Note: Credit to Chip903 for his ideas.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Determination
A month passed, and Mona spent many days training, meditating and preparing herself for her tests. She had managed to conquer the assault course by completing it in under a minute.
Her best time was thirty-seven seconds, and Splinter was impressed on how dedicated she was.
As well as running the assault course and training more with using the War fans, Splinter trained her with sniper skills using a bow and arrow.
Mona enjoyed using the bow and arrow as it did bring memories of team building activities she did back home when she was at school.
As she practiced hard, Splinter was really pleased on how good Mona's aim was with the arrows, she was good at hitting the targets either near or on the bulls eye.
Splinter also made her do other exercises to help with her fighting skills and build her strength, stealth and speed. Many of the exercises included:
Heavy Bag Drill – Where Mona practiced punches and kicks on a heavy bag to increase her striking skills, speed, and footwork. Raphael helped her out with that exercise as that was one he enjoyed the most
Transition Drill – Where she had to practice getting to certain positions on the ground to increase ground grappling skills, strength, and cardio. Michelangelo was good at that exercise.
Tire Flip Drill – Where Mona had to practice flipping a heavy tire on the ground to increase takedown skills, ground grappling skills, and strength. Raphael was good at that being the strongest of the turtles and helped her out with that exercise.
Focus Mitts Drill – Where Mona practiced punching at Punching pads to increase punches and speed, the turtles all took it in turns to hold the pads for her.
Defence Drill – Where she had to block and avoid as many attacks as possible to increase defensive skills. Again all the turtles took turns in helping her with that exercise and even Splinter had a go at helping.
Takedown Defence Drill – Mona had to perform this exercise to keep from being taken down to the ground. Used to increase takedown defence.
Submission Spar – Where she had to perform as many submissions as possible, as well as defend from them, in a time limit to increase submission offense and defence skills.
The exercises did wear Mona out afterwards and she spent a lot of times after training having hot baths and relaxing in her room before she would do anything else, whether it was playing video games and watching movies in the TV area, going motorcycling with Raphael, doing weapon training and meditation with Leonardo and Splinter, or going topside and running across the rooftops with the other turtles.
Even though Mona trained hard, she still wanted to go after the gangsters that had attacked her.
Donatello true to his word had been working hard on finding out more information about the gangsters since he had the names of them. After training he would try and find out more details and write down what he found.
One day, Mona was standing before Leonardo as he held up the punching pads in front of him, she was kicking and punching the pads like there was no tomorrow, she punched several times then did many different kicks.
Leonardo winced as he felt the force behind Mona's kicks and punches go through his arms, but he continued to hold the pads up.
Michelangelo sat on the side and watched swinging one of his nun chucks around and his other hand stroked Klunk who was curled up next to him.
Raphael was looking over Donatello's shoulder as his younger brother was doing more searches, they could hear Mona grunting and yelling as she punched and kicked the pads that Leonardo held up before her.
"She's really getting into her training eh?" said Donatello.
Raphael looked around and saw Mona move as she kicked and punched the pads. "She sure is" he said as he watched her hair swish around as she moved.
"You know" he said "Watching her fight; it's almost like a dance...the way she moves"
Donatello turned to his brother, "Ooohhh!" he said "you really like her don't you!"
Raphael blushed again, "knock it off bro!" he said "I'm just saying..."
Donatello smirked and looked back at his computer "Don't blame ya bro" he said "she is a pretty one"
Raphael shoved his brother's shoulder playfully.
"Knock it off!" he said "She's good lookin' yeah, she's like a geisha"
Donatello chuckled, "and not a word of this to Mikey!" snarled Raphael.
"Don't worry Raphie" said Donatello "I got my lips zipped!"
"You'd better!" growled Raphael as he continued to watch Mona.
Donatello smirked then he began to sniff the air, as he did he thought he smelt a strong scent, like aftershave or Cologne.
"Raph..." he said raising an eyebrow, "are you wearing cologne?"
Raphael turned back to him, "Yeah so?" he said.
"I just noticed...you smell different" said Donatello "trying to smell good for Mona eh?"
Raphael went pink again and narrowed his eyes.
"Don't worry bro" said Donatello "Again my lips are zipped!" Raphael glared again.
Leonardo meanwhile watched Mona as she moved, even though his arms were starting to feel sore, he didn't care, he felt he could just watch Mona forever, the way she moved.
He remembered when they were running across the rooftops when he asked her to take her to the place she was attacked and the times where he and his brothers took her topside.
The way she bounded, the way she leapt, it was so graceful, and the way she was fighting, it was like she was dancing, she showed aggression in her fighting, but she had a sense of grace. He could watch her forever.
He was so lost in her moves, he was not prepared when she used her tail to whack one of the pads and send him off balance!
He stepped back but ended up falling flat on his shell!
"Leo!" cried Michelangelo. Donatello and Raphael also looked over.
"Opps!" cried Mona "Sorry Leo!"
Leonardo shook his head and looked up at Mona, "its ok" he said "I think I was miles away, I wasn't aware"
Mona held her hand out for him to take so he could pull himself up.
Leonardo pulled the pads off his hands and grabbed Mona's hand before she pulled him to his feet.
"Sorry Leo" she said blushing with embarrassment "I guess I got a little carried away"
"You're showing a lot of strength Mona" said Leonardo "it's great!"
"yeah!" said Michelangelo "You're certainly getting good what you do"
Mona smiled, "I guess I should practice my archery" she said as she did some stretches on her arms "Master Splinter said I'd make a good sniper if I keep up the practice"
"I can help!" said Michelangelo, Mona looked over at Michelangelo "If you want to" she said "you can help"
Raphael then walked over, "I'll help her Mikey!" he said "I'm good at this!"
Michelangelo gave Raphael a cheeky look but Raphael gave him that look of 'Don't-you-dare'
Mona saw Raphael glaring at Michelangelo and giggled, "Hey don't fight" she said "why don't we all have a shoot at Archery!"
Michelangelo giggled, as did the other turtles realising the pun.
They all walked over to an area where there were a few targets. There were five bows and quivers of arrows ready for anyone who wished to practice.
Mona picked up a bow and a quivers of arrows then looked at the other turtles, "Wanna make a game of it?" she smirked.
Michelangelo narrowed his eyes, "you challenging the Masters eh?" he said "you're on!"
"Ok" said Leonardo "How about we get into two teams?"
He stepped over to Mona but Raphael moved over to Mona, "Hey back off Fearless!" he snapped "I'm with Mona!"
"Back off hot-head!" snapped Leonardo looking smug, "I'm with her this time! As I recall you've spent enough time with her already on that shell cycle of yours!"
"Ooooohhhh!" giggled Michelangelo and Donatello as they watched Leonardo and Raphael about to start a fight.
Mona looked worried as she looked at the two turtles ready to start a fight if it meant being on her team.
"Hey hey!" she said with a warm smile on her face and placed her hands on their shoulders, "let's be nice children, if we're gonna play together, we must learn to share"
Leonardo and Raphael looked annoyed but they eased off trying to fight each other, although Donatello and Michelangelo tried to stifle giggles at the way Mona spoke to Leonardo and Raphael.
"Well done Mona" came a voice from the other side of the room. Everyone turned to see Splinter walking out of his quarters.
"I am glad to see you are trying to make well behaved gentleman out of my two older sons" said the old rat.
Mona smiled whilst Leonardo and Raphael blushed.
Splinter then walked towards the kitchen, "she is right my sons" he said "you must learn to share" Raphael and Leonardo sighed then turned to each other.
"Alright" said Leonardo "let's settle this fairly like gentlemen"
"Right" said Raphael "Let's toss a quarter" he pulled a quarter from the pouch in his belt and tossed it in the air "Call it!" he said.
"Heads" said Leonardo. Raphael caught the coin in his hand and checked it.
"Shit!" he cursed. Leonardo looked triumphant as he stood next to Mona.
"I'll keep a tally of your scores" said Donatello whipping out a pen and paper and writing the teams names down.
Raphael stood next to Michelangelo and picked up his own bow and arrow.
"Ok" said Donatello "When you're ready"
Raphael looked towards Mona, "ladies first" he said making Leonardo look annoyed.
Mona smiled and winked at Raphael then picked up her bow and plucked an arrow from the quiver before preparing to fire at the targets.
She pulled the arrow back and concentrated before she released the arrow.
The arrow hit the target and hit the circle outside the bull's eye, "nice shot!" said Leonardo, Donatello wrote the score down, then Raphael picked up his bow and arrow and took a shot, the arrow hit the circle near the bull's eye.
"Nice shot bro!" said Michelangelo clapping a high three with Raphael "thanks!" said Raphael.
Leonardo then fired an arrow at the target and it hit the bull's eye. "Yes!" cheered Mona punching the air. "nice!" said Donatello.
"Perfectionist!" growled Raphael as he saw Leonardo look smug.
Donatello noted down their scores and he kept counting them as his brothers and Mona continued to compete.
Each time Mona took the bow and arrow, she started to get good with using the tools. She soon began to hit the bulls eye's on the dot.
"Not bad Mona!" commented Donatello "you'd make a pretty good sniper!"
Mona laughed "I still need to practice more" Leonardo watched as she pulled her arm back about to fire her last arrow at the targets and saw as her muscles flexed.
"You're getting stronger in the arms" he commented, "I can see it very clearly"
"Thanks" said Mona as he released the arrow and it went sailing into the bulls eye.
"Nice shot!" said Michelangelo "You are getting good at this!"
"Master Splinter has been training me hard" said Mona "he gave me a few tips on hitting the targets"
"He sure gave you some good tips" said Raphael as he fired his last arrow at the targets; he also hit the bulls eye.
Donatello then noted down the last score and counted them, "Wow" he said "so close, but the winners are...Leonardo and Monalisa!"
Leonardo and Mona looked at each other and cheered then hugged each other in triumph.
"Darn it!" cried Raphael (also looking a little miffed as Leonardo hugged Mona) "Awww shell!" groaned Michelangelo
"You did well though" commented Mona kindly as she let go of Leonardo.
"Thanks" said Raphael (who blushed) and Michelangelo placing their bows down then going to retrieve their arrows.
Looks like Mona's working hard to become a ninja! and she's showing talents with using a bow and arrow and not just the War fans! Lol!
And it looks like Leonardo and Raphael are showing signs of fighting over Mona! Oh dear!
Hope you like it!