Chapter 04: Fighting Back

Raph stomped into the kitchen where Mikey and Leo were playing cards on the kitchen table. He marched over to the cupboard and took out the first aid kit, opened it and started putting antiseptic on the scratches on his hands.

Mikey watched this with a concerned look in his eyes.

"Did Mittens scratch you again?" he asked.

"No, it was this other cat-mutant I'm teaching self-defense;" Raph answered in a calm voice, but then added angrily, "Of course it was Mittens!"

"What was it this time?" Mikey asked.

"The same as always. I tell her what to do, she doesn't do it, I move closer and raise my voice just a teeny-tiny bit to get her doing what she is supposed to do, she stares at me and the next moment she hisses and slashes at me with her claws exposed. What kind of reaction is that anyway?"

"I told you, Raph," Leo said, "you mustn't yell at her. I just encourage her and it works pretty fine."

"You encourage her even if she makes it completely wrong?!" Raph asked.

"There is no such thing as completely wrong," Leo stated. "Only things you can work with. I tell her how great she did and that it would work even better if she did it like this and so on. Works every time."

Raph snorted. "Not my way of training her."

"And that's the reason why you have scratches all over your hands and I don't," Leo clarified.

Raph's answer was another snort.

Mikey laid his cards aside and got up.

"Where are you going?" Leo asked.

"To check on Mittens," Mikey answered.

"The flea bag's fine, Mikey," Raph said angrily. "You don't have to run to her and comfort her every time she and I have an argument."

"I don't have to, but I want to," Mikey answered and turned to leave the kitchen, but stopped. "And don't call her 'flea bag'. She hates that," he added left the kitchen.

"I call her 'flea bag' whenever I want!" Raph yelled after Mikey and crossed his arms over his chest, but completely forgot about the fresh scratches. So he slightly winced when he did so and unfolded his arms immediately.

Leo looked at him with some sort of a mischievous grin.

Raph just growled silently.

Mittens was sitting on the roof-edge of the building where her toolshed was, letting her legs dangle over the edge. Her heart was still hammering. She hated it so much when someone yelled at her. And getting yelled at by Raph was even worse. She still didn't get why he lost his temper this time. She was sure she had been doing a good job, following his instructions, but he – as always – had seen things differently, and had kept correcting her and telling her a thousand things she had done wrong. And then she had reached the point where she hadn't been interested in going on and hadn't done anything. And this had made him explode again to which her usual reaction was to attack him, when his voice had gotten so loud it had hurt her ears. And that usually was the point when he left or she fled and the training session was over.

She really preferred training with Leo. He was kind and nice and never yelled at her, but he had told her that it would be best if she kept training with Raph as well – two different approaches and so. Besides, Leo insisted that Raph was the best fighter they had on the team. Mittens had given in, but still wished she could skip her training sessions with Raph.

His angry voice was still ringing in her ears, and she was still so anxious she started grooming herself, licking her paw and running it over her face. Sure, she didn't have to do that. Her fur was neat and since she had mutated she took showers – part of her new more human life – but like every cat, grooming calmed her down. She didn't even realize that she started purring – another procedure cats used to calm themselves down.

So when Mikey arrived at the roof-top a bit later, he saw her sitting on the roof-edge. Mittens didn't move, but he was pretty sure she must have heard him. When he approached he could hear her purring.

"Oh, good, I thought you might be sad," he said in a relieved voice.

Mittens stopped grooming herself, but didn't look at Mikey. "But I am sad," she said silently.

"What?" Mikey was by her side in no time and sat down next to her. "But you were purring."

"Sometimes cats purr to calm themselves down or make themselves feel better," Mittens answered. She still didn't look at Mikey.

"Oh, Mittens." Mikey frowned, a concerned look appearing on his face. "Was he that mean?"

Mittens nodded silently.

The next moment Mikey flung his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug.

"I promise it will get better," he said. "Raph needs some time to get used to new people. Okay, he will never be a superfriendly dude, but he will yell less at you once he got used to you. I promise!"

Mittens just hugged him back.

When Mikey could hear her purr again, he wondered if it was to calm her down or if it was because she felt comfortable, but he really hoped for the latter.

When they finally let go of each other, Mikey looked at Mittens for a moment.

"Better?" he asked.

Mittens nodded.

"Good," the youngest turtle said. "Then let's get inside." He stood up and held out his hand to her.

Mittens smiled as she took his hand and allowed him to help her up.

"You aren't supposed to be out in the open like that," Mikey said when they walked over to Mittens' toolshed. "There are people after you, remember?"

"I'm a cat-mutant, covered in black fur with just a few white markings on a dark roof-top in the middle of the night, believe me, I am not that easily found," Mittens answered with a grin.

One of said people who were after Mittens was having a really bad time right now. He was kneeling on the floor in front of his mistress, his whole body shaking.

"I'm sorry, Mistress, but we can't find her," he said.

"What do you mean, you can't find her?!" his mistress answered in an angry voice. "She is a humanoid cat in a city full of humans! It shouldn't take you that long to find her!"

"It's not that easy, Mistress!" the man tried to defend himself. "There are a lot of freaks running around in New York."

"Freaks?! Are you insulting me?!"

"No, no, Mistress! I didn't mean you!" The man gulped. "It's just that last night one of my men reported he had found her, but it turned out it was only a teenage girl on her way to a cosplay-party. I am so sorry, Mistress! We are patrolling non-stop to find her."

"Good," the woman answered. "But I am an impatient person. Find her soon or the position of leading my troops will be vacant again." She smiled devilishly. "Due to certain circumstances." She looked over to the place where her three lions used to be chained to the wall, but today there was a leopard there.

The man gulped once more before he nodded and got up. The gems on the golden neck collar he was wearing were blinking in the light while he was doing so.

April cautiously entered Donnie's lab. She knew he didn't like any interruptions when he was at work, but after Leo had told her that Donnie hadn't left his lab the whole day she had decided to check on him. And she knew too that he wouldn't chase her away. At least that was what she hoped for.

"Hey there, Donnie," she said to the brainiac and walked up to the table where Donnie was sitting and tapping away on his laptop.

"Hey, April," Donnie answered. He lifted his head just for a second to greet her with a small smile before his eyes were pinned on the laptop-screen again.

"What are you doing?" April asked as she had a look at the screen over Donnie's shoulder.

"I'm trying to find out what this is," Donnie explained and pointed at the golden plate that was lying next to his laptop.

April looked at the plate. "May I?" she asked.

"Sure," was Donnie's answer without even looking up again.

April took the plate in her hand, examined it closely.

"You know, this reminds me of something," she said and put the plate back on the table.

"Yeah, me too," Donnie answered. "But I don't know where I have seen something like that before."

"You're lucky I pay attention during my history classes," April said with a smirk. It was the first time this day that Donnie turned his eyes away from the screen for longer than a second and looked at April suspiciously.

The teenage girl just kept on smirking while rummaging around in her bag and finally bringing out her history book.

She paged through it for a second until she had found the page she was looking for and then showed it to Donnie.

"There," she said while pointing on the picture of an ancient Egyptian statue. "It looks just like one of the plates on the neck collar of this statue here."

Donnie had a closer look. "You're right!"

"Of course," April said with a proud smile on her face.

"Thanks, April!" Donnie said. "This really narrows my search."

"You are welcome," the redhead answered.

Donnie was already tapping away on his laptop again when April got a sandwich out of her bag and placed it on the table.

"And that's for you," she explained. "I know you always forget to eat when you are at work."

Donnie looked at the sandwich and then at April.

"You are the best!" he said with a big grin.

"I know," April answered with another proud smile and then walked to the door. She paused for a second and patted Metalhead on the head when she passed the little robot.

"I let you to your work now. Bye, Donnie!" she said when she had reached the door looking back at Donnie for a moment.

The purple-clad turtle gave her a little smile. "Thanks, April!"

"Anytime!" And with that April left the lab.

"No, for the hundredth time, flea bag, not like this!" Raph yelled at the cat-mutant, his brows knit in anger.

They were up on a roof-top for a training session. Mittens had already drawn back a few steps at the angry tone in his voice. She was just standing there, staring at him.

Raph twisted his mouth as he saw that. He knew pretty sure what this meant. If he wasn't careful she would scratch him again when he gave her the chance. He clenched his fists, but when he did so the scratches from their last training session hurt again. He narrowed his eyes, staring angrily at Mittens. Her face seemed blank to him, but then he saw something he hadn't realized before. Were there tears shimmering in her eyes, tears she tried to fight back? And he could tell she was doing a really good job in hiding her emotions if he hadn't realized before. Was she really that afraid?

He looked down on his hands, examining the scratches she had given him at their last training session, the older, already fading ones and the new, still hurting ones. Did she do that because she was afraid? When he raised his eyes again, the look on his face had changed. He looked calmer now. Mittens raised a brow at this sight.

"Let's try this again, Mittens," Raph said and walked over to the cat-mutant. "As I said before, when someone grabs you from behind, you don't struggle and try to get away, you jump backwards with all your strength to unbalance your opponent. Okay?"

Mittens just nodded.

"Good." Raph walked behind Mittens and put his arms around her body in a tight grip.

Mittens' first impulse was to try to get away and struggle.

Raph noticed, so he whispered "Backwards!" into her ear, and when he did that, Mittens tensed and jumped back. Her back didn't hit his plastron very hard, but he thought it would be best to let go of her and stumble backwards a few steps, and thus encourage her a bit. When Mittens realized that, she looked at him over her shoulder, blinking a few times.

"See?" Raph said. "That's how it's done!" He looked at Mittens with a grin. "Wanna try it again?"

Mittens nodded eagerly, a happy "Meow!" escaping her mouth.

When Raph grabbed her from behind again, he couldn't help but give a little smile.

The young man had just left the mysterious woman with such a huge interest in Mittens when he got a call. One of his men assured that he had spotted the cat-mutant on a rooftop with one of these turtle-mutants.

"They'd better not be on their way to a costume party," he sighed after he had hung up, and with that he called his men together to check on this sighting.

After another hour of training – which went surprisingly well tonight after Raph had decided to at least try this whole encouraging-thing – the ninja turtle thought it was enough training for one night.

"Okay, it's getting late. Let's call it a night," he said.

Mittens looked at him and blinked a few times. Training with Raph today had been so much different from their usual training session, time had simply flown. It really had been fun tonight and she was still cheerful and wanted to try all she had learned tonight all over again.

"Really?" she asked, the disappointment in her voice more than obvious, but then she yawned. "Okay, maybe you're right."

"Yeah, maybe," Raph answered. "I'll see you home."

And with that he walked over to the roof-edge, but stopped rooted to the ground. Mittens who had been right behind him bumped into him.

"What the…" she asked, but when she saw Raph's serious face she didn't finish the sentence.

"Stay close to me," Raph said as he drew his sais. "And when I tell you to run, just run."

Mittens nodded, a silent, insecure "Meow!" escaping her mouth.

And then they were there. Twenty men seemed to appear out of nowhere and surrounded them quickly. And again they were carrying nets and guns.

Raph eyed their opponents while they were standing there, waiting for their command to attack them. It was a moonlit night, so he could see the golden neck collars they all were wearing shimmering in the moonlight.

"They sure have taste when it comes to extravagant jewelry," he mumbled.

Then one of them raised his hand, and the next moment they were attacking.

Raph fought his way to the roof-edge, Mittens following him and staying close to him as good as she could, but most of the time Raph had to drag her along while dodging or blocking attacks.

Mittens' heart pounded in her chest. She wanted to run, but couldn't. Whenever she made an attempt to simply just run for it there was either one of their opponents blocking her way or Raph pulling her back so that she wasn't hit by a dart or covered by a net. They finally managed to make their way to the roof-edge. Mittens stood there, her eyes pinned to the next roof-edge as she was estimating the distance, but then she heard their opponents coming closer and she looked back over her shoulder, her heart started hammering even more. She quickly looked back to the other roof-edge, then back to their opponents, than to Raph who was fighting back two of their attackers. She felt cornered and had no idea what to do. The next roof-edge suddenly seemed so far away that she could never reach it with a jump. She gasped for air. What should she do?

Raph saw the hounded look on her face from the corner of his eye as he pushed another attacker away so that the man stumbled into two other opponents, and ran over to Mittens. He then put his sais away, grabbed the cat-mutant, flung her over his shoulder and jumped.

Mittens shrieked anxiously. Had he totally lost it? The next roof was too far away! They were never going to make it?

It was only when she heard the rattle of metal that she realized he was climbing down the fire escape? For a moment she got angry with herself. Why hadn't she thought of that? Why did she lose any trace of rational thinking when she felt cornered? Animals reacted like that, but she was no animal any longer. She was a mutant now! She had to be able to think rationally!

When they reached the ground Raph put her down again. Mittens lowered her eyes, and mumbled something that was meant to be a "Thank you!", but turned out as some sort of a "Thaaaa…meow!"

But the next moment she perked her ears and Raph drew his sais again, as they heard nearing footsteps.

"They've been expecting us!" he growled.

He looked at their opponents, and now they were seriously cornered in this side street. It was a dead end, their only way out blocked by enemies and the rest of them waiting on the roof-top.

Mittens' heart started hammering in her chest again. Her breath quickened and she again got that hounded look on her face.

Raph measured their chances to get out of this without needing help, when he saw a movement from the corner of his eye. The next moment he jumped in front of Mittens and the dart that had been launched on her bounced from his carapace.

"Call the others!" he commanded. "Tell them where we are and that we need help!"

Mittens nodded and fumbled for her T-phone on the waistband of her shorts.

She dialed Mikey's number while meowing silently and then held the phone to her ear.

When Mikey picked up, she burst out: "It's…meeeeoooow…me…Mittens! Need help! Side street, north, training roof, Raph! Hurry!"

"Not bad!" Raph said with a smirk while he kicked one of their opponents in the stomach. "Next time whole sentences, okay?"

Mittens just hissed.

Mikey stood there looking at his T-phone. What had that been? He had heard Mittens say something about help, a side street and north and a training roof and Raph. He thought about it for a few moments frowningly, and you could literally see how his brain worked to put this information together – you could even add the jeopardy theme-music if you want to –, but then his eyes widened in shock.

"Guys!" he called out for his brothers. "Mittens and Raph are in trouble. They're in a side street north from the rooftop she and Raph use for their training sessions. Hurry up!"

Mikey was making his way over the rooftops at such a speed, Leo and Donnie had problems to keep up. When they reached the rooftop where Mittens and Raph usually did their training, there were two men standing there on the roof-edge, but with their backs to the three approaching turtles. Mikey narrowed his eyes, sped up even more, attacked and knocked them out in no time.

Leo blinked a few times when he saw that. When had been the last time Mikey had entered a fight with such force?

Mikey was already standing on the roof-edge, peeking into the side-street below. Raph had been pushed back, literally, with his back nearly against the wall. And his back would have been completely against the wall if there hadn't been Mittens taking cover behind him.

Leo peeked down into the side-street as well.

"I think we need a plan. Maybe we should…," he started, but got cut short because Mikey jumped down on the fire escape and started climbing down.

A loud "Booyakasha!" moments later signaled that Mikey had entered the fight.

Leo looked over to Donnie who just shrugged and jumped down on the fire escape too.

The blue-clad turtles just blew a raspberry before he followed his brothers.

"Hey, what took you?" they were greeted by Raph.

"I had to figure out what Mittens had meant!" Mikey explained while he knocked one of their opponents out with his nunchucks.

"Okay, Mittens, next time you can't talk in whole sentences, call Donnie, will ya?" Raph said into Mittens' direction.

The answer was another hiss.

"They are all wearing these golden neck collars!" Donnie pointed out when he blocked an attack with his bo.

"You don't say!" Raph gave back.

"Try to get one of these collars!" Donnie commanded.

"Seriously, Donnie, I don't think it'd be after April's fancy," Mikey answered.

Donnie would have facepalmed if he hadn't been in the middle of a fight.

"No," he said. "But it could help us to find out more about these guys."

"Gotcha!" Leo called out.

He jumped up high in the air and landed behind one of the men, letting his katana blade slide under the collar. He then kicked the man in the back and caught the cut-off collar in one hand.

Moments later they had managed to either knock out their opponents or their opponents had betaken themselves to flight.

The turtles looked at each other and then tucked their weapons away.

"Now that wasn't so hard," Raph pointed out.

"It wasn't AFTER the cavalry had arrived," Mikey added with a grin and pointed to his chest with his thumb. This earned him a knock on the head by Raph.

"Ouch!" Mikey rubbed his head and watched his brother huffily as Raph walked past him with a smirk.

Mikey then wanted to turn to Mittens who had stayed close to the wall the entire fight, but in that moment he heard her shriek anxiously.

The four brothers turned around and looked at Mittens, only to find out that she had been grabbed by one of their not-so-knocked-out opponents. Mittens struggled to get free, but the man held her in a tight grip.

Mittens' first attempt was to keep struggling and somehow squirm free, but then she remembered something. She put both feet on the ground and then jumped backwards with all her strength. The man hit the wall with his back and let go of Mittens who immediately ran over to Mikey and grabbed his arm, looking back to her attacker anxiously.

The man was still conscious, so Raph marched over to him and knocked him out with a punch.

Then the red-clad turtle looked over to Mittens.

"Not bad, fl… Mittens. I mean Mittens," he corrected himself.

Mittens straightened up smiling proudly.

"I am sorry, Mistress!" the young man kneeling in front of the mysterious woman said.

"No, you aren't!" the woman answered. "But you will be if you don't bring her to me soon!"

"The cat is not the problem, Mistress," the man explained. "It's those turtles. They protect her! And we don't seem to be able to defeat them."

The woman clenched her fists and got up from her seat.

"Are you telling me you are too weak to defeat them?"

"They are skilled fighters, Mistress, and we can't use firearms or we might hurt the cat."

"DON'T hurt the cat!"

"I know, Mistress, but this limits our option to capture her."

"So fighting doesn't seem to work," the woman pondered. "Maybe we have to try something else."

She just stood there, thinking for a few moments. "You can go now."

The man got up hastily and left.

The woman turned around and walked over to the window. Day was dawning already, the golden morning light was shining through the big window and lit the room. No, it was no room, it was a hall. The walls were full of paintings of cats. There were the chains on one side of the hall, but today no big cat was tied up there.

The woman walked over to a man-size statue near the window. It was the statue of some sort of humanoid cat, standing upright, the features were those of a woman, she was wearing a form-fitting dress and neck-collar.

The woman let her fingers slide over the statue's face.

"Soon, Bastet," she said, "you will be mine."