fraction of a second that seems to stretch on endlessly while two warriors regard each other and await the coming onslaught.
The kunoichi moved so quickly, Leonardo scarcely had time to react. She grasped and swung her blade at him suddenly, but with so much distance between them, he knew her blade would never make contact with his. What he didn't foresee was the blinding powder she flung at him. The cloud engulfed Leo, stinging his eyes and throat, and forcing him to blink and cough. In those few moments, he watched, vision blurred, as she closed the space between them and kneed him in the chest so hard his katana were flung from his hands. He landed on his shell, her foot immediately on his plastron, her blade at his throat. "Guess not," she teased.
Leo glared up at her. This was NOT what he had been in the mood for. The mysterious girl reached up to her face mask and pulled it free. Her cherry-red lips curled into a smile. "My name's Karai," she said simply, watching as his eyes grew large with surprise. He muttered, "Huh?" as she withdrew her tanto, twirled it, and slid it expertly back into its sheath. "See you around." And with that, she leapt back up to the billboard, flipped over the top, and disappeared into the night.
"What was that?" Leo uttered bewilderedly, staring in the direction she had vanished. What on earth WAS that all about? She's in the Foot clan, obviously high-ranking, she had me at her mercy; then she introduces herself, let's me go, and leaves? Why would she do that? Try as he might, Leo couldn't make sense of the evening's unusual turn of events. This, Karai, whoever she was, must have known from Shredder who Leo was. She shouldn't have let him live. So why did she?
Leo turned away at last, shaking his head in confusion. See you around, she said. Maybe if I see her again, I'll get some more answers. He picked up and sheathed his katana; leaping from the rooftop, he began making his way for his home in the sewers. At least that kunoichi had done one useful thing to make up for blinding, choking, and humiliating him: she had driven Raphael completely from Leo's mind. And, at least for the moment, pondering the beautiful, yet strange, young woman he'd met that night was a welcome distraction.