"You are…" Honeycutt gasped, his green eyes brightening as he focused on the hulking shape in the doorway. "Who are you?"
A long, scaled tail uncoiled around the figure, moving across the floor with deliberate slowness. "You might as well ask the more obvious question: What am I?"
"I don't believe what I'm seeing," Harold muttered, adjusting his glasses.
"I—I think I know what you are," Honeycutt said, trying to regain his composure. "You are a mutant. And an alligator."
"Very astute of you," the mutant said, taking a deliberate step into the room, and turning his long head from side to side. He was massive, all heavy muscles and jagged-looking scales, looming high above Honeycutt as he moved closer to him. Scars ran across his broad chest and sloping shoulders. He was dressed, oddly enough, in a ragged and torn orange pair of pants, with the remains of a metal belt around his waist.
His yellow eyes fixed on the robot scientist, and then slid towards Donatello. The Turtle was still lying there, semiconscious, a faint tremble passing through his body. His eyes fluttered open again, staring at this strange new mutant with a faint air of confusion.
"You may call me Leatherhead," the alligator rumbled.
He took another step towards Donatello, and Honeycutt quickly placed himself between the injured Turtle and this strange new mutant. He didn't know why Leatherhead was here, but he did know that Donatello was helpless — and though he didn't have a prayer of stopping Leatherhead if he decided to attack Donatello, he could at least try.
"Pardon me for eavesdropping," Leatherhead said. "It was very rude of me. But as I understand it, your friend here has been badly injured."
"He—he has," Honeycutt said.
Those yellow eyes roved up and down Donatello's body, examining the ugly bruises and the broken remains of his shell. "And if I'm not mistaken, you are in need of the Utroms' ooze."
"Yes, we are," Honeycutt said warily.
Leatherhead reached behind himself, and produced a massive canister of a glowing, viscous green liquid. If Honeycutt still possessed the ability to gasp, he would have done so. The amount of ooze in that canister would easily allow him to both bond Donatello's new shell to his body, and heal his many internal injuries as well. And it wouldn't require him to pump any out of the Utroms' tubes — they would be safe also.
"Then I see I have something to bargain with," Leatherhead said.
Silence fell over the arena. Even the cheering ninja on the upper levels were silent as they looked around, craning their necks to see who had volunteered to fight on the outnumbered, outmuscled Clan Hamato's side. Only someone very brave — or very stupid — would go up against one of the Shredder's powerful mutant soldiers.
Leo's eyes widened, and his head turned quickly to the right, where the voice had come from. "Angel?" he gasped.
The young woman stepped forward, her dusky face set in a determined scowl. "I'm fightin' for Clan Hamato," she announced. "Count me in."
"Angel, you can't," Leo said. "This isn't your fight—"
"That's bull, Leo," Angel said sternly. "You need a fourth fighter, and I'm willing to be that. I wasn't able to — to do anything for Donnie, but maybe I can fight instead of him."
Alopex put a hand on her friend's arm. "Angel, stop. This should be my fight — I owe the Turtles so much already, and I wasn't able to help Donnie either. I can be their fourth fighter…"
Then something strange seemed to happen to the mutant fox; she seemed to sway and stumble, her fingers gripping Angel's arm for support. Raph started forward to help her, but she regained her balance and stepped back, putting one hand to her head as she tried to get herself back to normal.
"Sorry," she mumbled. "Just a — dizzy spell."
"Then you're definitely not fighting," Angel said. "You can't afford a dizzy spell when you're fighting one of those monsters. I'm going, Alopex, and that's the end of it."
"Yes… maybe you're right," Alopex said reluctantly, stepping back against the wall, her hands tightly clasped together.
Angel winked. "Plus, I got some surprises those monsters don't have."
Leo frowned as he saw the mutant fox's face. There was something about it that didn't look quite right — an odd blankness in her eyes that shouldn't have been there, as if her mind was somewhere else. Alopex wasn't the sort of person to look that way; she was all alertness and watchfulness, all coiled energy waiting to be unleashed. And from all that he knew of her, she wouldn't have normally backed down so quickly.
And out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kitsune's mouth curve into a sly smile. When he turned his head towards her, the witch's expression had deepened into a mocking smirk. She was taunting him with her eyes, laughing at him not knowing what she was doing.
But he didn't have time to figure out what Kitsune was up to. Angel was stalking towards them, encased in her armored exo-suit from head to toe. The only part of her that was exposed was her face, and the tinted faceplate would soon slide down to hide that. Leo wasn't entirely sure what the exo-suit did, but it seemed to make her stronger, more resilient, and it had a plethora of hidden gadgets like light refraction, tasers and anti-gravity that she could use against her enemies. But she was at heart a street fighter, and he didn't know if that would be enough against a foe like Bebop or Bludgeon.
Karai looked mildly annoyed at the delay, and her dark eyes fixed on Angel as she stood beside Splinter. "Clan Hamato, do you accept this woman as one of your fighters?"
Splinter nodded once. "We do."
"Awesome, Angel," Mikey murmured, giving her a strained smile.
Karai unsheathed her katana. "Clan Hamato," she called out, "you are the challengers in this rite, and you stand ready to uphold that challenge."
Splinter bowed formally, his sons copying the gesture. After a moment of confusion, Angel did as they did, pressing her fist into her open hand as she bowed.
"Clan Foot," Karai continued, "you stand ready to defend against the challenge by Clan Hamato. Are you ready to prove the worthiness of your cause?"
"We are," Shredder said. He bowed as well along with Bludgeon, Koya and Bebop; Rocksteady seemed more interested in fondling his hammer and frowning at the delay.
"Then the Gauntlet begins," Karai shouted, slashing her katana between the two groups.
Leo felt his stomach clench as the four giant mutants began to move towards the middle of the arena. Karai was moving toward them with a confident air, her face proud and smiling. But suddenly Shredder pointed at her. "You will not participate," he said darkly. "You will simply watch from the side as you await my judgement."
"But… but, grandfather," she said, her eyes wide.
"Do not think I will permit you this after what you have done, Karai," he snarled. "I have agreed to the Gauntlet, but I have neither forgotten nor forgiven your actions on this night. When I have slaughtered Hamato Yoshi, I will then deal with your transgression."
Leo glanced over at his father, who was watching the conflict with wise, sharp eyes. He was watching the four combatants closely as they prepared to fight, studying each of their faces. Then he turned towards Leonardo, and said quietly, "They will not fight as you and your brothers do, my son. They are disorganized, discordant — they will not fight as one, because they have not been trained as one. They have greater size and strength than you do, but you have learned to fight as one, with discipline, training and thought. With these, I believe you can triumph."
"I understand, sensei," Leo said grimly.
He cast a look at Angel, feeling a pang of guilt for her exclusion from Splinter's lecture. She was one of them — she had volunteered to be — but she had never fought with the Turtles like this before, and she didn't know their training, their teamwork, their iron-clad discipline. She was trying to fill Donnie's shoes, but she couldn't. No one else could.
Still, Leo was grateful for her presence. She was putting her life on the line to help them, and having four combatants instead of three might make the difference between winning and losing — it might keep the fourth Foot mutant from ganging up on them. He just hoped she was nimble and skilled enough to hold her own against Bludgeon or Bebop.
"I'm sick of sittin' around and bowin'," Raph snarled, spinning his sai. "Let's do this!"
And they lunged forward into the fight.
For some clarification of what's going on with Alopex, in the comics Kitsune is brainwashing her into being her slave - so obviously the witch wouldn't want her to fight on Clan Hamato's side!