My days now seemed to not have enough time in them. Between kids, chores, work and getting my behind thrown across the dojo on a regular basis I was wore out, and aching. The guys were a hard bunch to train under and I do mean all of them. Everyone one of them beat the crap out of Cris and I on a regular basis as if our life depended on it, because it did. Normal trainers bring you up on your skill slowly, never pushing you to the point that the guys did. Everyday they pushed us way past the point of exhaustion, they pushed us to the point of collapse. I didn't complain about it, to much, I knew the stakes here were so much higher than a simple karate trophy. My life was the prize I got to show off. Leo had been right, so far I had been extremely lucky, I understood that. It didn't mean however that this was easy for me. Honestly there were days I just wanted to give up on the whole thing, but I stuck it out.
Today Mikey was drilling me and Leo was tossing Cris around like a rag doll. If you think he would go easy on me because of his laid back nature you are sorely mistaken. I made the mistake thinking that and found myself on the mat, holding my arm in pain.
"You brought your arm to far forward. Left you wide open for a good smack." He came over to help me up.
I sighed and turned to face him. Our lesson had just begun and I still had a lot more of mat tumbles to go. He came in again on my left side, I was still nowhere near good enough with my left hand and that was their main focus. This time I blocked the stick coming in and he pulled it back then brought it in lower bringing it upward to my body. I quickly twisted the asp and brought it down and managed to block that one as well. Mikey twisted his own stick and swung my arm up trying to fling my arm out wide, leaving me open and I brought my other arm in to block the incoming swing as I brought my left hand back in my own underhand swing only to find his arm had already moved away "Shit..." I muttered as I knew what was going to happen next. The stick came in above my now badly out of position arm and cracked into my side. For the upteenth time in the last few days I was gasping for air on the mat.
Frustrated beyond my patience I threw my asp across the dojo, almost knocking Cris in the head as she went tumbling in it's line of fire. Leo's quick hand saved her from a nice goose egg. Leo looked our way, and I could see anger in his eyes. He sorely disapproved of random acts of uncontrolled out bursts, especially if it almost got someone hurt. At that point I was to frustrated to care, hell I was silently dareing him to say something. I needed a good fight, a fight that I could actually win, maybe, ah hell who was I kidding...
Leo was about to grant me my wish as he came walking over, until Mikey stepped in his way. "I'm her trainer today, Bro. I'll deal with it." He looked up at his brother's not happy face. "I insist.". He held out his hand for the asp that Leo now held in his hand. I couldn't help but wonder if he had been planning on using it on me.
Leo slammed the asp in Mikey's hand and I couldn't help a little cringe. I must really have pissed him off. Composing himself he went back to Cris, well I hope he composed himself. She was going to have it rough if he didn't.
Mikey turned back to me, flipping the asp in the air and catching it as he watched me for a few moments. He, too, seemed to be a little pissed and for some reason that made me feel more like an idiot than Leo yelling at me would have. Now I was wondering if he would hit me with it.
"You want this back?" I nodded, still to pissed to speak at the moment. "Then come and get it." He twirled it in his hand then held it in a ready pose.
"Alright, I will!" I snapped at him moving in. The one turtle you don't want to go against in a rage filled attack was Mikey. Yes, he was the smallest but also the quickest and he would use that anger against you in a heartbeat. Lord knows he had enough practice on Rahp over the years. If I thought I had it rough before, he quickly showed me just how much they were actually holding back for us. He didn't hit me once as I released my pent up frustration out on him, he didn't have too. He did however trip me, knock me over, dodge my blows and finally caught my arm and slammed me into the mat. And he did all of that with one hand while in the other he held the asp I was trying to get back. Once again I found myself lying on the mat, this time I didn't even bother to get up. My frustration had been let out on him but now I felt something else, defeat. I was about to give up on myself and I hated myself for it.
Mikey crouched down over me and pulled me up into a sitting position. I couldn't even look him in the eye as I said. "I can't do this, Mikey. Who the hell am I trying to kid here. I'm thirty six, I'm to old for this."
"Well, that mind set isn't going to help anything." Was his reply. "Look, I know we are pushing you hard. Very hard. Like Master Splinter would be proud of us hard. But we won't push you to what you can't handle." He turned my face towards his. "If we didn't believe you can do this, we would't be putting all this time and effort into helping you." He grinned at me. "We fully understand your not going to be a ninja but by the time we are done with you, you'll be able to do more than get cheap shots in." He held out his hand, offering to help me up. "I won't give up on you, if you don't give up on yourself."
Sighing, I took his hand and he pulled me up. "Now, you still have an asp to get back. Family rule, you throw it away in anger you have to fight to get it back." He grinned at me.
"It is not." I told him.
"It is now."
"You fucktard." I laughed and moved in. I did try, I really did, but he was too good and having to much fun keeping it from me. The frustration I felt earlier was gone and we had more laughter in our little game of keep away. I actually did manage to get a few hits on him now that I was thinking with a clear head. Still spent a lot of time on the mat too though. Good natured or not he wasn't just going to give it back to me. He said I had to fight for my asp and he meant it.
I was moving in with a strike aimed at his arm when the lights suddenly went out. Thrown off balance by the sudden lack of vision I stumbled in the now pitch black dojo. Mikey's quick reflexes quickly caught me and made sure I wouldn't fall.
"Donnie!" Raph's voice rang out in the lair. "What the hell did you break now!"
"It wasn't me!" Came the reply.
"What the hell?" Mikey muttered. "Well this isn't good..."
"You think?" I replied.
"Come on." Mikey took my hand and guided me through the lair to the lab, easily finding his way in the dark.
"What happened Donnie?" Came Leo's voice in the darkness.
"As far as I can tell there was a major power surge in town. I had just noticed it right before the light's went out."
"So it's not just us sitting in the dark then is it?"
"No, I imagine a far sized part of town is out of power right now."
Something else had caught my eye. "Donnie the portal is down. I can't go home..."
I heard a sigh in the darkness. "I know. And that shouldn't have happened either. Something is interfering with it, again from topside."
"But the kids will be home soon. I have to get back!"
"I'm already working on it. Just hang tight a few minutes." Suddenly there was a little bit of light as he played with his arm display, it's soft blue glow lighting up his face. "I really hope your brother is on his computer right now." He muttered in my direction. He finished what he was doing and then waited. "Come on, Jim. I know you can figure this out." Then there was a flicker and something popped up on his screen. Donnie smiled, "Your brother catches on quick. He got the message. He knows your stuck here, he'll get the kids."
"Good now with that out of the way, lets focus on this." Leo said, going into leader mode. "Where was this surge you spotted earlier?"
Donnie left the screen up to give us some light, more for the sake of Chris and I than for them I think. "In the general vicinity of the Sachs building."
"Oh great..." Mikey muttered.
"And the portal interference?" Leo asked.
"I don't know, but I would hazard a guess to say the same."
Leo narrowed his eyes. "Gear up." Was all he said. Cris and I looked at each other, not sure if that was meant for us too. I sure hoped it was, I had every intention of going. Whether they liked it or not. Leo looked at us. "Yes that means you too. No way I'm leaving you here with all the lair defenses down."
"That and they wouldn't stay behind anyway." Raph grumbled.
Mikey chuckled. "Well, at least they have a chance to see how much their skills have improved in the last few days."
"Not that much." I told him.
"Well, only one way to find out." He replied handing my asp back to me.
"I said gear up." Leo cut in. This time we broke out of our lab huddle and went to get ourselves ready. Would you actually believe I was actually giddy to be invited along for once? Even if it was because Leo really didn't have a choice in the matter. He was right, with the lair defenses down it was to risky for us to stay here since every bad baffoon was out there trying to sniff out their home. Still, being invited along on a major excursion was actually kind of thrilling. I just hoped it wouldn't turn out to be a major mistake.