"Allow me to repeat the meaning of what you've said to me Rocksteady," Karai said as she paced back and forth in front of the mutant rhino. "You're telling me that even though I instructed you not to leave any adult alive, an adult did in fact survive the attack, correct?"
"Da." The Russian mutant answered. He wasn't prone to fidgeting, but his small black eyes kept darting around the room, avoiding eye contact with Karai. At times like this, she was almost as bad as the Shredder.
"Not only did the adult mutant survive the attack, you're telling me you believe it tracked you back here to New York, is that also correct?" Karai interrogated. Her voice was calm and she had her hands behind her back, but she was infuriated and also highly concerned about what this meant in regards to her infiltration mission.
This was not good news to hear that someone with a grudge against the Foot was out there exacting revenge or intending to. Furthermore the fact that Rocksteady felt the need to reveal this information instead of dealing with it on his own was also a red flag. If he could have caught and killed this mysterious other mutant without telling her about it, he would have. This needed to be dealt with quickly and quietly.
"Rocksteady, I need you to make a few runs for me. Whoever this is, we need to flush them out. Leave some hints and clues about where you'll be, and when they show up kill them," Karai instructed.
"Da mistress Karai. Rocksteady will do this thing. Just tell me what is plan," Rocksteady said, simply glad to not be undergoing some kind of punishment, at least not yet.
"C'mon Leo, there's no action tonight, like there was no action the night before, or the night before that, or the night before that, or…" Mikey complained.
"We get it ding dong, now be quiet," Raph warned his little brother, but truth be told he was thinking the same exact thing. He would never leave patrols completely, but Leo was extending the time despite not hearing a peep from the foot clan or any other real enemy.
"It doesn't hurt to be thorough Mikey," Leo said looking out over the seemingly abandoned warehouses. After a few minutes of silence - minus Mikey's continued moaning and groaning in the background - Leo turned towards his brothers.
"C'mon guys, let's call it a night," Leo finally said much to the relief of his brothers.
"Great, that'll give me extra time to work on a project," Donnie mused almost to himself.
"Whatcha working on D?" Mikey asked. He was always curious about the various 'projects' Donnie worked on. You just never knew when an opportunity to pull a prank would present itself.
"I was working on a way to improve some of my staffs. Like I have the extendable one, but I was thinking of creating a staff with a stun on the end," Donnie told him as they headed back to the lair.
"Oooh, sweet D! Can I try it out, please?" Mikey said managing to give puppy dog eyes while jumping through the air. Donnie rolled his.
"Uh, no. Duh. I'm not letting you near a ready source of electricity Mikey. Just forget about it," Donnie said, unable to help himself from smiling. It would kind of be fun to see what Mikey could get up to with a toy like that. Raph would most likely not want to see what Mikey could get up to with a toy like that.
"Aww c'mon D don't be like that man," Mikey pleaded. If Donnie created something like that, there was no way he wasn't going to get his hands on it somehow. It would be well worth a chase and beat down from Raph and Donnie.
"No Mikey I've already said that—" they all stopped in their tracks.
RRROOOoooooooooOOOOOOOHH
"D-did you guys hear that?" Donnie asked, eyes round behind his spectacles.
"What're we deaf? Of course we heard it. Question is, what the hell was it?" Raph questioned.
"Sounded like some kind of tiger or something," Leo said, looking around for the source of the sound.
"Well to be more accurate it sounded like a lion, not a tiger. The roars of the various big cat families are quite distinctive," Donnie said, noting the warning glare from Raph not to go into a detailed ramble about it.
"Are we close to the zoo?" Leo asked, already knowing the answer to that, but not able to think of a single reason outside of that as to why they were hearing what was clearly a roar.
"No we're not. We're several miles away from the zoo and even if we were close, it's the middle of the night. The animals would be in their enclosures," Donnie offered.
The turtles traded confused looks as they waited to hear it again. Several minutes passed but they heard nothing. Finally they had to move on.
"Maybe it's another mutant," Mikey commented as they entered the sewer.
"I doubt that Mikey," Leo said, trying to sound confident.
"I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it Leo. Who knows how many other animals they experimented on," Donnie said, fully intending to see if he could come up with something on an internet search. Often those supernatural forums made mention of things other people wouldn't believe existed. He'd even found a few mentions of 'mysterious turtle men' terrorizing the city on one such forum.
"Maybe, but don't you think we woulda run into one if that was the case?" Raph asked.
"Perhaps Raph. I mean I don't know for sure what that was, but we all can agree that no human can make that sound. Unless there's a report of a lion loose from the zoo, I don't think we can rule out any possibility," Donnie said as they trudged through the tunnels. They were almost home.
"What do you think about it Leo? Think it's a cat monster mutant out there?" Mikey asked playfully. Leo smirked and wrapped an arm around Mikey's shoulders.
"I dunno Mikey, maybe," he said, not knowing what else to say. There was something about it that bothered him but he couldn't pinpoint why.
In the back of his mind it briefly occurred to him that it had a foot clan connection, but he pushed that away. It was natural for him to associate something unknown and possibly dangerous with their only real known enemy. Still, it didn't sit well with him, and in a few days time he would understand why.
When they got home Leonardo immediately went to his room. He needed to think. He was concerned over the fact that Karai had not yet come with him to meet his family. It seemed as though she was avoiding the very thing that he was certain she wanted to do. He should have been glad about it, as it would seem to alleviate the nagging fear that she wanted to infiltrate them. Surely if that were the goal she would have jumped at the chance to come back with him to the lair. It had been four days since he'd asked her to make a decision. However, she had made excuses about why she had as yet not come with him.
The smell of freshly delivered pizza wafted in and drew him from the confines of his room. He ate and made merry with his brothers, but he couldn't shake the feeling of wrongness niggling at the back of his mind, and worming its way to the pit of his gut. He would ask her in a roundabout way a few questions and hope it wouldn't raise her antennae too much.
She hadn't had time to change into a cute little kimono for Leo. In fact she hadn't had time to do much of anything the way she really wanted to. It had been four days since Leo asked her to meet his family, and each time she'd had to come up with some excuse as to why that couldn't happen just yet. Soon, he would see the excuses for what they were if he hadn't already. She couldn't keep stalling him, but there was so much to do that she didn't entrust with others.
For one thing Eric hadn't yet delivered on his promise of the second shipment of mutagen. She wasn't actually surprised by that, but his lies were infringing upon her plans with Leo. She couldn't leave while there was a possibility that Eric would come through on the promise of more mutagen. Then there was the little problem of a stray mutant to attend to. Rocksteady still hadn't managed to get rid of whoever or whatever it was that had followed him back to the city. Even the plans to flush out this new creature had been fruitless. Now she was ruing the fact that she had given her best ninjas over to Eric for his use. If they were here now she would have sent them to find and dispatch the new enemy.
Thirdly there was the fact that as far as she knew, Shredder was unaware of the fact that she had not yet officially joined in with Leo and his family. However, it was only a matter of time before he would know it. In fact she didn't put it past Eric to rat her out to Shredder in an effort to bolster his own position and bring her low. Lastly, the issue of creating a mutant army was still of the utmost importance. If she left now, there would be no trustworthy individual available to oversee such an important task. Karai was in an impossible position, but she would have to make it work.
Somehow she had allowed Shredder to maneuver her into this precarious position, and she wondered if it hadn't been on purpose. He rarely did anything without having thought out all possibilities as much as he could. This would have been no exception. Nevertheless, she would prove to him once and for all that she was more than capable of completing any task, and the only one of the clan worthy of ruling the foot in his absence.
Karai made it to the rooftop, but not before Leonardo. He was waiting for her. He came to greet her but something was different. The light in his eyes while not altogether gone, was lessened for lack of a better term. He also looked as if he had something on his mind. Karai knew she would have to tread carefully.
"Konnichiwa Leonardo," Karai said with a sweet smile. He nodded and returned a smile briefly.
"Are you alright Karai?" Leo asked. There was concern there of course but she could tell it was also a lead in question.
"I've been fine Leonardo, really," Karai said, seating herself and still smiling in an attempt to dissuade him from whatever line of questioning he was thinking up in that bald scaly head of his. She would learn that he was not easily taken off course.
"So, you've been alright then, this whole time?" He asked again.
"Listen, Leonardo I know that you've invited me to your home and…" she began.
"And I don't do that lightly. I have never actually invited anyone to our home before, so I'm inclined to take it as an insult when you say you're gonna show, and then you don't. On top of that you offer me excuses about it," Leo was saying as he was unconsciously walking into her personal space.
"You must understand…" she tried to plead. This wasn't good. She had no plausible excuse to make this time, yet she needed one.
She could not go back with him, even though a great part of her wanted to. However she had made another decision as well. To finish what Shredder had her start, and prove to him that she was worthy not only of taking his place when the time came, but that she belonged in his good graces once again.
Leonardo grabbed her around her waist and brought her near his chest plate. With the other hand he cradled her head and bent so that he could speak softly to her.
"I told you not to lie to me. Please don't offer me another excuse. Tell me the truth," Leonardo asked without knowing exactly what he expected to hear.
Karai wanted so very much to lean into his embrace, but it wasn't completely loving. He was holding her in such a way that he wasn't hurting her, but she was readily reminded of his physical prowess, what he was capable of.
"I'm just afraid Leo, that's all," she lied while looking into his eyes. She laid both her open palms on his plastron for sincerity's sake. He pinned her with a long stare before he spoke again.
"No you're not," simple and to the point, and more importantly true. Karai wasn't afraid of going to their lair. In fact she had every intention of going after she settled other matters.
"Are you coming with me tonight Karai?" he asked while stroking a single finger through her hair.
"No, I…" she began but he cut her off.
"Then tell me exactly why," he asked again in that odd soothing way. This was a new tactic in his arsenal and Karai was unprepared for it.
"I'm just waiting for the right time. Maybe I'll be ready in a few day's, I don't know. It's just all moving so fast. What will we do when they don't accept you bringing home a member of the foot clan? What happens when they don't want to accept the woman who helped capture at least three of you? Have you thought about that Leonardo?" Karai said with a mix of concern and fear and anger. All the emotions contrived.
"I've thought about it every single day since we started this," he said cradling her head but no longer stroking her hair.
"Well?" She asked him.
"There's something you aren't telling me Karai. What is it?" He asked her one more time. He thought maybe he could catch the bee with honey this time instead of vinegar. It wasn't working as far as he could tell.
"What do you want from me?!" She demanded angrily. Her anger was only half fake. She knew she had no right to be cross, but he was too damned perceptive and wasn't making this easy. Why couldn't he be a dumb gullible animal like the other mutants she'd come across?
"The truth, but you seem incapable of providing that," he said. His eyes were sad, and she knew that any feelings he had now were surely not false at all.
"I've been truthful the whole time. I can't believe you just said that," Karai said, feigning hurt feelings. She had to keep him holding on just for a day or two more. She looked into his sad eyes and felt something twist in her gut. She hated hurting him like this, and hated herself for feeling anything for him at all.
Karai waited but Leo had no intention of talking anymore. She wanted to try to talk her way out of this, convince him before she left this water tower, but she knew better. He wasn't biting and she knew that sometimes you retreated from battle so you could live to fight another day.
"I don't like this. I'm leaving," she stated, squirming her way out of his arms.
"I don't either," he said, letting her go freely. She wanted to turn around and ask him just what the hell that was supposed to mean, but didn't. What good would that do?
Without another word they both left the water tower. Leo needed to clear his head, and Karai needed to make an army.