...Late updates are late. No excuse, not really, but AP exams are approaching and with a new job and college on the way...well. I leave you with another cliffhanger at the end, but hopefully this time I won't be so painfully slow in updating this.
Bō
Unfair
Robin was now certain that New York City had no need for a Titans branch, because it had skilled mutant ninja Turtles guarding it already. (Meanwhile, Beast Boy finds a kindred spirit within this new team, and enemies team up to bring them all down...)
Hamato Yoshi sniffed, whiskers twitching, and slowly opened his eyes. No one was there. April had left after training just half an hour ago, and he was alone in the lair, still.
It had been only three hours, and yet it felt like a lifetime. His sons and the Titans were still not back. And he knew he shouldn't worry, not really, because they were trained by him and they had superheroes with them - superheroes so famous he had heard of their mentors while still human, back in Japan. (Of course, these Titans themselves were barely the same age as his sons, but Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman and so many others were famous worldwide...)
So, Splinter sighed and rose from his meditation position, planning to simply prepare a cup of tea and return in a few minutes if his sons still did not appear.
And then he caught the scent of Foot. It was not in the sewers, he could tell instantly, but its proximity meant that there was a group moving right above the lair and he didn't know if the ninjas realized that they were over the home of their enemies or if this was just a coincidence.
Either way it left him unnerved, and he did something he hadn't done since the early days of his transformation.
He growled.
"Are we the last?" Robin hissed to Donatello as they entered the lair nearly four hours after they had left. Donnie, glancing around, nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I'd say so," he whispered back. Robin sighed - he wasn't usually the last person to arrive somewhere, especially being the leader of the Teen Titans, but he and Donatello had been going a little slower than normal - it may not have been the best time to socialize, but it had happened regardless.
"Donatello," Master Splinter greeted as the two joined the others, who were crashed on the couch or around it. "Robin."
"Master Splinter," the two greeted together, bowing. Presently they collapsed; Robin onto the armrest of the couch, next to Leonardo, and Donatello by his brother's feet. The ninja master merely sighed, shaking his head.
"Well my sons? Did you find anything?"
There was silence for a moment; then, slowly, Raphael shook his head, as did Donatello.
Mikey, after a moment, slowly raised his hand as if in school. "Well - Raven and I found and stopped some Kraang. And...they had mutagen."
On cue, Raven's eyes briefly glowed white, and a black energy-laced hole appeared. Michelangelo stuck his hand into it, searched around, and pulled out a canister of the sinister glowing liquid. Beast Boy hissed quietly from his position - the stuff smelled nasty.
"We - well, Raven - shoved it into a pocket dimension that only she can reach."
Splinter nodded, and Robin muttered a "well done, Raven," as Mikey deposited the mutagen and Raven sealed the portal. Donatello muttered something about studying the mutagen to help a friend - Robin wasn't quite sure what that meant, but he wasn't too keen on letting the Turtle keep a large quantity of the disgusting substance, no matter his intentions. Meanwhile, Leonardo began fidgeting, suddenly uncomfortable, and this did not go unnoticed.
"Leonardo?"
Leo squirmed for a moment more, before sighing and gazing up at his sensei. "I...we encountered this Katarou, Sensei."
"...And?"
Leo refused to answer, instead staring intently at the ground. Starfire hummed, and answered for him. "We were unaware of his presence until the last moment possible. Luckily, Leonardo was only hit in the shell with an arrow, and I was able to remove it with no damage. Beast Boy scented Katarou a moment later but when we went to pursue him, we lost his trail, as our enemy doubled back on himself before dropping a 'smoke bomb', which confused Beast Boy's senses."
Splinter let out a muffled grunt as he studied Leonardo. "My son, there is no shame in this. Our enemy does not fight by our ways. You should not expect him to fight by the Bushido code."
This left Robin growling. "Bushido? Katarou has no sense of honor, Splinter-san. I went to train with a master in Japan, and he cheated his way up by following me through the trials set for those unworthy instead of facing the trials himself." He turned to Leo, eyes softening slightly under his mask. "You got lucky. Be thankful he isn't a great shot."
With that, Robin stood, bowed respectfully, and headed out toward the surface, presumably to find the T-ship - which they had parked on the outskirts of the city - for some much-needed rest and alone time. Donnie sighed as he watched his friend leave, and Splinter's whiskers twitched.
Raven was the one who spoke next. "Katarou is a sore spot in Robin's book, Splinter-san. They've got a score to settle between them, and for all of our sakes we had best hope that Robin comes out on top. I have not personally met him, but I know that Katarou is ruthless...which is probably why your enemy has recruited him."
Splinter nodded, eyes solemn, as Raven simply teleported away. The other three Titans shrugged and began to head out to the T-ship as well. Beast Boy, at the exit, turned back and waved at the Turtles. The mutants waved back, mixed expressions on their faces, as the changeling morphed into a bat and flew off.
"...Get some rest, my sons," Splinter murmured after a moment of silence. "You will need it."
"Robin? Are you...you okay, man?"
The Titans were back in the T-ship, settled down in their beds in the cabin. Cyborg, the one who had posed the question, was looking at their leader with concern as the Boy Wonder sat on his bed, the sheets only covering his legs.
"'M fine," the black-haired boy muttered as rain began to fall outside - a few drops, at first, and then a steady pitter-patter of rain on metal.
(Robin wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he hated the rain. It reminded him too closely of failure.)
"Quit it, Rob," Beast Boy grumbled, turning over on his own bed. "I can smell your anxiety, dude. Don't even try saying you're alright." Green eyes blinked back open, the pupils taking up a large majority of his eye, as the youngest studied the leader, concern written on every feature.
Relenting, Robin sighed. "I'm just...worried about Katarou, I guess," he murmured, sliding under the covers at last. "I mean...what if...I promised them, Beast Boy. I promised Splinter I'd keep his sons safe. I promised Donatello I'd protect them. What if...I couldn't live with myself if I betrayed their trust."
"You'll figure it out, Rob," Cyborg stated as he plugged in his last charger. "But, on that note, we'll definitely function better if we get some sleep. See you guys in the morning."
With that, Cyborg allowed his power systems to go into sleep mode as he began to recharge. Beast Boy, though, still studied his leader, blinking only once, slowly.
"You're still sore about the last time?"
Robin's eyes shot open, and Beast Boy realized that at some point the older teen had taken off his mask. Blue eyes stared at the changeling, refusing to answer.
"It's okay, Robin." Beast Boy's voice was sleepy now, and he turned back over, murmuring one last encouragement. "You're one of the best, remember?"
Robin slept marginally better than he had been that night.
April huffed as she trudged along the streets that night, shivering from the rain that had begun steadily falling. She ducked under a local store's banister to catch her breath; her house was just two blocks away, not that long at all.
So of course something had to happen.
Karai slunk out of the shadows, in the same dangerous biker-esque gear she had worn when she first met April. April immediately stiffened, and turned to walk down an alley, a backroute to her home. Karai followed, and suddenly a shadow was looming in front of the redhead.
"Well, well," Karai quipped, a sneer on her face. "If it isn't the Turtles' little...pet."
"Karai," April retorted, letting her bag drop to the steet and simultaneously hitting the panic button on the T-phone in her pocket. "Been a while."
"Yeah," Karai shot back, drawing her short blade from her back. "Have you been practicing?"
"Oh yeah," April breathed as she whipped the tessen from her jean pocket and let it fly at the more experienced kunoichi. The move took Karai by surprise, and she toppled backwards as the fan gracefully looped back like a boomerang to land in April's waiting hand.
"Nice one," the dark-haired girl hissed, wiping off her mouth. "But I didn't come to fight fair."
Too late, April remembered the shadow from earlier, and spun to slash at him with her fan. He easily caught her swing, tessen falling uselessly onto her bag, and as she struggled to land a solid kick she let out a piercing scream. It was short lived, however, as something - chloroform, her brain hissed - was pressed over her mouth.
"Sweet dreams, princess," was the last thing she could hear before blacking out.
