Disclaimer: I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Authors Note: This takes place in the end of season 5 the 2003 series, Karai never let go of her vendetta; and continues the hunt for the turtles.
Prologue:
After destroying the Tengu Shredder, the war between the turtles and the Foot raged on; obsessed over her father's banishment by the Utrom's and the turtles, it seems nothing will deter Karai from seeking vengeance against the Hamato Clan, until one night everything changed.
The street lights of New York City shone bright under the full moon, hundreds of New Yorker's walked the busy streets unaware of the shadows leaping above their heads. Four brothers, teenage mutant ninja turtles; ran, jumped and somersaulted over the open rooftops and ledges, patrolling the city unbeknownst to the crowds below. A turtle with forest green skin carrying two katana's on his back landed on the roof top of a high rise and stared over the ledge out at the rest of "The Big Apple".
"All right guys, all seems pretty quiet tonight, no foot clan goons to be seen." The leader in blue remarked his breath puffing out in the crisp cold night air.
Another turtle, army green and wearing a purple mask, followed him to the top; standing beside his brother he whipped his boa staff up to his back. "Yeah it's weird they've been suspiciously silent these last few weeks." Pondered resident genius, Donatello, eyes glued to the turtle com in his hand, scanning the police sensors for any criminal activity.
A turtle with a red bandana and bright green complexion landed crouched behind them in an aggressive huff.
"Figures their good for nothing except getting their heads busted and they can't even show up to do that." said Raphael the mean green turtle machine, as he closed the distance between him and the two other terrapins, tucking his sai's into their holsters.
Michelangelo brother in orange flipped and then plunked down on the ledge twirling his signature nunchucks.
"Yeah its been mondo boring on patrol these days ; what do you think their doing off getting pedicures." Always one to end on a joke, Mikey grinned, his white teeth shining in contrast to his moss green skin.
Leo shook his head" No, somethings not right." Suddenly a giant explosion rocked the city, the boys braced themselves on the rooftops, Raphael yanked up Mikey from almost falling off the buildings edge. " Whoah, whatever that was is definitely not boring." Mikey sheepishly mumbled, slightly embarrassed about needing to be saved.
"It came from Saki Tower's." Donatello pointed toward the skyscraper to the east; billowing smoke flew out a gaping hole in the side of the once unblemished building.
"Whatever that was may be why the Foot have been so silent, let's check it out."Leonardo exclaimed as they hurriedly made their way to the monstrosity; the sound of sirens pierced through the twirling fall wind. They scaled glass windows and brick mortar of the 100 level tower finally reaching the blown out opening of a window as the smoke finally cleared. Inside they recognized the 33rd floor of the foot genetics lab, the same place where they encountered Shredder's mutant clones when they "killed" the Shredder the first time. The vats that had created the clones were empty, except for the one in the center middle, it had been sliced open with a blade of some sort. The inside of the tube and the floors beneath it, dripped with green fluid.
Raphael walked across the floor careful not to step in the the mess. "Yesh what do you think happened here?"
Donatello crunched low to inspect the genetic cocktail. " Looks like the same stuff that the gruesome triplets were born from."
Leonardo stood beside him surveying the tube."It looks like another clone was born, but why just one, what made this one so special?"
Raph went over to the other side of the tank "and if this is the tank that he popped out of, where is the little monster?"
Donnie shook his head "It doesn't make sense ,even if it was destroyed in the blast, where's the body?"
"Maybe he's so tiny, we don't even know we're stepping on him," Mikey picked up his foot looking disgusted. "Could be true what with shorty shredder."
Raphael rolled his eyes at his little brother's jokes, then his yes went back to the vat. " Ugh guys I got blood over here."
Peering over his shoulder the brothers looked down at the side of the cylinder where the glass had been cut and a jagged edge protruded the opening where red was smeared against the green tube and fell to the floor."
"It seems that whatever it was that came out of the tank, cut itself on the way out." Donatello dug into his pack again for another swab, then safely put the blood and fluid samples into a plastic bag.
While his brothers were staring at the blood on the floor, Leo scanned the room for any other hints, partially underneath a chair he spotted a small necklace, with a jade crafted pendant carved into the foot insignia. As he was about to pick it up they heard what sounded like someone trying to break down the locked door."Ugh guys I think we got company." Michelangelo anxiously whispered. Leonardo gestured to the window " Ninjas disappear."
Breaking down the entrance, Foot soldiers came flooded into the room looking for any sign of intruders; scanning over the destruction they found no one. Coming in after them Hun stood tall and intimidating, his platinum blonde hair pulled into his signature rat tail, angry looking scar left on his face courtesy of master Splinter, and his normal black ninja attire. He glanced about the room with an annoyed sneer, supervising the millions of dollars worth of damage. His eyes suddenly glued on the necklace that Leo had spotted earlier, stomping toward it he knocked the chair angrily to the side and stooped to retrieve. Gazing at it his eyes widened with recognition, and a dark smile tugged at his mouth.
As fire trucks came to a stop the police were roping off the building and doing crowd control; hundreds of onlookers watched with interest, not one noticing in an alley across the street a man hole cover closing noiselessly.
The next day the turtles were hanging out in their secret underground lair, an old abandoned subway station they had cleaned up and turned into a home, the TV was on and the news was playing. A female newscaster was reporting about the events that had transpired the previous night."Last night there was an explosion at Saki Corp, once home to beloved philanthropist and business man Oroku Saki; the man who single handedly restored New York to her former glory after the destruction of the Triceraton invasion . Although there is still rumors circulating about the mysterious departure of the billionaire tycoon and the investigation into the events that took place the night of his disappearance. Lawsuits and claims followed of injuries sustained from the strange goings on at the party, however lawyers stated it was an accident and the victims were paid for their troubles. The source of the implosion came from the buildings 45th level, police and firemen responded immediately but were delayed by security detail, who assured them that they had the situation under control. A public response came out today claiming that faulty wiring was to blame for the destruction."
"Heh faulty wiring my shell." Raphael grunted as he pounded his punching bag sneering as he came back with a right hook. "Those bozos are covering up their tracks."
On the other side of the lair Donatello, Leonardo and Splinter were in Donatello's lab; Donnie inspected the samples he found; the fluid and blood.
"It looks like there was no mutagen mixed into the cloning fluid, it's almost fully human DNA."
"What do you mean almost fully human?" Leonardo pointed out arms crossed in front of him.
" Im saying that the cell contains human genetic material and something I haven't been able to identify. As for the blood," Donatello turned to another screen."It is most definitely human, I'm just waiting for the sample to finish scanning, and once that's done I can see who the blood belongs to." Leonardo and Splinter exited the small mobile home they had dragged into the lair, walking over to the living room area of the abandoned terminal.
" What do you think is going on master Splinter, why are the Foot experimenting with cloning again, their first attempts weren't exactly masterpieces. And we have no problem taking down Shredder's old clones now. Why make more?"
The old weathered rat stroked his beard and looked aimlessly ahead of him as if trying to see the answer.
"I do not know my son however we must be on alert, it seems our old enemy has been working on something dubious; the best cause of action is to remain calm, to watch and see what the future holds."
Imparting another piece of sound advice Splinter turned on his heel and headed for the dojo to meditate.
Leonardo let out a deep sigh of exasperation,"It just doesn't make sense what are the Foot Clan up to, the Shredder has been gone long enough and now there just a simple ninja clan again, without Chr'ell why would they be experimenting at all. The last time we saw the Foot Karai's number one goal was hunting us down for helping imprison her father." As he thought of his old rival a cloud of anger floated through his head, time and time again he had tried to look for the best in the Foot Soldier; but at every turn she remained loyal to the Shredder. Then in retaliation for her fathers imprisonment she attacked his family and drove them out of their home, her act of vengeance had nearly destroyed his family but he learned his final lesson there was no redemption for the new Shredder.
Michealangelo turned around on the couch where he had been sitting watching the news.
"Hey cheer up Leo you know what you need, you need to relax; how do you relax you ask? By playing video games with me."
He held up the controller above his head." I just got the new Space Heroes Six game and it comes with multiplayer options, what do you say?"
The blue masked turtle shook his head." Not now mikey I just don't feel like playing games,"
he turned and headed to the kitchen to make himself some herbal tea,trying to focus his mind on something other the strange mystery surrounding the Foot.
Michelangelo huffed in disappointment" Ahh Leo's no fun." Turning to the direction of his other brother he hollered." Hey Raph wanna play some video games?"
The tough turtle didn't even look up from his bag, jabbing left and right into the boxing bag. "Nah Mikey I'm too busy to play video games."
Taking one last punch before turning toward his brother he smirked "of course if you want to take the place of my bag. I'd be happy to play with ya"
He hit the bag once more emphasizing his point.
Michelangelo froze in fear, then gave a nervous smile and waved his hands above his head.
"No,no thats ok I'll just play by myself." hastily he turned back to the TV grabbing the remote but before he could change the channel.
"Breaking News, This just in the remains of Karai Saki daughter of Oroku Saki was found in the rubble of the destroyed room in the Saki Corp towers it seems that miss Saki was working late alone, as she had been known to do. Unfortunately A spark from a rotted cord set the room ablaze and the room exploded from a gas leak, the report said that miss Saki died instantaneously. They plan to hold a funeral for her on Tuesday to memorialize the lose of such a devoted young woman."
The room was silent, nothing could be heard except the sound of a mug hiting the floor, shattering into pieces.
The two turtles looked behind them at their shell shocked brother, Leonardo was frozen, his face contorted in confusion and sorrow.
Just then Donnie ran from the lab, "Guys you won't believe who the blood in the lab belongs to." Stopping short to feel the tension in the room he paused.
Mikey grinned awkwardly, looking back and forth between his brothers, " Ugh I think we got a good guess."
TBC
Authors Notes: The first time I posted this I was excited and impatient to get this story out there, but with the critic of a fellow writer, I am revising the chapters. There were a few parts before that didn't make sense; now hopefully it flows a little better. Watch out for the revised chapters, there coming.