IMPORTANT: Karai does not know Splinter is her father in this story! (I may or may not put it in, but we'll see!) Also this chapter has a bit more action in it. :)
Chapter 6: Dark Clouds of Frustration
It had been a few days since Donnie's incident. Mikey, Donnie, and Raph had been training extra with Splinter in control sessions for safety reasons of course. Splinter knew they would sometimes not be able to overcome their powers unstable energy just yet. It was as if each of their their powers had a mind of its own making his sons go haywire.
For Mikey's uncontrollable glitch, a wave of adrenaline would ignite him like a sugar rush and he'd start running for no reason, obliterating anything in his path when in momentum. Raph's anger issues were making their normal training a bit harder, especially with him having to restrain himself sometimes. Knowing he could easily injure one of his brothers intensely sent bone chilling shivers up Splinter's spine. Lastly was Donnie, his emotions were the only thing standing in his way from not simultaneously gravitating one of his brothers or an object near by. It was something he'd need to learn to handle. It wouldn't be easy, but it's be possible.
Luckily, Mr. O'Neil had been returned into his daughters arms to live the rest of his life, to be a father to his daughter. His smartest son would not rest until he found the remedy to heal Mr. O'Neil and the emotional damage it caused April. The stress caused by the retro mutagen had been tearing Donnie apart piece by piece slowly but surely as he would not rest until he saw April happy again trying to radiate her joy and bright attitude as always in darker times.
Despite all their efforts, life for them would never be the same. There would always be their enemies, their friends, patrolling the city, trying new things, and their new powers were yet another thing added to the list. It was an obstacle they'd all have to overcome and it surely wouldn't be without challenges, but worth it in the end.
So far, Splinter had been through fifteen control sessions with his three sons, but they were showing great progress and exceeding in his teachings. Tonight he decided to let them up to the surface to experiment with their capabilities and limitations. Little did they know he sent Leo to do his dirty work to tell Splinter what to critique them on when they returned. Splinter figured Leo had good judgement, plus he was the only one of his brothers that hadn't received his powers yet, so he was the most suitable option. Although, it made sense since he hadn't received his power. He was the leader and couldn't let his emotions get in the way causing his team to suffer because of his lack in good leadership skills. There were times where he and Raph clashed so they must not have been beating each other over the head lately. Not that Splinter's extra training wasn't taking an effect on Raph's unusual exhaustion in the day time.
The four brothers swiftly made it across the rooftops, looking straight forward at the scenery that made up Manhattan. Blinding lights glistened across the cityscape enticing the brothers every time they saw it. It truly was a city that never slept. Car horns blared throughout the night and there was never a second where the city was not illuminated from the brightest of headlights to dimmest street lamps.
Mikey sped ahead of the group laughing since his brothers couldn't keep up. Patrol had was becoming more enjoyable since he had something else to tease his brothers about.
"Hey Guys, having some trouble? What's that? I couldn't hear you since I'm so far ahead of you guys!" Mikey taunted and laughed once again.
It had been like this all night and Raph was trying to keeping his cool for as long as he could, but it wouldn't be long before Mikey got a fist full of metal in his mouth. As for Donnie, at first he was fine and didn't give Mikey any mind. It wasn't like he was expecting anything less of his childish behaviored brother, but now he was just becoming a nuisance. Leo kept a close eye on Mikey noticing he wasn't paying attention to where he was going. He knew Mikey had a good chance of tripping, ending up getting himself beat up pretty bad without there even being an opponent or enemy in sight.
"If he doesn't knock it off, I swear I'm gonna knock his brain out! Who am I kidding? It wouldn't do any damage since he doesn't have one!" Raph shouted out of range for Mikey to hear.
"Hey Donnie. Do you think you could maybe... slow him down?" Leo asked with a smirk.
Donnie simply smiled back, reached out his hand while thinking of April and held Mikey in place.
Mikey helplessly struggled to break free from one of the only forces that could stop him and yelled, "Hey! No fair!" as he stayed stuck and immobile in a running position.
All the other brothers laughed as they passed him mocking how the "speed" of the group could fall behind. The poisonous glares Mikey was giving to each of his brothers was harsh, but it only made his brothers laugh harder until their sides hurt. The teasing didn't stop even as they got farther away Mikey could still hear them joke about him. Finally, once they were far enough away Donnie released Mikey from his paralyzed figure. He printed and instantly caught up to them in about a millisecond.
"What was that for?!" Mikey called out to them.
"That Mikey, was to teach you a lesson about gloating and just being plain annoying." Leo said with a chuckle.
"Are you sure, because I thought it was about seeing Mikey's face as we ruined his moment of glory." Raph commented with a smile of self satisfaction plastered on his face.
Leo only rolled his eyes and kept running making mental notes of skill sets his brothers needed improvement on.
From above their head were the two piercing brown eyes of Karai and her footbots, watching intently from afar, waiting patiently to make an attack.
"Hmm. It looks they've somehow enhanced themselves, but it seems like at least one of them is having a hard time." Karai said aloud.
With a smug grin she said, "Footbots, prepare to attack."
The robotic men surrounded the brothers from above ground waiting for their orders. They staked out while their targets were standing still taking instruction from their leader in blue."Alright Donnie, show me what you got, WITHOUT thinking about April." Leo ordered.
"I don't understand why it's so important that I get April out of my head. When thinking of her it allows me to keep myself stable and not end up hurting others." Donnie stated.
"That helps keep control when you think about her in a good way, so if she ever got injured during battle you might go on a rampage and become an unstoppable freak of nature." Leo told him back.
"Leo, I get what you're trying to do here, but how are we gonna get genius's mind over here to think of something other than April!" Raph exclaimed.
Mikey "I know! We'll get thousands of kittens and have them all run up and start to snuggle up against Donnie and lick his hand! No one can resist the power of kittens!" Mikey said sure his plan was full proof.
"Tell me Mikey, where are four mutant turtles going to get a thousand kittens from? The pet store!?" Raph said sarcastically, knowing that his plan was far fetched anyway.
"Enough!" Leo called out. "Could we just continue our patrol and"- "Now!" A female voice from above called out.
Footbots dropped down and surrounded the unexpectant brothers unsheathing their weapons from their holders. The red eyes of the mechanical beings glared at what seemed straight through the turtles. Everyone knew they weren't leaving without a fight so why even try to retreat?
"Guys, this time don't use your weapons unless you have to and show them what you got!" Leo yelled.
Leo ran to fight off the twenty droids in front of him giving a clear signal for his brothers to do the same. Slashes and cuts were given to each bot that stood in the blue claded turtle's way. As for the others they seemed to be managing alright. Mikey ran around the identical robots goofing off trying to trip them up then strike while having fun doing it. Raph was dominating his opponents once he finally activated his metal exterior, but his only issue was that the footbots were using his own momentum against him. Donnie on the other hand was doing alright, but it can be hard to think about someone when they're swords and weapons slashing through the air trying to take your head off.
Out of the corner of his eye Leo caught a glimpse of Karai staring down upon them in the shadows. Leo had let her go one too many times and this time he wouldn't fail to bring her out of the lie she's lived her entire life into the light of who she truly is.
"Hold off the footbots! I have something to finish." Leo said.
Even if his brothers wanted to disagree they couldn't. With Leo's determination and his brothers lack in being able to take down every single droid he was in the clear. Footbots kept flooding in from every direction nonstop leaving the remaining brothers a challenge.
Jumping up trying to communicate with Karai with his katana in hand was easy. That was until he was met by her sword at his throat. He took a sudden gulp in surprise as a fear lodged in his eyes knowing she would surely take his head off.
"You really want us dead don't you?" Leo asked cautiously.
Karai put down her sword and took a fighting stance in front of him and said as she attacked, "I don't want you all dead just yet, I want "you" to suffer first. You'll first die painfully and slowly, then your brothers and master will suffer from their loss of you!"
The clang of metal echoed over and over again as their fight continued. Leo dodged her every attack that came from left to right. He flipped and rolled in midair to avoid her vicious swing to his neck.
"Look Karai! I didn't come here to fight! I came up here to tell you something!" He yelled.
" Well I did! You can keep telling me Hamato Yoshi is my father Leo, but I don't believe you! I don't trust you and I know you're lying!" She tried to get the upper hand and throw him off, but he was too focused at this point. He dodged every slice she threw at him and almost knocked her to the ground.
"Karai, please believe me. He is your father! Ughh! Why won't you just listen to me! Leo shouted at her.
Unexpectedly, charcoal colored thunder clouds filled the sky with a black and gray haze as it gave a rumble that woke up anyone in a four mile radius. The stars that once hung in the sky were no longer visible from anyone below the fog of clouds and the full moon's radiant light was now covered in a blanket of darkness.
Leo looked up in shock and surprise taken back by the spontaneous change in weather. While he had his moment, Karai took it to her advantage and knocked him to the ground in a single motion with the leather handle of her sword and called in about ten footbots to surround him on the ground.
Leo made a loud, "Oof" as he fell to the ground like bricks off a building. The aftermath of the handle jabbing into his side hurt more than the impact of the fall. He landed on his back now weaponless since his Katana flung out of his hand when he dropped to the concrete.
Karai circled her prey keeping her blade at the center of Leo's forehead, having the foot draw in closer to keep from him evacuating back into the the disgusting sewers he called his home.
"Any last words?" She asked maliciously.
Leo looked at the blade between his eyes reflecting his vulnerable image and knew there was no escaping this time. With the foot bots around, of he even managed to get Karai off her guard the drones would certainly eliminate him anyway.
He took a shaky breath and said the two words he despised more than anything, "I... failed."
Karai drew her sword back and Leo closed his eyes hoping for a miracle to come or pray it was a dream and hope to not feel anything, but he knew it was all real. He squinted his eyes in anger. He didn't want to leave his brothers and Splinter. what would they do without him and what would he do without them? Just as the sharpened edge was coming down, a strong gust of wind blew around Leo knocking Karai and the drones a good twenty feet away near a small entrance leading up to the roof.
He waited for the stifling pain cutting through his flesh, but it never came. Instead, another side of him stood up and raised his hand in the air calling in more powerful wind to get rid of the footbots his brothers fought below. His eyes were now completely silk white, no sign of the pupils or colorful blue orbs in his eyes. He looked down at his hands and decided to try bringing in a different type of forecast. He bent his arms back and threw them to the footbots next to Karai, electrocuting each one with a jolt of lightning that cracked through the sky.
Karai stared in horror as she watched him inch closer footstep by footstep to her. She struggled to stand up trying to grasp anything on the wall of the door entrance on top of the building. Then it began to rain soaking the cloth under her armor making her feel heavier and she strived to stand up and run away.
He continued walking until he was right in front of her, even though she didn't look up. He grabbed her shoulders pulled her up straight and pinned her against the wall with her hands to the level of her eyes.
"I'm through playing games Karai! Believe me or not he is your father, but you need to choose to accept it or live the rest of your life as a person you're not. Shredder will never see you as his daughter because he knows your the descent of his enemy. He is a liar and a deceiver, but it's your choice." Leo said.
His eyes returned back to normal, now truly seeing her face that she had hooded by looking to the ground. In front of him was an emotionless assassin, but beneath lied the broken soul of a girl without a true father. She didn't show it, but he knew somewhere deep inside an ocean of rage and sadness was building up.
He mistakenly released his grip on her wrists and she kicked him in the plastron and ran off back into the darkness of Shredders lair. He watched with sad eyes, his brothers stood a good distance behind him and decided it was best to give Leo his space in especially since it had to deal with Karai. The rain stopped as Leo exhaled and walked over to his brothers.
They stayed there in silence not being the one to awkwardly break it until Leo couldn't take it anymore.
"So... I found out what my ability is. Leo said out loud trying to change the subject about that moment to anything else.
Mikey perked up and started asking Leo to make it snow, but Leo refused politely because it would be too much of a disturbance since it was late March.
"But it would be so cool! Think about it! Now featuring, "Snow in Spring"! Mikey said acting like a reporter near the end.
Leo chuckled and shook his head as he and his brothers walked home with the constant buzz of Mikey asking for Leo to do more neat tricks. Raph blew his top in about five minutes later and shut Mikey up with a threat.
Back in the sewers April and Master Splinter had just finished up a training session. Sweat dripped down the front of April's forehead making her take out her ponytail and shake out her hair. Donnie's eyes diverted to her as if nobody else in the room could see him. She had incredible effects on him and she didn't even notice. It was easy for April to distract Donnie by simply leaving her hair, unintentionally of course. It was a little frizzy, but Donnie didn't care as he watched her try to correct the threads of hair that stuck up in some spots with weather from the sink. He was always enchanted by her. Eventually, April finally fixed her hair to point where she could withstand it. She never liked having it down, but there were those days where she just didn't care and let the red locks flow. With Donnie's intense staring April finally caught on to his gaze and let out an inevitable splash of red on her cheeks.
Mikey walked up next to Donnie and started to tickle his sides and wave his hand in front of his face, but Donnie didn't budge.
"Bro you need to stop staring before you get April's hand smacked on the side of your face." Mikey whispered.
He finally broke from his frozen stature and said," April! I-I'm so sorry! It's just that you looked really pretty with your hair down and... Not that you don't look pretty all the time... I mean I don't just look at you and find you attractive... I mean!-" he was cut off by a small caucasian hand covering his mouth while Raph, Mikey, and Leo busted up laughing hysterically.
"I get what you mean Donnie, don't worry so much!" April told him as she lightly punched his arm.
"When you live with a father that's not Splinter, you get teased enough so you learn how to deal with it and... lets say "unusual comments" so I knew what you meant." April said with a smile.
"Oh, okay then." He said wishing he could have said something that made him sound smarter than a dumb pile of rocks!
"I almost forgot, April guess what!" Mikey exclaimed.
"What?" She asked.
"Guess!" He said.
"Well, did you fight of Shredder single handedly while he had fifty ninja robots around to fight by his side?" She said in a teasing manner.
"No. We found out Leo can make it snow any time we want!"
Sighs from the guys spread thought the room at Mikey's ridiculous comment.
"Leo can summon passing clouds and if they're aren't any that have enough water in them to make it rain when he wants to he can speed up the process of evaporation! It amazing!" Donnie shouted.
"He means I can control the weather." Leo added in.
"Well that's great! She said as enthusiastically, but in the back of her head it screamed, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!"
"Excuse me for just a moment." She said aloud.
She walked off into her room and slammed the door behind her. All the brothers turned their heads to the direction of the loud noise. They'd never heard her slam a door before, so it was obvious that something was wrong. Raph, Mikey, and Leo's head turned to were Donnie was standing, but he had already started walking toward April's temporary room when she stayed the night.
As he walked across the hard floor to the doorway of her bedroom he heard an aggravated growl from the other side and debated on entering or not, but decided to hang outside the closed door and listen first...Again.
"Ughh! Why do I even care so much about getting a stupid "power" anyway? I'm the middle of an alien invasion and can read emotions probably better than anyone on the face of the Earth, so why this?!" She said as she grabbed a pillow and threw it with aggression against the wall. The redhead with the hot temper immediately stopped on her tracks and stood there.
Although she'd just asked herself, she knew exactly why, but didn't have the courage to say it. She didn't want to believe it either so it was better off not to say it at all. She held them back. They'd never tell her that, but somewhere deep inside she knew it was the truth. Maybe, she thought she'd be able to catch up with a fraction of their skills if she could just have this one thing that would allow her to not need backup every time trouble arose for her. Sure she'd saved them that one time... compared to like a hundred!
It never occurred to her what she might be holding them back of. When she really elaborated it, she had a realization of so many of the things she'd missed. If it wasn't for her they wouldn't have been found out by the Shredder. They wouldn't have to put their lives in danger countless amounts of times and worst of all on her part, Splinter would've been able to turn human again. Instead they put their selfishness behind them and went after her dad putting off their own needs and wants.
The emotional baggage was painful enough from everything else, now this! She finally sat down at the foot of her bed and let the tears flow with her hands in her lap. In seconds they turned into soft sobs barely detectable from the outside. She could feel the tears streaming down her face, but the salty droplets began to grow cold. She wiped away the tear and notice it was now a frozen teardrop in her palm.
"What!?" She asked to herself.
Her nervousness was starting to obtain all of her control as her hands started to shake. She placed them down on the floor to stand up, but ice quickly spread across the floor from where she put her hands. Fear was beginning to become her enemy and the ice was now expanding to the walls heading for the door and with perfect timing she heard a knock from the other side.
"April, it's me Donnie can I come in?"
"Uh, j-just a second! She stammered.
"She managed her way to the door hardly able to keep her balance and grabbed the door handle while falling to her knees. She slowly stood up and took a deep breath. The handle twisted slowly and she opened it just enough to poke her head out.
"How can I help you?" She asked calmly.
Donnie saw that she looked fine right then and made up the best lie possible until he could sit her down privately to talk about whatever was bugging her.
"Oh, I just wanted to know... if you wanted to join us on patrol tonight?"
"No. Why did he have to bring up patrol! I just got over holding them back!" She said in her mind.
Right after the thought left her head, an icy blast sent them both sprawling through the air, but not as badly for April. Donnie slammed up against the wall hard almost unconscious after the hit. April stood up and began to run over to Donnie until she saw a trail of icy destruction following her on the floor.
"I-I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry! I didn't mean to-" She began to choke out.
She looked at the tunnels and back at Donnie and fled from the room. April was panting, running away from Donnie. She had already caused them enough commotion to begin with and now she'd hurt her best friend. She ran with tears falling to the now frozen sewer waters. Every step she took iced over the water with a glassy looking exterior, but it was a storm that couldn't be stopped now.
Mikey, Leo, and Raph sprinted over to Donnie watching as April dashed through the sewers endless twists and turns. They cared about April, but Donnie came first.
Their brother hazily started to wake calling April's name and reaching out his arm to try and stop her with his telekinesis, but she seemed so far away and he was weakned by the blow. He could hear his brother'svoices call his name, but it seemed as if they were a dream. He wanted so desperately to have April in his arms, but the last he saw of her was a blurry image blue, white, and yellow before his eyelids became to heavy to keep open as he began to fall back to sleep.
She hadn't been running long, but she had heard the groggy voice of Donatello echo around the walls from behind and now haunting her mind. She looked behind to see her friend disorientated on the floor surrounded by his brothers far away and safe from her. She didn't know where to run, but the best option was someplace away from him and her secondary family. Living in fear of bringing harm unto others was going to be her life now. Escaping the life she once knew would be easy, she'd been forced into it before when the Kraang came along. Now, she just wasn't sure how to live her new life without the people who gave the meaning of life back to her.
Author's Notes: I finally finished this chapter! I wanted to bring in April's power in this so I could start spicing things up a bit. I didn't want to lose my readers by dragging them getting their powers for too long! I really enjoyed writing the end of this because I've been waiting to write the next chapter for awhile now! in this chapter though, writing the emotion was my favorite part and I hope to continue more of it next chapter. The connections we make with readers is most important to me! :) until the next chapter! ~Pdg