Chapter 25 Training Leader

There is no eerie feeling to being blindfolded. The majority of my training these last few years had involved being blinded, because I needed to hone in on my other senses. Listen and feel for vibrations, smell who I was fighting and what they were feeling, and taste the air to figure out if there was a drug or substance in use on that person. In an ironic way, relying on sight blinded you. I tried teaching my brothers that, but they each prefer their own form of training. Liz understood the help being blinded did, and I was glad she got the others on board with her.

Blindfolding myself had been the greatest thing I could do, because I was already relying on other things when Liz came along. This training she said was nothing short of new for me, but how she went about it was. In all honesty, I truly believed I might have some challenge in it. And then I stepped into the ring, put on the blindfold, and I was able to block her voice out. My voice, I was able to block my voice out. I blocked the sounds of voices, and felt her movements. I could feel the vibration of her feet, and how she moved her body to attack. I admit it was a terrible idea, neither of us got anything out of it. So it was just an hour of listening to her movements, and I had to admit I got bored ten minutes in.

This morning Liz said she had a new idea on how to 'Break me'. And I would have voiced my excitement had I not needed to breathe. Having spent so many years honing on all my senses, there was no way to get away from smelling what they did. Raging hormones and a smell we turtles could always identify from experiencing last year. I knew how far they'd gone, and how much they had to go. It was in their body language and how they moved around each other. We were just starting February, and we had grown into our more adult bodies. Don guessed that after growing completely we had some last few things. The losing of baby fat, or whatever we had, and the sharpening of our most noticeable features. Those would happen during our twenties, which was just three years looming.

The point is, I wondered just how much longer Raph could wait. We were all feeling the earliest effects of Mating Season, the need to swim, the urge to move. As soon as March rolled around, I hoped Liz was able to handle Raph. There was no doubt Raph was most volatile out of the four of us, but who knows, maybe he was affectionate. He appeared to be more affectionate than he let on since he and Liz started dating.

"Leo, head out of the clouds and back in the sewers." Liz snapped. I look over at her, taking the black blindfold she handed me. Haley stood over her shoulder, watching me with curious eyes. If there was ever a time when I'd blind myself in the face of my enemies emblem, it was in the face of friends. And even if Liz or Haley ended up still working with the bad guy, my brothers would always stand on my side. There was never a time I doubted if Raph would choose between Liz and I, or Don, or Mikey. Don obviously did not like Liz, no matter what she tried. And he normally refused to look at Haley unless she talked to him first. Mikey has his fun time with the two of them, but he was intelligent, despite what he showed, and if he was given the choice, he would choose his family first.

Besides, Liz has shown her loyalty to us on countless levels. She's got scars to show them. The one across her back because she crossed paths with our enemy and caused her to lose her memory, the symmetrical scars on her jugular, the bruising that put her out of action for a month, and the healing cut on her cheek. I doubt any enemy would go so far as to give themselves scars for life and put their life in danger constantly to kill us later.

"So, what's this new idea of yours?" I asked, eager to try it out. The last thing I saw before I willingly blinded myself was Don and Liz off to the side while Haley, Raph, and Mikey split up behind them. Liz required them to stay in here in case something bad happened, like if one of us got to into the fighting and got hurt. So I followed their footsteps, and found that they were taking up spots in different sides of the room. That was weird, why would they decide to stand? Why not just relax on the bench?

"Give me a second and I'll show you." Liz said in a sound close to my voice. Ah, Don was tweaking the device on her head. I forgot that was a thing with that device. He called it the Alpha version, because it wasn't perfect. He wasn't able to get our voices perfected without a lot of fiddling with the fine tuners, and I remember that had been a big problem last night. I was probably going to be standing around for a few minutes as he got her voice matched to mine. While he was doing that, I might as well warm up. Haley had distracted me before the training, so I didn't get to stretch or test my weapons. I was going against Liz's katanas, so we had a different weight distribution. I had to take into account that difference in weight.

I pulled my katanas out of their sheaths on my back, flexing my fingers around the handles. I held to out parallel to my body, changing my body weight to fight someone shorter than me. Liz's faint 'Test' echoed in my head, and I shut down my hearing. I started listening to her steps, following her steps as she moved closer to me. No, the weight was too heavy, that couldn't be her. That was probably Don shuffling to get the headset comfortable.

I slowly followed the steps of kata, aware that Raph was chuckling in the corner. I glowered in his direction, letting him know that I could hear him. Like a switch was made, he went silent, and he shuffled his feet. I continued with the kata slowly, enjoying the peace of something mastered.

I heard a shuffle behind me and remembered how Liz started the training with me. She started with a surprised attack, knocking me from my equilibrium. I had made a rude comment on sneak attacks and how that was a low blow on someone blind, but that was how Liz taught. She wanted us out of our comfort zones. So instead of being knocked from my gravity, I swung a katana around to catch her.

"Leo!" Mikey shouted, taking his nunchucks out to catch my blow. He stumbled from my hit, falling on his butt. "What the shell?"

I felt surprise run through my system, and I pulled away from my brother. He must have shifted farther into the wall he decided to lean against, and he was just moving away from my practiced moves. I had mistakenly thought he was Liz. I opened my mouth to respond in apologies, but how did you respond to hitting your brother. 'Sorry, I thought you were Liz. Hopefully your tail isn't too hurt.'

"I'm sorry Mikey," I murmur, reaching my hand down to Mikey. I was met with an awkwardness, and all the sound around me stopped. An eerie feeling slipped down my shell, and I drew my arm back. No one was in front of me, I could feel it. There was no change in the atmosphere, no shift that happened when someone breathed. I couldn't smell anyone either, it was like no one had been there in the first place.

"Uh Leo, I'm over here." Mikey said to my far left. I pause, trying to figure out what just happened. I had hit something. I know I did. I had heard Mikey shout my name, and I had felt the vibration of Mikey landing on his shell.

"Leo?" Liz asked, her voice a little wheezy in sound. Donnie muttered something and I could hear the fine tuner being moved. I shift my weight, trying to brush it off. I must have hit the wall. But who made that voice? Maybe this was part of Liz's new idea. No, Liz was still getting fine tuned, it couldn't have been part of her plan.

"Yeah, I'm fine Liz." I could feel the scales on my neck goosebump, like there was something I was missing. To brush off the weird feeling I continued the kata. I tried to focus on where I was moving, and listen at the same time. But for some reason it was hard. Everytime Liz said 'Test' my concentration was thrown off again, and I had to repeat my last step. I was doing something weird, because Raph wasn't making any snickering sounds every time I had to repeat myself. And then something struck me.

"Test." Haley was being unnaturally quiet. She had some excitement to her, so she couldn't stay too still for terribly long. And she loved to annoy me while I was training. But I couldn't hear her, smell her, or feel her through the floor. She had walked to a corner, and she hadn't moved since. She hasn't left yet, because the dojo door made a very loud clatter to alert anyone that it was being moved. So Haley was still here. What if she was silently laughing in a corner, because she had actually managed to get to me in training? What could she have done-

Water. I froze, tilting on my ankle as I was just about to move into my next stage. Haley had brought me bottled water. Obviously she didn't need to, but I had considered it an apology for waking us up so early. Haley was kind like that, as I have grown to realize. But what if she was using that kindness as a way to put us into a safe guard? Maybe she had put something into my water, and now I was going through the effects that the water caused. What drug caused hearing weird things and-

No, Haley wouldn't drug me. With some assurance, I continued the kata, circling the room. "Test."

I stumble again, glaring through my blindfold in the direction Liz was. She was exactly where she had been when I started, five minutes ago. Don was having a lot of difficulty with my voice, which was strange. Don was a perfectionist, he never messed up so many times on something as simple as my voice. He's lived with me his whole life, and he's created the thing on Liz's face. Was she stalling?

"Leo!" I remembered the one rule no ninja was supposed to break. Too late, because I had just broke it. The rule was to alway stay focused, or else someone you care about would get hurt. And I think I just hurt someone.

Raph fell back to avoid my blow. I felt the air of his fall on my legs, and I stopped before my sword could slice anymore air. Raph made a humphing sound, like a lot of force was exerted on him just now. "Dude, watch it!"

"Sorry Raph." I mutter, genuinely sorry for not realizing my muscled brother was in front of me. Stay focused was one of the rules you never broke. The other one was too always be silent, and if I had to guess, that was what Raph did. He probably trusted me not to take his head off. The surprise in his voice said the whole story, and it was the first time it's ever happened.

I was letting myself get paranoid. First Mikey, and then I thought Haley would drug me to mess with me, and now I had nearly beheaded Raph. Liz wasn't even in the ring yet, she was still getting tuned to my voice, which echoed as a 'Test' in the back of my head now. Maybe overworking myself was finally getting to me. I had trained nearly all hours of the day since my wounds healed. I was trying to get back in shape as fast as I could for my brothers, and because we didn't have to worry about patrol, I wasn't keeping a regulation on myself. I was turning into Raph when he got angry, always exerting myself until I could barely stand. There had been several times already I had fallen asleep in the dojo because of how much I had exhausted myself. Maybe I didn't sleep enough, or maybe I wasn't eating enough. I didn't eat breakfast, but usually I didn't until after training.

"Leo?" Raph asked, his voice so far to my right it was like he was in the next room. I looked over at him, and then at where I thought he was, on his back in front of me. There was no one there. I had almost hit air, but no one was in that air space. I had felt something brush my leg, I was trained enough to know that. I had felt someone hit the ground, and Raph had shouted at me. But he was nowhere near me enough to have needed too. It was the same thing with Mikey.

"Leo, do you need a break today? I don't have to train you." Liz said. It grated on my ears that her voice was so close to mine, but i could hear the squeaking. It wasn't tuning correct, and Don was cursing under his breath because of it.

I shake my head, correcting my stance once again. "No, no. Just a little tired. After this kata I should be good."

I know I'm not. Raph knows I'm not, Mikey knows I'm not, and Don does too. I never freaked out before or thought that I hit my brothers. I don't hear stuff randomly, and I don't feel things that weren't there. What if Haley had done something? Liz thought it was weird for her to change-up her schedule and make us train, and she had been too eager to start this. And now that we were here, she wasn't doing anything.

I heard changes in vibrations as three different pair of feet started moving. It was Raph to my far right, and Mikey was way off the my backside. There was a third set of feet, and from training I could guarantee they were Liz's. I could hear the singing metal as she pulled her blade out, and I felt myself grow a little calmer. "Ok. I'll wait for you to finish your kata, and then we'll start. But Leo, if you really need anything, just say it."

I nod over to Liz, feeling a bit more assured now that she was in the ring. I moved from where I last was, repeating the step before I thought I hit Raph. I could feel that the others were cautious, they moved around me slowly. Raph and Mikey weaved a zigzag pattern of getting closer and farther, and Liz moved with me, taking inches to get closer. I followed her, feeling much more myself now that I knew that things were going to get better. I could do what we set out to do, I didn't have to worry about-

The tip of my sword hit something soft, and there were gasps from different places in the room. I heard someone scream, and I stopped where I was. I didn't know if it was my mind playing on me again or if I had actually hit something. But that scream echoed in my head.

"Don, get the kit." Raph shouted at Don, and he ran next to me. I knew it was real when I was knocked from my equilibrium, and I landed on my butt. Mikey came up to me, taking the katanas out of my grip. I didn't fight it, I reached my hand up to get the blindfold off my face. I needed to see what was going on. Who screamed, who did I hit, and what was the damage?

Haley had been leaning off to the side, dozing in the corner from what I could tell. She hadn't been interfering, or moving, or doing anything. But now she was holding a cut on her shoulder, a proportional amount of blood seeping between her fingers as they grasped at the cut black material. Her face was squeezed shut, and she was trying to breathe slowly to hold her pain. Raph was helping her back into the wall, letting her lean against it to put off some of the stress. Liz dove by me, getting to Haley's hand.

"Spice, let me see." Liz murmured quietly, taking Haley's blood covered fingers in hers. Haley looked at her teacher, and did as she was told. I felt my hands shake, and I was glad the katanas were out of my fingers. I'd gotten her good, and as Don dropped next to her with the kit, I could tell there was going to have to be stitching.

"Haley," I murmur. The Hafu looked up at me, and I flinched at her emotion. It wasn't anger, or being scared, or surprise. She looked bored, like this was a regular thing for her. Was the Shredder's lair so violent that this was a regular occurrence? Did she not care that she was bleeding in large portions, or that she had some explaining to do for her dad?

"Don't worry Leo." She murmurs, grabbing Liz's hand tightly as Don attempted to wipe the blood away enough to get the numbing serum in. Of course, my katanas were always sharpened, so I had done the most amount of damage possible in the given time I had. I must have been three feet from her when I cut her, because had I been any closer I would have gotten more than just her shoulder. I probably would have gotten her throat, or her chest. I could've killed Haley, and she looked bored about it.

"I'm sorry..." I murmur, taking Mikey's shoulder as a comfort device. Mikey let me lean on him, and I could tell he was miffed. Raph kept glancing at Liz and then over at me, and I had to agree. What if it had been Liz I cut? Haley was a Foot Soldier, she didn't get in contact with Shredder often. But Liz had to deal with him nearly every day. She had to train with him every day, and if I had gotten her... No criminals weapon was sharpened enough to cause as clean of a cut, and Shredder would know that. He was a trained Samurai, and he knew Liz wasn't dumb enough to hurt herself even on accident. Liz already walked the line of danger day and night dealing with Shredder, Hun, and her job.

"I said it's fine." Haley said more forceful, angling her arm as Don wanted her too. She hissed when he started cleaning the wound, but he didn't have too. I was clean in my slice, because I was practicing a mastered kata, and he started on the stitching.

"Liz, not to jump to anything, but..." Mikey started, and stopped. Liz looked over at him, and then at the ground. It looked like she was guilty of something, and she took a slow breath. Liz only did that when she was about to explain something long and challenging. Or when she was trying to get control over her nerves.

"I'll talk to you guys later, but right now, training is still in action. Don, get Haley to your room. Raph, Mikey, stay here for training." My jaw dropped, and I looked at Liz. She was so calm about it all. She was... She was how I should be. I had just hurt Haley, but I knew my brothers could help. Don usually jumped the gun for medical stuff, but Raph and I knew how to stitch. Mikey knew how to stop bleeding and add antiseptics, we weren't uneducated about it. Living in the life of a ninja, we had to know how to clean and take care of a wound, set a joint back into place, how to stitch, what things could be used for bleeding. I shouldn't be so broken about hurting the Foot Soldier. Had it been any other Foot Soldier, I could have caused more damage and just walked away. I cared about this one because I knew what this one looked like and what her name was.

Raph and Mikey stepped away from the wreckage of my incomplete kata, and Don picked Haley up. He held her stiffly, not liking being so close to her. She covered her arm again, because the skin was stitched close, but the cut still bled a little. Don shared a look with Liz, one that said, "Don't you dare hurt them" before walking away. I stood up slowly, grabbing my weapons. One of them was still bloody, and I stared at the blood with shaky shoulders.

"Leo." Liz said. I looked over to her, and I saw she was holding out the black blindfold. I looked at it carefully, wondering if there were sound pieces and impulse senders that made me think I had heard and hit Raph and Mikey. But that wasn't Liz's department, that was Don's. Besides, we'd heard nothing yesterday, and there weren't any lumps in the blindfold. It was just a regular old blindfold, and I hated the idea of wearing it again.

"Can we... Not do this?" I asked her, keeping the blindfold away from my eyes. Liz looked surprised, and I knew how out of character I was. I would never back down from a fight, and I would never stop a training session unless I or one of my brothers were hurt. None of us were hurt, and Haley was able to get help immediately. Don wasn't being used in this training session anyways, so there was no need to stop it.

"No," Liz said in a soft voice, and I could tell she was trying not to sound forceful. "Leo, the whole point of this training is to break you so you focused on instincts alone."

"I hurt someone!" I shouted, pointing at the door. Liz took my yell in stride, probably expecting me to erupt in a fit. Something clicked in the back of my head, and I slowly ran the numbers through. "This was your idea?"

Liz didn't show any emotion to my statement, but that didn't mean I was wrong. If I was right, then Liz had somehow managed to involve my brothers while not at the same time. How did she do it? Were there implants of microphones somewhere in the room? But then, how would she have known where I was going to move? Liz obviously had a plan, but she'd been tuning throughout the kata. Any possible plan would have to wait.

"I never said it was or was not my idea. But I do know that what has just transpired while you were blinded was what we worked for last night. You're afraid to blind yourself, because you broke your confidence and abilities. Right now, you're not going to listen to what you've trained for, you're going to rely on instincts." Liz pulled her weapons from their sheaths.

I saw her logic, honestly I did. But the events of just now made me worry that what I did leading into this moment was why I broke mentally, and that it wasn't Liz or some plan. Which meant that it could happen at any time, and I would be unstable. I didn't want to go any farther, I wanted to sit and meditate, or go to my room and just sit. Or go topside and run for hours. But I couldn't do that because we were confined into the house until Shredder was no longer a threat. I wanted to think this through, get my peace back. But instead, I had to suck it up and put the blindfold on.

Officially blinded yet again, I felt vulnerable for the first time in a long time. I didn't want to follow the vibrations of Liz. As she attacked me, and as I was unprepared because I didn't want to follow what I had trained myself for so long to do, I was stiff. I had to admit, I never had a training session go down as bad as that one did. I had told Liz last night not to go easy on me, and that must have stuck into today, because I got my shell kicked so back I felt like my grandkids could feel it.

Assuming I'd ever have grandkids, or kids for that matter. My brothers and I were the only ones of our species, and we had assumed that we were going to be bachelors for the rest our lives. Then Liz showed up, and for some god awful reason she decided she had the hots for one of us. Or maybe she didn't decide, and maybe she just had a sexual preference of Strange. If she had that preference, who's to say someone else didn't too? Even if there was a chance for the rest of us finding someone, there was no hope in kids. Our genomes would be so far apart it was like mixing a penguin with a spider. We didn't have to worry about protective contraceptives, because we weren't close enough in relation with the turtle specie (not that it could ever work to begin with) and the human specie to conceive with someone. Unless for some strange reason there was a female turtle or lizard out there. Who knows, maybe our batch of hatchling we were born from were all mutated, but were shipped to different parts in the US. That was something Mikey brought up when we were younger. It didn't go down with Don, who spent several years looking afterwards.

"Leo!" Raph shouted, getting my head back in the moment. I sensed more than anything, something swinging at my face, and I ducked low to avoid the blow. Singing metal swam through my ears, and I realized I'd gone so far out I hadn't noticed Liz trying to behead me.

"Leo," Liz starts, stopping herself. Don had tuned my voice into place, and I felt a bitter feeling at how long it took him.

"Don't. I'm fine." I state, flexing my fingers around the handles of my swords again. Liz sighed heavily, probably sharing a look with my two brothers. "Seriously. I was just thinking."

"Well stop thinkin'." Raph muttered. I glare in his direction, and I could hear his little chuckle. Mikey and Raph were sitting on the bench, I realized. Why did they decide to do that now, twenty minutes later?

"Yeah yeah," I grumbled, getting into my fighting pose. I closed my eyes behind the blindfold, listening but not completely. I was relying on my instincts, because relying on my training had gotten Haley hurt. And I didn't want it happening again.