Ch. 3: Rooftop Romance...ish

Out across the New York skyline four turtles leap from rooftop to rooftop.

Leo looks around, his eyes wide with fear.

"Okay, guys. Just another routine patrol. Nothing to worry about."

Raph stares.

"You seem a little tense there, Fearless."

"Who? Me?" asks Leo. "Naaaaah."

Something jumps out in front of Leo.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Leo screams as he chucks shuriken after shuriken in a wild frenzy.

He stops, panting from exertion.

In front of him stands a lone squirrel against a rooftop radiator, shivering nervously amidst all the shuriken stuck mere centimeters from his twitching body.

The guys all stare at Leo.

He looks back at them and laughs nervously.

"What's got you so wound up?" asks Raph.

"He's probably just worried about his girlfriend." says Mikey with a smirk.

"I believe you mean girlfriends." adds Donnie, smiling.

The boys laugh.

"Guys! This is serious!"

"So you keep saying." says Raph.

"Karai is dangerous, and we still don't know anything about this new girl. They're both wildly unpredictable, so it's important that we remain completely visu—OOF!"

Just then Clicky RAMS into Leo in a flying tackle hug!

"Leo-kinz! Ooooooh, I missed you so much!"

She picks Leo up and shakes him around.

"Clicky, I presume?" asks Donnie as Raph smirks.

"Manta-sister." comments Mikey under his breath.

Clicky grips Leo tighter, causing him to let out a pained groan.

"Oh, Leo. I'm so sorry I let that horrid, too-much-makeup-wearing Karai get in the way of our date."

"Date?!" laughs Raph.

"It was not a date!" replies Leo.

"Well, not officially." says Clicky. "But I like to think of it as an unexpected romantic adventure. With minor, annoying interruptions."

"That's great and all." says Raph. "But before we go into all the lovey-dovey details, mind putting my brother down?"

Clickly looks at them all and gasps!

"You're Leo's brothers! I know sooo much about you. We are going to make such great in-laws!"

"In-laws?" asks Mikey.

"It means related by marriage." explains Donnie.

"I know what it means!"

"Picture it." says Clicky. "Our wedding day. Me, in a beautiful dress."

She twirls, two of her hands outstretched as if holding a dress while the other two continue to hold Leo in a death grip.

"And Leo, in a handsome tux."

She dips him and strokes her claw along his face as he squirms, uncomfortably.

"I'm getting misty eyed already." jokes Raph.

"I know, right?" asks Clicky excitedly as she twirls Leo. "We'll march down the aisle, say our vows, handwritten of course, and then on our wedding night I'll tickle his cute little chin, and BITE his adorable little head right off!"

"WHAT?!" screams Leo.

"WHAT?!" screams everyone else.

"Ooooooh, it'll be so romantic! Much more so than with all my other boyfriends."

She lifts up one of the headless dolls around her belt.

Leo stares in horror.

"That is sick, lady!" screams Raph!

"Yeah!" yells Mikey. "Leo can't get married. He's sixteen!"

"Thaaaat's why." responds Donnie, sarcastically.

"Sure, we're a little young," says Clicky. "But love knows no age."

Raph draws his sais. "As much as I would love to see you two tie the knot, I'm gonna have to ask you to drop my brother. Now!"

"Sorry," says Clicky. "But we have other plans. There's a new rom-com playing down at the movie theatre, and we can't be late for our showing. Toodles!"

Clicky spreads her wings and takes off, soaring away with Leo still clutched in her arms.

"Heeeeeeeeelp!"

"After that bug!" shouts Raph.

The three brothers take off in hot pursuit.

In the distance a dark figure crouches in the shadow of a billboard watching the entire scene unfold.

Her eyes narrow.

Leo struggles in Clicky's arms as she soars across the rooftops, weaving between billboards and water towers.

"You're gonna love this movie." says Clicky. "It's about this girl who threatens to blow up an entire city just to get her boyfriend out of jail. Doesn't that sound romantic?"

Leo pushes against her.

"You are surprisingly strong." he says as he struggles.

"A girl's gotta be strong to take care of her man. Plus, it helps that I have my spikes hooked into your shell."

Leo looks down and sees the spikes on Clicky's arms wedged into the sides of his carapace.

"I guess you could say I have my hooks in you."

BAM!

Raph tackles her from the side sending her tumbling out of the air and on top of a nearby building.

Donnie and Mikey join him as he leaps onto the rooftop.

"Let Leo go!"

Clicky lifts herself from the ground, annoyed.

"You know, I was hoping to avoid the whole 'fighting among in-laws' thing, but if you really need to get it out of your system then be my guest."

She lowers her scythe tipped arms, readying herself for battle as her other two arms continue to grip Leo tightly to her chest.

The brothers charge!

Raph lunges with his sais, but Clicky jumps into the air using her wings to hover, and delivers a powerful kick to the back of his shell, sending him stumbling across the roof.

Donnie jumps, swinging his staff at her flying form.

She dodges out of the way, then uses one of her scythes to hook the strap across his back.

She spins twice in the air with Donnie SCREAMING as he's swung around before she finally HURLS him through the air right into a nearby billboard.

As she lands back on the roof, Mikey jumps in front of her.

"Hwaaaaaaah!"

He swings his chucks only for Clicky to back up causing them to miss their intended target and instead SMACK Leo right across the face.

"Ow!"

Mikey swings again and again, accidently smacking Leo each time.

"Stop it!" shouts Leo. "It's not working!"

"Sorry, bro!" says Mikey, chucks at the ready. "It's a little hard to get a clear shot with your big ol' head in the way."

"I do not have a big head!"

"It is pretty big." says Clicky. "Just one of the many things I love about you."

As Clicky faces off against Mikey, Raph gets up, rubbing his head.

He sees his chance.

Without a second's hesitation he charges for Clicky, sais drawn.

He leaps at her back, ready to attack.

"Gotcha!"

Clicky's head twists around one hundred and eighty degrees to look at the oncoming Raph with a smile.

Raph stares in horror before—

SLICE!

Raph flies sprawling to the ground, clutching a fresh gash in his arm.

Mikey stares after him, horrified.

"Raph!"

WHAM!

Mikey goes flying backwards as the backside of Clicky's scythe connects with his chin.

"Mikey!" shouts Leo.

Clicky's head twists back around to face the front as she looks over the fallen brothers.

"So, everyone feeling better?"

SHINK!

"Ow!"

Clicky drops Leo, grasping her arm in pain.

Leo quickly glances at her before scrambling out of her reach as his brother run to join him.

Clicky looks from her arms down to a kunai knife wedged into the stone roof a few feet from her.

She bares her teeth.

Everyone looks up to the top of a nearby water tower to see none other than Karai, standing proudly as the moonlight glints off her armor.

Karai leaps off the water tower, flipping once in the air before making a perfect landing on the rooftop.

"Great." says Raph. "As if we didn't have enough trouble."

"Tell me about it." says Mikey. "It's like Leo's on one of those TV dating shows only all the girls want him dead."

Clicky growls at Karai.

"Why are you always ruining our dates?!"

"Let's get one thing straight, bug." says Karai walking forward. "I don't care about your little crush. But as much as I would love to see Leo's head eaten off by some psychotic insect, I'm the only one who gets to finish him off."

She draws her blade.

Leo looks at Karai nervously.

"Karai?"

Karai sends him a toxic glare.

"You were wrong about me Leo. Everything I am is because of Shredder. And the one thing my father taught me above all else?"

She levels her blade.

"No mercy."

The boys get into battle stances, preparing to defend themselves.

The two parties square off, weapons drawn.

Karai glares at them, pouring all her hatred into a single look before—

SHINK!

Karai's blade clashes against Clicky's scythe, just inches from Karai's head.

The two girls stand, blades locked as Clicky stares furiously down at Karai.

"I'm getting a little tired of you always trying to steal my turtle." says Clicky through gritted teeth.

"Now's our chance." says Donnie.

"On it!" shouts Mikey.

He throws down a smoke bomb.

"NO!"

Karai deflects Clicky's blade to the side, desperately lunging towards the smoke cloud only for Clicky to grab her leg from under her sending Karai sprawling to the ground.

Karai looks up as the smoke dissipates, the turtles gone and once again out of her reach.

Clicky stands over her, Karai's ankle still clutched in her claw.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Karai glares up at Clicky hatefully.

"Big mistake."

She pushes herself off the ground and uses her free leg to SMACK Clicky right across the face.

Clicky stumbles backwards, releasing Karai's ankle.

Karai flips into a standing position just as Clicky recovers.

The two girls circle each other.

"Look, it's pretty obvious we both want Leo dead." says Karai. "So, how about I finish him off, and you can have what's left?"

"Oooor," says Clicky. "How about I finish you off, and you can stop running your oversized mouth?!"

The two lunge at each other.

Their blades clash again and again, both girls engaged in an unrelenting fight to the finish.

"Why are you so obsessed with him?" asks Karai, deflecting another jab from Clicky's scythe. "You've barely spoken to him, and clearly he's not interested."

"I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand love." says Clicky, all four arms lashing at against Karai's single blade.

"You mean someone with a brain?"

"Pleeeaaase. Leo may not be able to see it, but I know what you really are."

FLASHBACK

A lone, normal-sized mantis sits on the roof of Shredder's lair, looking down through the glass ceiling.

"When I was still a regular mantis I followed you. After all, a girl's gotta keep an eye on her competition."

Below she watches as Shredder and Karai spar, Shredder beating Karai again and again and again.

"Every day I watched that bucket of bolts you call a father push you around. Threatening you. Abusing you."

As an injured Karai lunges at Shredder one last time, Shredder reels back and SLAMS his fist into her in a finishing blow.

Clicky's scythes wedge themselves against Karai's blade as she towers over her.

"He treated you like a slave, and you think he loves you?"

Karai grits her teeth as the force of Clicky's mutant strength pushes down against her.

"You wouldn't know love if it punched you in the face!"

WHAM!

Karai flies backwards across the roof as the sting of Clicky's fist sears against the side of her face.

She tumbles and skids across the pavement before finally coming to rest in front of a metal heating vent.

As she groans, Clicky walks towards her, scythes drawn.

"Leo was wrong about you. There's no "good girl" inside you. He may not be able to see it, but I know what you really are: an evil little witch with a heart as cold as her daddy's iron helmet."

Karai glares as Clicky raises her scythes over her.

"So, before you can break my precious little Leo's heart, I'm going to rip yours right out of your—"

WHAM!

Clicky gasps in shock as Karai's fist connects right to her abdomen.

She stumbles back, clutching her stomach as Karai smiles cockily.

"You talk too much." says Karai with a smirk.

Clicky glares as her teeth grind in fury.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

She lunges.

Right before she makes contact, Karai tosses down a smoke bomb obscuring her from view.

Clicky charges into the smoke, not slowing down, only to SLAM right into the metal heating vent face first.

She drops to her knees before forcefully pulling her head out of the side of the vent leaving a Clicky shaped dent in the metal.

She falls back on her butt before looking around as the smoke clears only to find Karai nowhere in sight.

"NO!" she shouts as it echoes across the clear night sky.

She sits there frustrated with her scythes crossed across her chest.

One of her hands pops up holding a doll.

"You really do talk too much." says Clicky providing a deep voice for the doll.

"Shut UP, Brad!" she screams in her normal voice.

Crouched atop a nearby billboard, Karai watches the little scene with a smirk.

She starts to stand only to jerk right back down as her hand clutches her side.

She looks down only to notice a large gash in her side courtesy of Clicky's blades.

She glares.

Back at the lair, the boys enter supporting Raph.

"Get him to the couch." orders Donnie.

As the other boys gently set Raph down, Donnie goes in to examine the wound on his arm only for Raph to slap him away.

"I'm fine. It's just a scratch."

Master Splinter enters the room.

"What happened?"

"We were attacked by Karai and Leo's love struck stalker." says Raph angrily.

"Yeah!" adds Mikey. "Manta-sister was all like 'I love you, Leo' and Karai was like 'I am Shredder's daughter. Prepare to die!'"

Leo shakes his head.

"She was really there to kill me." He looks up as Splinter walks over.

"I know what you said about Karai still having good in her, but…after tonight…"

Splinter puts a comforting hand on his shoulder as he offers Leo a sad smile.

"UGH! I can't take this anymore!"

SHINK!

Clicky stares angrily as a water tower collapses in front of her, its contents exploding across the rooftops thanks to a new set of scythe-sliced stilts.

Clicky screams again as she paces across the roof, her anger still un-satiated.

"How could Leo keep running away from me?! I mean, I know he's just playing hard to get, but at some point a girl starts to take it personally…Maybe I should fix my hair."

Her hand pops up holding a doll.

"You don't have hair." says the doll.

"SHUT UP, BRAD! UGH!"

She chucks the doll across the rooftop.

"I can't believe I ever ate your head."

She starts to walk off, but stops.

Slowly, she walks over to where Brad landed right beside Karai's kunai knife from earlier.

She stares at the knife.

"Maybe it's not my hair that I need to change."

She reaches down and plucks the kunai out of the stone rooftop.

"Maybe I just need to take a little more interest in Leo's hobbies."

She holds up the knife as her smiling reflection glints of its cold, steel surface.

"After all, if it's a ninja Leo wants, then it's a ninja he'll get."

Author's Note: Hi hi everyone! Sorry it took me so long to update. It's finals time, as you all may or may not know, but thankfully since mine are almost over I had the chance to get back to this fic and all you wonderful readers! Speaking of, thank you so much for reading!

Anyway, I really hope you guys liked the latest chapter. Just one more to go until we reach the hopefully exciting conclusion. Let me know what you guys think! Until next time!