Leo: Remember that if it's on the show Myra doesn't own it. If you don't see it there it's another matter.
"We meet again princess." Karai said as she drew her tanto and looked toward the three approaching girls. She wasn't quite sure where the fifth turtle had come from but since it didn't seem to concern her father then it didn't concern her.
"Sorry Karai." The white masked turtle said to the kunoichi as she held her bunrei high. "If you want to get to April you have to go through me."
Karai shrugged. "Your demise, little turtle girl." She stated and attacked Aaliyah. She was able to easily block it and then back flip away from her.
The two girls had to be ready. They had to take a moment of course to gather their strength as having to use their powers once, never mind twice, to help defeat the demon producing wall ornament was not on their list when they had thought about freeing Karai. Luckily for the general plan neither was Aaliyah.
"I can't believe that worm is stronger than you." Aaliyah said to Karai as they clashed. "Your Splinter's daughter and from what I hear from Leo a strong willed and very stubborn girl. You should be able to beat that thing with ease."
Karai could not tell her some of that might have been the damage done because of the unique circumstances of her mutation even if she had wanted too. "My father is Oroku Saki." She stated firmly. "Leonardo knows nothing."
"That's not the way I heard it." Aaliyah countered as they continued to clash. "The way I heard it you guys were pretty close considering your status as general enemies. He was your friend despite everything for a while there."
Karai hesitated just a bit. "He betrayed me." She said hotly. "He deserves whatever he has coming."
"The last time you were really you, that's not what you believed." Aaliyah said as she remembered what Leo had told her during some training sessions for April and Jennifer to increase their control over their psychic powers. "You wanted Shredder to pay for what he did to your family, for killing your mother and lying to you about your father."
"No." Karai said, her voice just a bit softer this time. Her feelings about her mother were genuine, regardless of whom she though was her father and what man she thought was responsible for her family's demise. "It was Splinter that destroyed my family."
Aaliyah shook her head softly. "No. It was Shredder. Remember, Karai. He killed your mother and kidnapped you to raise as his own. He lied to you about it all those years until you overheard the truth after that weird worm quake thing." Hearing Leo speak of that still boggled her mind a little. She hadn't even met these Kraang things that he had told her about yet.
Jennifer did her best to focus her thoughts and her energies. But she overheard Hector say she was his and she couldn't help but flinch. Not that she hadn't known his opinion of her for at least the last five years but she still hated to hear it. A smile did cross her lips though when Raph reminded him what she had always tried to say to him, she didn't belong to him and she never would.
"I am tired of your lies, turtle girl." Karai decided. "You don't even know me, I don't even know where you came from. You don't belong." She started to swing viciously at Aaliyah.
That actually brought a smile to her lips. "Am I angering you Karai?" She asked as sweetly as she could. She remembered Leo saying angering Raph was what freed him, and Donnie had done the same with Rockwell. She wondered if this might work after all. Sometimes the only thing worse than a friend or enemy trying to tell you your business was a stranger. "You don't like that I know more than you do about your own situation?"
Karai let out a growl and her eyes turned yellow, an indicator of the half snake mutant she now was. "You think your tongue stings me?" She asked. "Let's see if mine will sting you." She sheathed her tonto as her arms became snakes and she started to snap at Aaliyah.
Aaliyah dodged around them as best she could, knowing if one of those things bit her she would end up poisoned and that would not be a good thing at this moment. "I thought you were a ninja." She noted. "A trained fighter. And yet you resort to trying to poison me? Pretty dishonorable if you ask me, but then again when you take the lessons you learned from Shredder to heart what does one expect?"
"Enough." Karai lashed out and tried again for Aaliyah with the snakes but she dodged it.
"No." Aaliyah said. "It won't be enough until that mind control worm is out of you. Until you're home with your father and your brothers, like you should be."
"Look around you." Karai said. "All of your little friends are half tired while we're at full strength. Most of the Foot army doesn't even need to sleep. Nor do the Dark Oni or the white ninja." She laughed. "How do you expect to win?"
"Because we're right." Aaliyah responded. "We're the defenders, the…the 'Turtles of Justice' as Leo would call us. Except we're more than just turtles. That was something you used to know. You came to the turtles and wanted to work together to stop the Kraang invasion despite Shredder. That's the real Karai, not the mind puppet Shredder created. You need to break free of his control."
April looked to Jennifer. "You ready?" She asked.
The blonde nodded. "Ready." She confirmed.
The two girls focused, not on Karai herself but on the mind control worm somewhere in her body, most likely somewhere near her brain. The difference between all of the other attempts and now was that they were trying to force something out of someone that on some level was sentient and could fight back against their efforts.
Aaliyah was still dodging snake arms. "This isn't the way ninja fight, Karai. It isn't the way kunoichi fight." She looked straight at her. "Forget the snakes and face me fairly."
"That coming from a mutant turtle?" Karai smirked but she retracted her arms to be real ones and then drew her tanto. "Alright then. Let's do it." The two girls again began to clash but after another minute she stumbled back with a moan. "What…what's going on?" She wondered.
The two girls were focusing every amount of psychic energy at Karai, or more accurately at the worm residing in her when all of a sudden their concentration was broken by Donnie's shout of "Mikey!" All three girls turned first to Donnie in enough time to see Rahzar make bash Donnie into the ground, which Jennifer swore made April even more concerned that normal.
That soon changed to slightly higher panic of her own when she heard Raph curse and turned in just enough time to see Hector use mantis like scythes to toss Raph hard himself. Both the girls' panics increased tenfold when they saw the blonde's father approaching Mikey.
"No." Jennifer whispered. "He'll use the black burn to kill Mikey." Sure enough she saw her father's arm go blacker than anything else around them and then shoot it straight toward the orange masked turtle.
"No, he won't." Aaliyah vowed and turned her back on Karai to help the youngest turtle…somehow. But as she moved Karai lashed out and kicked her in the back of the legs and made her take a very ungraceful fall.
"Can we deflect that somehow?" April asked as she felt sick to her stomach to see the black burn heading toward the carefree turtle she had come to see like brothers. She had seen them all that way, except now for one though it took her a while to realize that, not to mention some help from her new blonde friend.
"I don't know." Jennifer said softly. "It's never been done before. No one has survived it either." A quick glance confirmed her fears, the Mutanimals were too far away to even realize something was wrong and like Donnie and Raph both Leo and Master Splinter had also been prevented by their adversaries from helping. She already had tears in her eyes, anticipating the death of Mikey.
Then all three girls gasped as they heard another cry of, "No!" and received a shock as Renet stood there, doing what Jennifer didn't even think had been possible. She had stopped the black burn. Gone was the perky and slightly bumbling apprentice time mistress the two of them had briefly met at the at the lair a few days ago. There stood a courageous and confidant young woman whose only thought clearly was to make sure no harm came to someone she seemed to care so much about.
Even more amazing to the young blonde was the look on her father's face. She had seen so many different looks from him and most of them had not been pleasant. But neither had those looks been anything other than smugness or confidence. Those weren't what she saw now. "He's worried." Jennifer whispered.
"Renet somehow knows how to do what even Splinter didn't know could be done." April breathed.
"Who is she?" Aaliyah asked. She and Candy had not been at the lair when everyone else had met Renet.
"That's a new friend." April told her. "Renet Tilley, apprentice time mistress."
"And a girl with great timing." Jennifer added.
It was touching to both girls to see Mikey and Renet have a touching moment but then Jennifer's rather recovered himself and tried to advance. She responded in the only way she knew how, by banishing him through time. She did have the grace to send Jennifer an apologetic look that the blonde dismissed with an understanding shake of her head. She knew better than anyone her father had to be stopped, by whatever means possible.
Moments later April noticed something else that was both creepy and cool. Noi Tai Dar reached out for Chein Khan and Leo gladly delivered that to the demon. Karai noticed as well. "It's just the Foot Clan against your clan now." She stated. Just as Shredder said to Splinter moments later.
"Do or die time, ladies." Aaliyah said as she looked to the blonde and red head. "Let's do it."
The adrenaline shooting through their bodies at the sight of Mikey's near death added extra energy to each of their moves as Aaliyah went on full out attack against Karai. Donnie's successful hit on Rahzar only emboldened them further.
"It's time to come home Karai." April whispered as she and Jennifer took hands and focused all of their energies, again not into the kunoichi but more importantly into the worm that was controlling her.
Aaliyah and Karai were clashing, neither of the young women gaining an edge in the fight. Then Karai felt kind of faint and dropped her weapon, an image of her reminding Leo that a ninja never drops their weapon back when they fought after the Kraang gave them the Footbots. Then she fell to knees and started to cough hard.
Aaliyah sheathed her weapons and ran to the fallen kunoichi. She had been prepared to expect something like this but the actual sight still shocked her. She ran to the girl and started to run her hand gently against her back. "Karai, can you hear me? Help April and Jennifer to fight that worm. Fight for your family. For your freedom." She said softly.
This caused Shredder to lapse in concentration now. "Karai." He gasped. He tried to move to stop the girls from messing with the worm inside of Karai but Splinter tackled him to the ground.
"You will not interfere." Splinter declared. "Tonight Miwa gets to decide for herself again."
Shredder blocked an oncoming attack from Leo.
Karai coughed again. "Stop it." She rasped out, though it was hard to tell now if the worm were speaking on behalf of Karai to keep its control or if Karai was speaking , and if it was the girl speaking than to who or what she was speaking too.
For what it was worth none of his henchman seemed that concerned about what was going on with Karai.
Nor for that matter was the one henchman still standing that was not a member of the Foot. Hector tried to focus his energies on cutting Raph to pieces but not only was the red masked turtle dodging at every single strike but he was constantly getting stuck at by Mikey which was a huge distraction. Renet didn't seem quite so sure how she should react now. Knowing what Jennifer knew about him, she couldn't blame her. Then it occurred to her Renet might know about Hector too, she seemed to know a lot about them rather she wanted to admit it or not.
Shredder tried to again get to Karai but now Donnie got in the way and smacked Shredder in the face with his staff. "You're losing Shredder. In more ways than one." He stated.
Karai made heaving sound that made Aaliyah flinch and start to feel just the slightest bit panicked and then the kunoichi made a gagging sound before she threw up, what seemed to be not only her last meal but some blood and more importantly the worm.
"It worked." April gasped in some surprise as she and Jennifer ran over to her.
Aaliyah took her bunrei and stabbed the small worm just to play it safe. Then she looked to April and Jennifer. "You watch Karai. I'm going to help Raph and Mikey put Hector down." It was clear from her tone of voice she had never liked him. Both girls nodded.
Splinter was glad to see that the girl's plan seemed to have worked. He looked to Leonardo. "Help Aaliyah and your brother's to get rid of Hector and then all of you can help me with the Shredder, my sons." He said.
Leo and Donnie hesitated only a moment but then nodded. "Hai, sensei." They conceded.
Hector grabbed Mikey as he swung his nunchuck at him and then tossed him hard into Raph. Both turtles had the wind knocked out of them. "Mikey, Raph." Renet gasped. She started to run over to the two turtles.
One of Hector's arms changed to be similar to that of a gorilla and he lashed out and grabbed Renet's arm, the one holding the time scepter. He knew what she could do with that after what she had done to his boss. "Not so fast, little girl." He growled as he brought the scythed hand to the top of her chest, just above her throat. "Maybe it's time I got to know you a little bit better." Renet gulped at that statement, as she knew everything that Jennifer knew thanks to their future associations.
Aaliyah came up from behind him and kicked him in the back to force him to release Renet, then drove the blunt end of her bunrei's into the back of both of his knees. She then jumped in front of him. "You know, I never did like your attitude about women." She stated icily and then delivered a front kick hard to his face.
"You turtle freak." Hector spat. "I should have eliminated you and that street axolotl girl long ago." He moved to attack Aaliyah but now Leo and Donnie were on either side of her. He then turned to see Renet had made it to Mikey and Raph's side. She was helping the orange masked turtle up as the red masked turtle recovered his sais and shot him a menacing glare.
"You guys ever heard the expression turtle power?" Aaliyah asked the guys.
"Not really." Mikey admitted.
"Why?" Raph asked impatiently.
"Because I think in a minute Chameleon here will learn all about it." Aaliyah said with a joyful smile.
"I think you're right." Leo agreed and together the blue and white masked turtles leapt into the air and delivered a double jump kick to Hector's chest.
Raph and Mikey caught on and swept his legs out from under him. He landed hard as all four brothers and Aaliyah all came to stand together. The mutant shifter stood up and glared at the now five turtles.
"All together now." Leo said. They all jumped up into the air and with five simultaneous statements of "Booyakasha!" they kicked Hector hard in the chest, he went flying far enough to be thrown off the roof. It wasn't quite what the five of them had expected and they ran to the edge but they saw nothing. This further question was heightened by the fact the Dark Oni vanished.
"Is he dead?" Mikey asked.
"There's no way to tell right now." Leo said. "We can see if there's any…evidence on the way out." He looked to his three younger brothers and Aaliyah. "Right now we have to help Master Splinter."
Bebop had gone back to his old tricks of invisibility and shooting laser beams. Despite his every instinct the mutant warthog had taken the monkey scientists words to heart and reverted to silence. However Rockwell changed his tactics and started to reflect the laser beams at the other foot clan mutants.
A laser beam shocked Fishface and allowed Candy and Mondo to go with a double tale slam right to his face for the knockout.
Stockman was the next to get the knockout combo from a laser beam and a dive bomb from Pigeon Pete.
Rocksteady was trying to squeeze the life out of Leatherhead when a laser beam got him in the small of the back. He yelped in pain and then Leatherhead brought his two fists down hard on the mutant rhino's head for the KO.
Tiger Claw traded blows with Slash and was easily able to dodge the laser shots until Pidgeon Pete dive bombed the mutant assassin. He roared and tossed the mutant bird off of him but he turned in enough time to see, but not dodge, the mace attack that sent Tiger Claw flying over the edge as well. Slash was sure the jet pack would save him but he hoped that at least it would stop him from coming back into this fight.
Bebop realized what he had inadvertently done. "Um, oopsie." He tried for.
That only resulted in Leatherhead using both of his arms to grab the mutant warthog, in the process crushing the invisibility device, and then the mutant gator slammed him into the concrete hard.
"It's a good thing we just did that." Mondo noted. "Because there are no opposing minions, which means…" They all followed his gaze to see what was left of the Footbots approaching them rapidly.
"Well, that's just great." Pete noted as he got ready to go again.
"What happened?" The two girls heard Karai's raspy voice as she looked around. "O'Neil?"
"You don't remember?" Jennifer asked her.
Karai shook her head. "Last I remember was saying goodbye at Coney island…no wait, I remember threatening to pluck Stockman's wings if he didn't release the restraints. He was…" She was clearly confused.
"Shredder developed a mind control worm and serum that he used to control you after he acquired you somehow." April explained.
"It was Zeck and Steranko." Karai remembered suddenly. "They captured me after I left you guys." She took a breath, it hurt just a little bit. "Now I'm here. I…don't remember anything."
"That must be because of the effect of your mutation." April replied. "You said your mind was going and you didn't want to be a threat. Somehow it's been pretty much restored now but there must still be some residual damage. You don't remember nearly poisoning us on Shredder's orders or the gang war we've all been in in the last month."
"Nope." Karai admitted. "Not a memory." Except she did recall one suddenly as she looked around and saw a fight. She remembered kissing Casey Jones though she didn't know why. "Someone better go help him." She noted.
April saw Hun starting to get the upper hand over Casey. "I better go." She said.
"April, I don't think you're going to be able to help much." Jennifer said softly. "Mikey barely did it with Casey and Mondo."
"If Mikey did it then I can do it." Karai said as she stood then and recovered her weapon.
"Are you sure you're up to it?" Jennifer asked the kunoichi as she looked gently down at the blood and vomit.
"Who are you anyway?" Karai asked with slight impatience.
"This is Jennifer Quinn." April answered. "A new friend and Raphael's girlfriend."
That took her slightly off guard but nodded. "Okay then. Don't worry, stop the Footbots. I'll help your friend Casey." Then before they could argue she ran off.
The two girls stared at each other dumbfounded for a moment then went to help the Mutanimals. They also noticed for what it's worth Renet was doing what she could too. The time scepter did make for a decent blunt weapon.
"it's over Saki." Splinter stated as Aaliyah and his sons joined him. "You have lost."
"Not yet." Shredder stated and attacked again. Even with six on one he was easily able to repel the turtles though he got as good as he gave to his nemesis.
"It is over boy." Hun said as he kicked Casey hard in the solar plexus and then got prepared to drive his foot into his neck.
"Not so fast." Karai intervened and kicked Hun backwards. "Let's see how you do against me, Purple Dragon."
"I see the tides have changed." Hun observed. He attacked Karai but the skilled kunoichi was able to counter him easily and they ended up going back and forth for a moment. By that point though Casey recovered and came around and slammed a hockey stick into the head and back of the Dragon's leader. He was stunned and Karai kicked him hard against the side of the building.
"Nice job Jones." Karai said.
"Nice to really meet you Karai." Casey said. "Not bad at all…I mean…"
"Yeah, that was one interesting kiss." Karai revealed before heading off to help her father and brothers and leaving the vigilante stunned speechless.
The instant the Shredder next turned around he found himself facing down not only the Mutanimals but someone else as well. "Karai." He whispered.
"As I said once before, it's over Shredder." Karai stated. Renet, April, and Jennifer had hung back each of them knowing they were not ready to face the Shredder.
Shredder glared angrily at them all. Then he realized one other problem. His minions were down and the Footbots were destroyed. He appeared to be alone. Then he laughed rather humorlessly. "Do you really think I come to a confrontation like this without a backup plan?"
"It would be nice to think you're that dumb." Mikey tried to volunteer and Shredder sent him back a death glare.
At that point the glaring omissions showed up. On one of each of the four sides of the buildings stood four of the five heralds; Fire, Water, Air and Earth. Above them hovered the last herald the one of Metal. The unconscious minions as well as Shredder himself (bar Tiger Claw who was not on the roof) were starting to get levitated up.
"Finish them off." Shredder commanded the Foot Heralds. A massive beam quickly gathered overhead and shot down a massive beam at them. Shredder look forward to the end of his nemesis and everyone who chose to ally with him.
Then at the last moment he saw the new girl lift the strange object in the air and they all vanished. His scream of wrath resounded though none but the heralds were there to hear it.
One moment each of them were bracing themselves for the inevitable end. The next moment they found themselves in the lair.
"What just happened?" Slash asked, confused.
Donnie looked to Renet. "Did you do that?" He asked her.
"Yes." Renet said firmly. "Only it was kind of a gamble because I didn't know if it would take us home, take us back in time, or do the job for the heralds."
They all looked shocked and then gave a sigh of resignation. What mattered right now was that the apprentice time mistress's gamble had paid off. But that lead to the next question. What now?
Is Renet in trouble? What will Karai do? What will Aaliyah and Candy do? What will Shredder's revenge be. Next we wind down with the aftermath to this war.