Chapter 9:

"Zoe!" Raphael pushed his way through the crowd and she tried to step away from him deeper in the din. "Oh, no you don't." She heard him growl.

She glanced over her shoulder, then ducked between a cluster of tall people. She hated letting Denim out of her sights... She glanced toward the bar, watched Mikey's not-so-innocent girl drop it like it was scorching. But Karai and Medusa were still close, and she didn't want to hear it from Raph. Nothing had happened, Denim was a little rowdier than expected but she was just having fun.

"Karai!" Raph yelled, and with a peek in her sisters direction Zoe saw him going after whoever he could get to.

Zoe bumped into a few dancers, then squeezed between a cluster of people near the back. She would pee then go back like nothing happened.

Someone grabbed her ass, and she whipped around instinctively ready to set the groper straight. She snatched him by the hand, twisting his wrist around and back. Her eyes locked with the offender's beady browns. Why did he look so familiar? Never mind, he needs to keep his damn hands off me. "You'll be wanting to keep this to yourself," she growled.

He maintained his cool. "I was paying you a compliment." He stepped toward her, brought his other hand over her grip and pinched the pressure points on either sides of her wrist.

Wait. What just happened?

Her hand opened involuntarily and the two engaged in a series of grabs and hand blocks. He looks so damn familiar. Zoe's teeth clenched. "Who the hell are you?"

She didn't know many humans, aside from her students at the dojo.

The dojo.

That's where she knew him from. He was one of Leo's students, she'd caught him watching her classes more than once.

His smirk repulsed her, but not as bad as he was pissing her off with his blocks. "Doesn't matter. I know who you are, and I'm sick of seeing you with that mutant." He tapped the inside of her arm at the same time jabbing a spot in her calf.

Zoe stumbled back, her heart pounding. That was two pressure point strikes, one more in any of three places on her body and he'd be in control. He went for it and she countered. He blocked her. Part of the bar crowd broke off, forming a circle around her and the stranger.

If he had a problem with mutants what was he doing in their dojo?

Brown Eyes went for her neck and she blocked him but not in time for his other hand to hit its final mark. Zoe's body seized. How did he get one in on me? Damn Leo and his training. Brown Eyes yanked her to him, flipped her over his shoulder and turned for the backdoor.

She was trapped inside herself, clawing at her insides her muscles twitching. A little help Raph, Karai, Medusa, April, Aries, anyone! But as he adjusted her, Zoe caught sight of a commotion around the bar, and no Denim on top of it.

TOSOTCTOSOTC

Denim was having a great time until the crowd gathered around her and several patrons began catcalling, and grabbing at her ankles.

"Hey Baby! Are you a stripper? You sure dance like one!"

Their faces were all blurry, and their touch made even her numb skin crawl.

"Can I buy you a drink?"

One guy rubbed a hand over her leg, and another pushed into him, bumping his drink sending it sloshing across the counter.

"Want to come home with me tonight?"

Denim lifted a foot to step over the mess, but another dancer bumped into her and she slid.

TSOTCTSOTC

Claustrophobic in the crowd, Sappho pushed her way through the horde away from the bar, scanning the club for a new position from which to stake out her target. Near the back, she saw the rogue heading towards the restrooms, followed by a very determined man. She'd just made it to the restroom alcove when he closed on her. Sappho couldn't see exactly what he'd done but by the way, the rogue rounded on him, she could guess.

As much fun as watching him get a beat down would be, she had work to do. Sappho was about to resume her search, still pushing past people, when she saw the man engage the rogue in hand to hand combat out of her periphery. That their confrontation had escalated to violence wasn't what gave her pause. It was that he was holding his own. To her shock, seconds later the rogue dropped like a rock and was slung over the man's shoulder. And not a single of the many spectators to the fight was doing a damn thing about it as he strode towards the back door with his prize, preferring instead to get surly with the drunk woman on the bar.

Retrieve the property.

Shit. This threw a wrench in things. She'd miss her best chance to get April, to recover the rogue agent. How had an ordinary man taken down a hybrid?

Furious Sappho darted through the crowd, slipping out the door less than a second after them. The man turned at the sound of the door opening behind him, so thankfully facing the rogue butt first towards her so that she wouldn't be able to identify her later if things went south. Given the way this night had been, that wasn't an unlikely possibility.

The man's mouth curved into a smile as he scanned her up and down. "Another mutant-loving whore?" He tossed the rogue down into pile of black, plastic garbage bags, face first. She didn't even twitch. Seriously, was the hybrid unconscious?

The man approached confidently. He made a grab for her, which she deflected, shooting out a fist at his gut in retaliation. Quickly shaking off his surprise, he redoubled his efforts, taking her seriously almost immediately. Smart move. And he was good. Very good. But it didn't matter.

As she parried and deflected each strike in his barrage of blows, he went for pressure point strikes. Those only worked on people with organic nervous systems. So that's what had happened to the rogue.

When she didn't drop like her predecessor, he paused in surprise giving her the opening she'd been waiting for, taking the offensive finally. With her left hand, she aimed her fist at his throat. Caught off balance, he didn't have time to parry, instead, barely managing to block, using his forearm to defend his trachea. Fist metal under a layer of false flesh, her sensors relayed his bone fraction of the force of her blow transferred to his arm. An instant later, his scream of pain confirmed it. Unused to fighting through the pain, he whimpered, staggering back as he clutched his arm to his chest, abandoning the fight as though she would accept his surrender and walk away.

Taking the next most obvious opening, she plowed her right fist straight into his growing, activating her Taser component as she did so. His next scream was seized before it escaped his throat as the electricity coursed through his body. She retracted her hand, allowing him to collapse into an unconscious heap on the ground.

That was for screwing her plans.

At least she could return the rogue to the EDF and get back to work. Sappho approached the hybrid and was about to crouch down and examine the damage when a high pitched giggle alerted her to the approaching strangers.

She could hear a man's deep voice follow. "That ass is exquisite."

The woman moaned in response and staggered back into the alley, focused solely on the mutant ram bouncer, face deep in her cleavage as he cupped her butt to lift her off her feet, clearly intending to continue their encounter against the alley wall.

Fuck.

Faster than would have been possible for a person bound by human limitations, she darted back through the open door, closing it behind her. Her dash must have attracted attention. As the door closed, she could hear the ram mutant.

"What the...Zoe!"

Another missed opportunity. In a downright sour mood, she was about to slip back into the club when she saw April slip into the women's restroom. Alone.

Perhaps tonight wouldn't be total loss.

TSOTCTSOTC

Karai glanced back at hearing her name being called. Though her eyes caught sight of Raphael, scanned the dance floor to see Zoe disappearing among the patrons, her attention was on Denim. She'd miscalculated, and that was a rare thing indeed. Not that is was a bad miscalculation, but it was a messy one. And Karai did not like being wrong. Ever.

When a man grabbed at Denim's ankles, Karai had to rein in every cell of her body from lashing out and breaking the offender's hand off. Leo was going to kick her ass. Well, he couldn't really kick her ass, but he would try to kick her ass, and aside from her father, who really could kick her ass, it was the closest to an ass kicking she could get. And Karai did not like getting her ass kicked. Ever.

Then, to top it off, Medusa sent some idiot with dreadlocks to get Denim down!

Karai raised an eyebrow. Dreadlock Goth Dude was impressive. He didn't look impressive, he looked like a freak, but he obviously knew how to get men away from women dancing like strippers on bar counters. "Man," he drawled to one of the men reaching for her, "she can't go home with you."

"Like she's going home with you?"

He laughed and shook his head. "No, she's going home with her." He pointed to Karai.

Several of the men looked in her direction. She smiled and winked at them. They decided that they had easier targets elsewhere.

"You gotta come down, girl," Dreadlocks said, holding his hand up. "I got drinks to buy your sister-in-law."

"Sister-in-law?" she asked, stumbling slightly. She had a sister-in-law? Parts of her mind said different things. It would be nice to have a sister-in-law, and Kyle was an only child, and Would't it be nice if it were legal for Mikey and I to get married and we could have all kinds of sister-in-laws...It was then a sister-in-law in question popped her head up in front of Denim's. Medusa's black eyes stared at her. Is this my sister-in-law? Denim couldn't recall what the proper word for her was.

"Time to get down," the snake sang, as if talking to a little child.

The tone of voice rankled Denim slightly, and she wanted to agree with the male voice that said, "Hey, get out of the way, I was here first."

"Didn't you see the red head go for the back door?" Dreadlocks said calmly. "He's going to get Aries."

"Who the hell is Aries?" the guy asked.

"The big ram bouncer," Medusa turned her beady eyes on Grabby-Leg.

Grabby-Leg hoofed it to the dance floor.

Karai held her hand up to Denim. "Come on down, Sparkles."

Denim complied, wobbling her way onto a barstool and then the floor. She smiled widely. "That was fun."

"It looked like it," Karai told her, leading her out to the dance floor.

"Where's April?" she asked.

"She went after Zoe, I think," Karai answered. "To the bathroom, I'm guessing."

TSOTCTSOTC

"Is that your girlfriend?" the woman with the great butt asked Aries.

"No, she's my sister-in-law," the ram replied. "Fuck, Zoe. What's the matter?"

"I thought you said the Asian chick was your sister-in-law," Butt Girl asked.

"She is," he bent down to examine the small redhead.

"How many sisters in law do you have?" Butt Girl demanded.

"Too many," he groaned.

"Is she breathing?"

"Yeah," Aries said, a sheepish shake in his voice. "You can't be this drunk yet." He looked up to see a man collapsed just to the left of the dumpster. "Oh, nononono."

"Nononono what?" asked Butt Girl, stroking one his long ears, as his head was at her shoulder height with him bending down.

"Do not tell me this fucker drugged her," he stood up just as the back door opened.

"Zoe?" Raph's voice was strained. "Shit! What's this?"

"Isn't there supposed to be a bouncer in the club at all times?" asked Butt Girl.

The two mutants looked at each other a moment, as if each one daring the other to back down and go back inside. Finally, Aries huffed, his nostrils flaring as he did. "I think the dude might have spiked her drink." He then went in the club leaving Raph outside with his mate.

Butt Girl looked down at the unconscious man. "If he spiked her drink," she asked the mutant turtle. "Why is he down for the count?"