Considering she grew up in The Foot Clan where she spent every day of her life in either training or on some type of mission Karai never really put much thought into having children, and even if she did have children one day she had always been careful so that she didn't end up a mother at a young age of say eighteen. But that's exactly what happened. Heck technically she had become a mother at sixteen when she pressed that button on the mutagen tank, she just didn't know it yet. Once Justin was turned into a human baby, and Donnie determined that his human DNA came from her and Casey Jones, that was it. She and Casey were both teen parents; and they wouldn't dare go back and change it.
So now, here she is, twenty-two and waiting outside the front steps of Lincoln elementary school for her six-year-old son to come bumbling down the steps. Life the past few years has been pretty good; Casey's working with his dad doing electrical work and she teaches a few day classes at a martial arts center. It's nothing compared to what she grew up with but it's still something she loves doing.
Going to have to talk Sensei Akiyama soon, she thought to herself, making a mental note that she needed to talk to her boss about something important.
She fiddled with her necklace at the idea of it; the so-called piece of trash hadn't left her neck since the day Casey gave it to her.
Just then the sight of the school's front door opening snapped Karai from her thoughts. Kids between the ages of five and eleven came hurrying down the steps, and as usual Justin was one of the first ones. He looks a lot like Casey; his dark bangs hanging in his face and his freckles covering his nose and cheeks.
"Hey mom," he greets her with a smile as she lifts his Transformers backpack from him and puts it on her own shoulders, it's practically empty and plenty light for him to carry himself, but it's bulky and almost big as he is.
"How was school today?" Karai asks as she takes his hand in hers and they head off down the sidewalk.
"It was good, we played with drums in music class!" He exclaimed excitedly
"That sounds fun," Karai responded and Justin nodded.
"Yeah but then Mrs. Albert let us play with play-dough only I didn't get to cause it was when reading time's supposed to be." He pouted and Karai sighed, sometimes she wasn't sure who had taken it harder when they figured out Justin had inherited Casey's dyslexia; Justin or Casey.
They both got over it rather quickly, mostly because Casey remembers how awfully things were handled when his family found out about him and so he was very careful about not only explaining the situation to Justin but also explaining The Program to him. Unlike Casey as a child Justin actually enjoyed going to the special room in the school during his class's reading time, but every once in a while the daily schedule would change for whatever reason and he would end up missing something fun instead of reading, those were the days he hated.
"I'm sorry," Karai said sympathetically, "but just remember you get to play all those fun games in the helping room, and don't pretend I don't know Ms. Bellamy gives you candy every Friday. I think you'll survive missing one play-dough day with Mrs. Albert." She reminded her son who shrugged, but he knew she was right.
"I guess," he muttered; obviously still a little upset that he had missed play-dough.
"We're going over to the lair tonight for pizza," Karai said, trying to change the subject.
"Why?" Justin asked, it isn't uncommon for them to go and eat at the lair, but it is uncommon for it to be a set plan. Usually Uncle Mikey just calls five minutes before they eat to see if anybody's interested, or sometimes they just go over to hang out and end up staying for dinner.
"Just cause," Karai answers with a shrug. Justin doesn't seem to buy it but he doesn't seem to entirely doubt it either, he can't think of an explanation so he just lets it go.
"Raph says they ran into The Kraang last night," Casey announced as he entered the apartment after work, just in time to see Karai and Justin putting on their coats.
"We'll be fine," Karai assured as she tossed him his coat.
"You two were going to leave without me weren't you?" He playfully questioned his long time girlfriend who simply laughed.
"Don't come home late and that won't happen," she teased but Casey only rolled his eyes.
Soon all three of them were on their way to the lair, and they learned the hard way that Raph meant it when he said the Kraang are back. They weren't far from the sewer entrance when they ran into them, but they ran into a lot of them. For the most part the fight consisted of Karai and Casey taking the Kraang down while Justin just dodged attacks and helped where he could. He's been training, but he's nowhere near ready to take on the Kraang.
Karai was completely unaware of where Casey and Justin were in the fight; in fact she was barely aware of where she was. She was trying to take down the Kraang, trying to focus on at least keeping them away from Justin, but her whole world was spinning. She didn't even register the robot seizing her arm, her eyes closing as she blacked out, or Casey screaming her name.
Casey turned around just in time to see what happened. For one thing Karai didn't look too good. Then he didn't even know what happened first, if the Kraangdroid restrained her or she fainted.
"Karai!" He shouted her name, because this isn't right, this isn't her. Something's wrong, something is wrong with her. He ran for her, trying to free her, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Justin following him. "Justin run!" He shouted over his shoulder as he tried to take down the Kraangdroids, but there were too many and without Karai to help he was outnumbered.
"But-" Justin squeaked out
"RUN!" Casey shouted back and as he fought, as he was overpowered, he heard the quick footsteps of his son sprinting away.
"RUN!" His father's voice rang loud in his ears, and Justin booked it. He wanted to help, but he's been around during Kraang attacks before and he knows that when dad says 'run' it means run.
So he bolted down the sidewalk, sprinting down the route to the lair that he had memorized years ago. He was going so fast that he nearly forgot to replace the manhole cover as he practically fell down the hole. The instant he landed he sprung back to his feet, not bothering to pay any notion to the impact of the fall. He dashed through the sewers, not slowing down even when he started to feel like his lungs were on fire.
"Uncle Leo! Uncle Leo!" He shouted as soon as he reached somewhere within roughly a hundred yards of the lair. "Uncle Leo! Uncle Leo!" He continued to scream. Clearly his Uncle heard his shouts because when Justin finally reached the entrance of the lair the blue-banded turtle was already there.
"Justin, Justin calm down!" Leo exclaimed as the boy skidded to a stop at the turnstiles, bent over and gasping for breath.
"Mom…dad…Kraa…Kraang!" He exclaimed
"Whoa what's that about the Kraang?" Raph questioned as he joined the two, along with Mikey and Donnie trailing behind him.
"We…we were attacked by the Kraang. Mom fainted and then…" he trailed off, trying to catch his breath and now tears were starting to form in his eyes.
"Justin, Justin did the Kraang get them?" Leo asked as he kneeled down and gently placed his hands on his nephew's shoulders.
Vigorously Justin nodded, tears now streaming down his face.
"Ok, ok just calm down. Aunt April's in the dojo, tell her what happened and that we'll be back with your parents." Leo instructed the boy who sniffled as he tried to stop crying.
"They're, they're going to be ok right?" He asked, he's seen the Kraang before, he can even remember being brought along on one or two emergency missions over the years, but he'd never seen them take the people he loves as prisoners.
"They're going to be fine," Leo responded, trying to sound reassuring. Ordinarily he wouldn't be too worried, but if what Justin said about Karai fainting is true then something isn't right. Of course Justin could be wrong, she could've been knocked out or drugged by the Kraang. But that doesn't matter, what matters is the Kraang have two of their own held captive.
When Karai woke up she was lying on the ground in some sort of Kraang prison cell.
"Hey," A gentle voice that she immediately recognized as her boyfriend's said as she sat up, the world around her slowly becoming clearer.
"Hey, what hap- oh my god Justin!" She panicked as the memory of the fight came flooding back to her. Justin was with them, but he isn't here now.
"Don't worry Justin got away, I tried to get us out of there but-"
"I was dead weight," Karai grudgingly interrupted, she knew something like this could happen, that she could pass out, but she figured she'd be fine. Apparently she was wrong.
"Hey you passed out, it's not your fault." Casey tried to assure her but she just crossed her arms over her chest and huffed, clearly still angry with herself. "Do you know why you passed out?" He tried
"Probably dehydrated or something," Karai mumbled without thinking
"Karai I saw you drink half a bottle of water this morning to get the taste out of your mouth after you threw up, I know that's not much but I'm assuming you had the common sense to drink some water after your martial arts class." Casey said, he didn't have a clue what was going on with his girlfriend but he doubted she was dehydrated.
"Ok so I'm not dehydrated," she admitted, a part of her was wondering if maybe she should just tell him what's going on.
"It's probably because you haven't been eating, and on top of that you've been throwing up the past couple days and still going to work!" He theorized, clearly annoyed that this had been happening.
"It's not my fault I can't keep anything down, and that dry toast you tried forcing down my throat is disgusting." Karai snapped back at him,
"Maybe but it's better than nothing," Casey argued
"Remind me of that the next time you're sick," Karai scoffed and in response Casey just face palmed, he loves Karai but sometimes she can be so difficult.
Karai, on the other hand, knew he was right. She hadn't been purposely starving herself, and it hadn't even been a week, but she definitely hadn't been eating enough recently so she really did bring this on herself. She was about to open her mouth again but that was when the room suddenly began filling with air from dimension x.
"So where to?" Raph asked as the four turtles darted across the rooftops, even though they're twenty-one years old not much has changed with their patrolling techniques, especially when they don't know where to start.
Leo sighed as he tried to think, they had asked Justin where he was when the Kraang attacked but the poor kid couldn't give a helpful description.
"I don't know but we need to get to them soon, Karai was sick the other day and if she fainted during battle then it could be worse than just the stomach bug." Donnie pointed out, remembering how they had watched Justin two days ago because Karai didn't want to get him sick.
"Yeah well Karai hates medicine, odds are she refused to take something." Raph added
"Raph there isn't really anything that can be taken for the stomach bug," Donnie lectured his hotheaded brother.
"Ok Karai is fine, let's just focus on figuring out where the Kraang took her and Casey." Leo interrupted, sure he's concerned about Karai fainting as much as the others, but arguing over why it happened is going to have to wait until later.
"What about that warehouse we found last night?" Mikey suggested
"You mean the one we blew up?" Raph asked
"Oh yeah," Mikey said when he was reminded of that fact.
"Actually a lot of the Kraang's bases usually have an underground level, its possible that part survived the explosion." Donnie theorized and Leo nodded
"Better than nothing," he agreed and so with that the four of them set out for their demolition sight from their previous Kraang encounter.
Casey groaned as he started to come too, and then panicked when he realized he was strapped by his wrists and ankles to some kind of upright examination table.
"Calm down," Karai told him, that was when he looked to his right to see that she was already awake and in the same predicament.
"What…what's going on?" He asked
"Beats me, I just woke up two minutes ago." Karai said as she looked around, it was obvious that they were still in the Kraang base, but they had been moved to some kind of lab.
There were two Kraangdroids in the room, both hunched over a computer desk, but strangely the room was dark. It was lit only by the pink lights that always seemed to surround Kraang tech; but any actual light bulbs looked as though they had all gone out. The room was also a total mess. Loose wires and busted computers lay everywhere, it looked as though the robots were using the only functioning computer left in the place.
"It looks like there was a full on war in here," Casey commented, as his eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room he noticed that among the computer scrap were a few dozen robot bodies lying discarded and broken beyond repair.
"You said the guys ran into the Kraang last night, maybe they were here." Karai suggested
"In that case they shouldn't have any trouble finding us," Casey muttered and Karai nodded in agreement before squeezing her eyes shut and all but slamming her head back against the table she was strapped to.
"Hey are you ok?" Casey asked, although it was quite obvious that his girlfriend is anything but ok right now.
That fact aside she nodded and took a deep breath, "Yeah, I just think I'm going to be sick again." She said quickly, feeling as though speaking would only cause her to throw up even more, if that makes any sense.
"You need to see a doctor," Casey stated, though it sounded more like an instruction.
Karai just groaned through her closed mouth.
Before anything else could be said between the two one of the Kraangdroids walked over and pointed some kind of gun at Casey.
"Hey, hey get away from him!" Karai shouted at the robot, thrashing about in her restraints, despite the action making her even more nauseous.
But the Kraang didn't even acknowledge her, instead it simply pressed down on the gun's trigger and a pink light shot out and appeared to scan Casey. It only last a few seconds, and when it was done the alien repeated the same action on Karai.
"Hey! Hey what was that thing!?" Casey demanded as the robot walked back to its computer without a word. "Great, when did they finally learn the quiet game?" Casey questioned
"I don't know," Karai answered.
"Kraang, Kraang believes that Kraang should see this." The robot who had scanned them finally said to his partner. Even after six years the aliens still can't seem to grasp English.
"What is it Kraang?" The other robot asked as it too huddled over the computer.
"The prisoner that is known as the female appears to be carrying another human within her, Kraang believes that the ones known as humans call it what is known as an embryo." The confused robot explained; Casey's jaw dropped while his eyes bulged out of his head.
He then turned and looked at Karai, who had not only pressed her mouth into a firm line but was also looking anywhere but at him, or the Kraang for that matter.
"You're pregnant!?" He finally exclaimed, her behavior telling him that this wasn't news to her.
Her shoulders slumped, well as much as they could with her arms restrained above her head, as she released the breath she was holding.
"I didn't want you to find out this way," she sighed, slowly turning her head to face him.
"Karai!" Casey shouted, hurt that she would keep something like this from him.
"Hey I just found out this morning!" She defended, "I took three tests after you and Justin left, so after I spent a good hour freaking out over the fact that they were all positive I called in sick from work and went over to that walk in clinic." She explained, "and I was going to tell you tonight," she finished.
"You could've told me when were stuck in that cell!" Casey all but shouted, the two didn't notice but the Kraangdroids were watching them as if they were watching a tennis match.
"For your information Jones I was about too when that stupid gas knocked us out!" Karai's voice matched Casey's, whose face suddenly turned to panic.
"The gas! What if it-"
"Relax Casey, the baby's fine." Karai cut him off, knowing what he was about to suggest and not wanting to hear it. She wouldn't admit it but the sentence felt strange coming out of her mouth, actually referring to this child out loud made it's existence all the more real; and honestly Karai was still processing the idea.
"How do you know?" Casey asked, clearly still nervous that the gas toxic enough to knock out two adults was more than enough to kill an unborn baby.
But before she could answer the two Kraang fell, and the two humans looked up to see the turtles dropping from the rafters on the ceiling.
"I don't know what you two were yapping about but thanks, they were so distracted by you they never saw us coming." Raph said, pointing over his shoulder at the downed robots, their little pilots already scampering away in fear.
"Are you guys ok?" Donnie questioned as he freed Casey while Leo took care of Karai.
"Yeah Casey, you look paler than usual." Mikey joked, the instant she was free Karai darted over to the computer and grabbed the Kraang's flash drive.
"What's that?" Donnie questioned as his sister shoved the flash drive into her pocket.
"I'm not sure, you can check it out in your lab later but for now let's just get out of here." She answered.
After leaving the Kraang base, or what was left of it, they all went back to the lair but before following the guys into the sewer Casey pulled Karai aside in the alley.
"You know what Donnie's gonna find if he looks at that flash drive," he said
"I was thinking about telling them tonight too, I wasn't sure; I was going to see how you reacted first. But remember when you asked me how I know the baby's ok?" She questioned and Casey nodded.
"I don't," she admitted with a sigh, "I can't wait until the doctors office opens tomorrow to find out, I trust Donnie more than doctors anyway so I'm going to tell him and see if there's any way he can check." She continued and Casey responded by putting his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm going in there with you," he said with a reassuring smile.
"I don't care or want to know what you two are doing up there, but hurry up!" Raph's voice suddenly came shouting from the sewer below.