Silent Thunder: Chapter 2

Snow

Silence

Purity

Serenity

'These are the things I long for. What I strive to be. I yearn to make my soul as pure as the white eye mask I wear.'

She leaped out, eyes blazing with concentration as she made contact with the practice dummy. Unleashing a torrent of hard punches and swift kicks she could feel her mucsles tighten and she grinned with the pleasure that excersise always brought her. After a few minutes she could feel her body become slick with sweat, and her mind lapsed into a state of peaceful calm. She loved this. Working out was one of the few things that made her really happy.

The sound of the door opening made her turn swiftly. Still in combat mode, she crouched into a protective stance ready to attack if need be.

"Geeeeeeez Sis, it's only me! It's too early in the morning to be jumpy!"

Rose relaxed visibly as her good friend Rayne came into the room. "Sorry, you know how much I get wrapped up in my practicing."

Rayne grinned at her as she straightened out her yellow eyemask. "It's pretty impressive that you come here early to work out BEFORE the actual work out begins. What, working out with me and Kaz isn't tough enough for you?"

Rose smiled back at her. Rayne's cheerfulness was infectious, even this early in the morning. "Definately not. You guys are slackers!"

"Who's a slacker?", asked a third female humanoid turtle that waltzed into the practice room.

Rayne jumped on her, trying to pinch her. "You are most definately a slacker! All you do is goof around on the computer, Kaz!"

The purple eyemasked turtle girl grimaced with mock exasperation. "Rayne, PLEASE. You know how important it is for me to spend time with Leatherhead. He knows so much about computers and programming and it's really important for me to learn as much as I can from him."

Rayne responded by sticking her tongue out at Kaz.

Rose shook her head and chuckled as her two friends began grabbling on the mat. She felt her spirit lighten even more as she thought about how much they meant to her. 'This is why I have to train as hard as I can,' she thought to herself. 'I have to make sure that I am here to protect them.'

The moment was broken as the door opened yet again and a tall, dark, imposing figure strode into the room.

"Good morning, Master Bishop" They all said in unison

"Good morning girls. I hope you're all ready for your morning training." He paused and glanced at Rayne." Are you feeling any better today, dear?"

Rayne blushed and looked down. "Y-yes, Master Bishop. Thank you."

He smiled. "That's good to hear. Now everyone go and procure your weapon of choice."

As the three girls walked over the weapons rack Rose grabbed Rayne's arm. "What was Bishop talking about just then?"

Rayne wouldn't meet the other girls eyes. "Nothing, really. Just a bad dream."

Kaz sighed. "Another one? I thought you were sleeping better?"

Rose narrowed her eyes. "And I thought you were going to come and get us whenever that happend again?"

Rayne shook her head. "It's no big deal, guys. It wasn't that bad. And besides, Master Bishop came almost as soon as I woke up and comforted me. It was fine, really!"

Kaz scoffed. "You just don't want us worrying about you."

The yellow masked girl grinned. "That too. It's not that I don't trust you guys, I just don't like being a problem."

Rose shook her head in exasperation. "You are our friend! How could you be a problem? Stop trying to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders!"

Rayne poked her and said, "And you don't do the same thing?"

That stopped Rose in her tracks. They all looked at each other for a moment before erupting into giggles.

They got to weapons rack and began choosing their favorite weapons. Rayne grabbed a bo staff, and handed a pair of sai to Kaz. No one was surprised to see Rose reach for the twin katana. They had never seen her practice with anything else.

As they walked back over to Bishop he began typing in a program on the computer screen attatched to one of the walls. "Okay girls. I've set up a digital system for three sets of five combatant droids. You will attempt to disarm them without them getting a hit in on you. You have one hour. I will be back in that time to moniter your progress." He walked out the door as the practice droids marched in.

All three turtle girls got into battle stances as they were surrounded by the droids. "Alright, girls." Rose growled happily. "Here we go!"

Bishop walked into one of the main computer control rooms and approached the dark skinned man sitting at the moniters. "Well Stockman, what do you think so far?"

Baxter Stockman turned away from the screen he was watching. It was a video feed from the battle practice room. "These three are definately the best we've had so far. He pointed back to the figures on the screen. The white masked one is the best speciman, physically. She is quite strong. While the one with the purple mask is the best with stratgy." He grinned. "I've been recieving regular reports from Leatherhead. She is highley intelligent, more so than we could have hoped for."

Bishop pointed to Rayne on the screen. "What about this one?"

Baxter shrugged. "It's hard to say. She has a pretty good mixture of many attributes, but right now she seems to be a bit...unstable."

A watched the girls progression on the screen for a few minutes in silence.

Finally Baxter cleared his throat. "These girls have no idea what they are, do they?"

A maniacal grin crept across Bishop's face as he answered.

"No."