So, it's been a hot minute. I've had this chapter mostly done for a while now, and just finally got around to making that final push to finish it! Even so, I've got no idea how it ended up so long! Lol!
"What? You want me to train you?" Splinter asked with no small amount of surprise when she'd presented the proposition the following morning. She nodded determinedly from her kneeling position on the floor in front of him.
"It's occurred to me that, your sons seem to end up getting themselves into some crazy situations. Meanwhile, I feel like I'm just, getting in their way, or worse, putting them in more danger because I never learned how to properly defend myself," she explained dolefully. Master Splinter didn't answer right away, and instead looked pensive, considering her words.
"Before, you said I had potential, right?" she reminded him, in an attempt to further sway him. "I thought that might mean, you'd consider teaching me martial arts too? I – I just wanna be able to help. I wanna be useful," she reasoned with a longing look. "Please?" she realized she should add, bowing before him, mimicking how she'd seen characters in anime do it. The gesture caused the rat man to smile in spite of himself.
"Very well," he decided, with a decisive nod.
Katerina peered up at him with joy, only for it to shift to a look of confusion almost immediately, as she watched the master suddenly throw a tape into their VCR and hit play.
"For your first lesson, we will begin by watching Little Jacob's Ladder," he informed her, settling down to give the impression that he was going to watch it with her.
"Um, what is that?" she wondered as the film's opening sequence began to play.
"What is that?!" he protested indignantly. "It is only one of the greatest action movies ever created, starring one of the greatest martial artists of all time, Lou Jitsu!" he snapped.
"Oh, a Lou Jitsu movie. . ." she trailed for a moment, thinking. "But, how is watching a movie going to teach me martial arts?" she asked, still not understanding.
"You must watch and study his moves, as many times as it takes, until they are memorized. You claim to have a good memory? Here is your chance to prove it. For more than this, you are not ready," he, sort of, explained.
Not feeling like she was in any position to argue, or judge, Katerina simply made herself comfortable and began to study what was on the screen. It wasn't like she was pressed for time or anything, anyway.
It was your typical action, kung fu type movie. The main character having to fight an evil crime syndicate who were attempting to take over the city. Katerina had her doubts about how educational this was, but it was entertaining if nothing else, with its fair share of slapstick and cheesy one liners.
Several minutes into the movie, and it began to attract the attention of the others. Which was made apparent when Leonardo entered the room.
"Oh, hey! You're watching Lou Jitsu!" he realized, plopping down next to the girl to watch too.
"Cat girl has shown an interest in learning martial arts," Splinter explained, as if they wouldn't be watching the movie merely to be amused by it.
"Hey, that's cool. So, whadaya think so far?" the blue turtle inquired.
Katerina smiled before shifting her gaze back to the screen.
"I like him. He's pretty cute. Like, a cross between Jackie Chan and Elvis," she determined.
Both Leonardo and Splinter grinned at her description.
"I was actually talking about the action, but, I guess that works too," he teased lightly.
Katerina flushed, awkwardly glancing around the room.
"O-oh, well, there hasn't been a whole lot of that yet," she reasoned.
"Well, just wait. It gets better," he assured her.
As the plot moved forward, they were introduced to the fact that Lou Jitsu's character in the movie was named 'Little Jacob', and he worked together with his aging father in a ladder factory. The twist was him being the unlikely hero, and using ladders as his main weapon of choice, seeing that he was so familiar with them.
Katerina had never considered that something as mundane as a ladder could be used as a weapon, but, there it was. The antics and confusion on the bad guy's part sure was fun to watch, though. And by the time it was over, all four of the turtles had gathered to enjoy it with them.
"Ah, such a classic!" Donatello praised once the credits were rolling.
"My favorite part is when they find his long lost mom," Michelangelo commented.
"Yeah, it's a good one, but, why are we watching this again?" Raphael asked, his brow furrowed.
"Cuz Katy wants to learn ninjutsu. So, whadaya say, cat girl? Wanna try your hand at ladder fighting?" Leonardo asked.
Thinking that he couldn't possibly be serious, Katerina grinned and nodded enthusiastically.
"Sure thing! Got any spare ladders lying around?" she joked.
Both his and Master Splinter's expressions faltered a bit, when they realized that the answer to that question was actually, 'no'.
"Hmmm, perhaps we could start with assessing what you already do know," Splinter finally decided, easing himself out of his chair.
He moved over to the corner of the room, where there was actually a significant number of random weapons being stored, and began to rummage around in the pile. A moment later, he pulled out a plain, wooden bow and a half-full quiver of training arrows. They reminded her of the ones she used in school. He moseyed over and dropped them into her hands.
"Let's see what you can do," he encouraged, gesturing towards a straw dummy propped up on the other side of the room.
"Uh, okay," she agreed, rising and slinging the quiver onto her back.
She stood near the opposite wall, pulling and nocking an arrow as the others shifted out of the line of fire. The muscle memory quickly came back to her as she lifted the bow to her cheek, drawing back the string. She followed through with the proper breathing as she took aim, just like she was originally taught. A deep breath, let out about half of it, and fire!
The arrow sailed across the room, lodging itself almost directly in the center of the dummy's chest. She smiled with satisfaction at her success, turning to see the, somewhat, impressed expressions on her audience's faces.
"Not bad," Splinter acknowledged. "Now try for the head," he suggested, and she complied, getting about the same results.
"Wow, Katy! You're pretty good," Michelangelo praised.
"Well, I did practice a lot when I was in school, but this isn't too hard. I mean, the room isn't super long," she pointed out.
"Not to mention, it's not a moving target," Donatello added, pessimistically.
He did have a point, however. Realistically, if she were to try using a bow in an actual battle, she'd need to be able to hit a sporadically maneuvering enemy.
"No, but it is better than nothing," Splinter argued, gesturing that she should set aside the weapons. "Now that we've watched the video, if you'd like to begin with some hands on training, the first thing to know about martial arts is that it is just as much a mental exercise as it is physical. So, every training session should start with meditation and warming up," he explained. "Would anyone else care to join and help out cat girl?" he wondered.
At hearing this, the turtles began shuffling and avoiding making direct eye contact. They each made a variety of generic excuses before disappearing one by one, until Michelangelo was the only one left. He sighed and shook his head at his brothers lack of cooperation.
"I'll stay and help you, Katy," he told her.
"Really?" she asked, flashing him a grateful grin.
"Yeah, let's do this," he confirmed, settling onto the floor in a cross legged position that she quickly mimicked.
After several minutes of meditation, they moved onto a warm up exercise, and then Splinter began going over the basic stances with her, starting with the 'ready' stance. Apparently how you stand would follow into how well you were able to execute even the most simple of attacks and blocks.
They had moved into her practicing intentional blocking, with Michelangelo delivering light attacks on her, when Donatello poked his head back into the room. He eyed the display for a moment before speaking.
"I'm heading to the junk yard," he informed them.
"Oooo!" Michelangelo exclaimed, halting his 'assault' on the cat girl. "I'm coming too!" he called, but then stopped and turned back to Katerina once he remembered he was already in the middle of something. "Uh, hey! Whatdaya say to taking a break? You can come with us?" he offered, as if that had always been his intention.
She hesitated for a moment at the invitation, casting an unsure glance in Donatello's direction. He simply sighed, fully understanding the unspoken message.
"I don't mind if you come along," he assured her.
She grinned and picked up the bow and arrows with the purpose of putting them away, now that they were apparently finished with training for now. However, Master Splinter was quick to stop her.
"N-no! Those were a gift. You are more than welcome to keep them to practice with until you are ready for something more advanced," he assured her.
Katerina glanced down at the weapons in her arms, then looked back up at the rat master with a very appreciative smile.
"Thank you," she told him sincerely. He nodded to her with a smile of his own as she hurried after the others.
. . .
"Man! Junk yards are gold mines!" Donatello exclaimed with glee, as he wrenched the trunk open of an old, beat up car with the robo arms from his Battle Shell.
It was, indeed, filled with junk. Although he began rapidly rifling through it anyway. He managed to pull out a fruit shaped air freshener and took a deep whiff of it, while Katerina lobbed a questioning glance in Michelangelo's direction. He just shook his head and waved his hand, hinting that she probably shouldn't question.
"Who needs real pineapples when you have one of these babies?" he challenged, although to whom Katerina couldn't be sure.
"What do you have against real pineapples?" she wondered, pushing aside some ruined plushies and baseball equipment to see if she could help him find anything worth salvaging.
"Well, for one, they're terrible on pizza," he pointed out.
"Fair point," she acknowledged.
She couldn't argue since she'd personally never been real fond of warm fruit. Hawaiian pizza had always seemed like a weird idea to her.
Something glinted in the corner of the trunk, catching her eye. She pulled it out to discover a damaged tablet. The screen was cracked, probably the reason for it having been discarded, but the back seemed surprisingly unharmed. Maybe that could mean that the internal workings were still intact? Apparently Donatello was thinking the same thing, because he gasped when he noticed it in her hands.
"Nice find!" he praised, and she held it out to him.
He gave it a quick once over before reaching around and sticking it into his mechanical shell. Then went back to digging.
The loud sound of machinery grinding suddenly alerted their attention to a tower crane picking up a car right next to them with it's powerful magnet. They watched as it slowly carried it over until it was almost on top of them!
"Donnie!" Michelangelo called, trying to get his attention, as he was currently too occupied with his junk sorting to notice.
Katerina also attempted to back away, forgetting for a moment that they were actually standing on a large mountain of cars! Her balance faltered for a bit before she stopped.
"Donnie! Donnie! I really think we should –!" he tried warning him again, but didn't get a chance to finish.
"Ah! Fuzzy nerd dice!" Donatello was calling out excitedly as he pulled the pair of dice out of the trunk, continuing to ignore the increasingly frantic cries of his brother.
"Donnie!" Katerina finally yelled in his face as the car above them suddenly dropped from the magnet!
They had only about a half a second to react. Michelangelo yanking Donatello out of the way as Katerina dove after them. They tumbled down the tower of cars before landing in the seats of a convertible parked on the ground, the cat girl effectively getting dropped straight into Michelangelo's lap! They sat in a stunned silence for a moment.
"Guys, next time, I would appreciate a heads up," Donatello ironically informed them.
Katerina blinked back at him, before another thought suddenly occurred to her.
"I can't take this kind of pressure. I must confess, one more dusty road, would be just a road too long," she suddenly sang out with a big grin.
Donatello narrowed his eyes even further at her.
"Please don't start anthropomorphizing all the garbage," he requested.
"I couldn't resis–wait! What is that?" she suddenly questioned, seeing the movement of something large and oddly shaped out of the corner of her eye.
"Ah! Is that. . .!" Michelangelo trailed in surprise, rotating the rear view mirror of the car to get a better look. Donatello gasped at the reflected image.
"It is!" he declared with awe.
"The Jupiter Jim Moon Buggy!" Michelangelo squealed with delight.
"Featured in not one, not two, but sixty sequels of Jupiter Jim's Last Trip to the Moon!" Donatello conveniently explained in his excitement.
"Holy crap! That's a lot of sequels!" Katerina had to comment. "Is the irony of the title intentional?" she wondered.
"You should never mock greatness, young catawan," Donatello jokingly lectured.
She snorted at the pun.
"Says the guy referencing the far superior sci-fi series," she quipped back with a sly look.
Donatello gasped in mock-horror.
"You bite your tongue!" he berated her.
However, their conversation was suddenly cut short by the loud crashing of the apparent 'Moon Buggy' getting flipped and launched across the junkyard.
"What are they doing? Why are they trying to wreck it?" Katerina wondered at the blatant mistreatment.
"An even better question is, how could anybody let that historical gem slip through their fingers?" Michelangelo questioned sadly, both he and Donatello flipping around in the seats to get a better look.
"I do not know, Michael, but we've gotta have it!" Donatello declared with determination.
Kicking the door off the beater, Donatello began to sneak closer to gain a superior vantage point, Michelangelo and Katerina right on his heels.
"But, how are we gonna get the car? We can't go and talk to one of those human people," Michelangelo reasoned.
"Oh, man! I know what you mean," Katerina agreed in a serious tone, earning some strange looks from the other two. "What?" she asked defensively. "Talking to people is scary," she reasoned.
A second later, and they all practically jumped out of their skin as the car they were hiding behind was suddenly lifted off the ground by an unseen force. Which then quickly revealed what appeared to be, a bright purple, mutant mantis man glaring down at them!
"Who the heck are yous?" he demanded of the group, hoisting the vehicle over his head in an impressive display.
"Oh no! A mutant!" Donatello exclaimed in a panic. "Wait. We're mutants too. It's okay," he realized in a calmer tone.
They all propped themselves up into kneeling positions, recovering from previously falling over out of fright.
"Dude! You better hide! There's a human guy around here," Michelangelo warned him nervously.
"Easy, easy," he coaxed, tossing the automobile as though it were made of paper mache, or Raditz. Katerina had to give him props for brute strength! "This is Repo Mantis Salvage. The guy is me," he explained with exasperation.
"This is your lot?" Michelangelo wondered in surprise.
"That's right," he confirmed.
"Cool," Katerina expressed with a bit of awe.
"You have to sell us that Moon Buggy! Please!" Michelangelo practically begged, getting right up in his face.
The mantis man just glared at him, until Donatello grabbed the orange turtle and yanked him back and away, out of hearing range. Katerina just blinked at them for a moment before turning back to Repo.
"Sooo," she slowly dragged out the word. "I really like your coloring! You must've come in contact with an orchid mantis?" she guessed.
"Yeah, had one as a pet for a while, until my cat ate it," he explained, giving her a rather dark and dubious look, causing Katerina to flinch.
"Oh, uh," she chuckled awkwardly. "I've never had much of an interest in eating bugs," she stated lamely, while wondering what the heck was taking the guys so long.
A jaguar scream sound effect brought their attention back to the two turtles. They had each donned a pair of dark sunglasses, complete with a fresh set of bad boy attitudes as they moseyed back over to the buggy. Donatello dragged a finger along the length of the vehicle as Michelangelo patted down the opposite side. He stopped as if to examine the potential residue on his fingertips, rubbing them together.
"So, uh, how much you gonna pay us to take this pile of parts off your hands, amigo?" he casually questioned Repo, leaning up against the buggy.
"Scram!" Repo ordered, not sounding amused by the gimmick. He bent down to pull a clip board up off the ground. "I got a lotta fenders to count!" he snapped.
"I see you drive a hard bargain, sir. Well, perhaps I can interest you in a little coin?" Donatello pressed, not sounding at all deterred. He pulled his wallet out of his Battle Shell. "I got big silver, small silver, and I can make it rain copper, daddy," he boasted, dropping handfuls of pennies onto the ground as if to demonstrate.
"Oh boy," Katerina muttered, dragging a hand down her face as Repo eyed him skeptically. "Donnie, you can't expect to be able to purchase a vehicle with pocket change. No matter how ridiculous," she mumbled.
"Hey!" Michelangelo protested.
Donatello put up a finger and shushed her.
"Leave the negotiating to the big boys," he told her.
"Yeah, okay," Katerina mock-humored him, fixing him with a dubious gaze.
"Eh, your kitty-cat is right, you ain't got nearly enough. But say – I could use a couple of tough muties like you. Ever do any repo work?" he turned to ask them.
"Of course!" Michelangelo chimed in enthusiastically without thinking. "No," he then realized after a moment. "What's repo work?" he asked, pulling his shades down a bit.
"It's when you take stuff back, from dead beats who didn't pay for it," Repo explained, slicing off the side mirror of a nearby car with one of his razor sharp talons. "Do a job for me today, and I'll let you have that moon, buggy, thing," he told them, gesturing at it.
Michelangelo wasted no time in jumping up and down with glee. He sprang forward with a gasp of joy, getting right up in the mantis man's face.
"We're in!" he cheered, right before Donatello reached out to yank him back, once again attempting to dial back the orange turtle's enthusiasm.
"And, sidebar!" he interjected, pulling him away for them to confer in private. Once again, leaving Katerina standing next to Repo.
He blinked down at her.
"These guys always this antsy?" he wondered.
"I haven't actually known them for that long. But, from what I've seen so far, yes," she admitted.
A moment later, the boys flipped back around to face them again.
"We're in!" Michelangelo repeated, but this time, sounding much more determined than eager. "What's the skinny, chico?"
"I need ya ta get an RV from a real shady mutant," Repo explained, holding up a picture on his clip board. "Holes up in the woods on the wrong side of the tracks, in the darkest outskirts of the bad part of town," he described dramatically.
The boys just stared back at him with blank looks.
"Uh. . ." Katerina trailed, cocking her head with confusion at the random directions. "That's – a little vague. Could you perhaps, be a bit more specific?" she requested politely with a sweet smile.
Repo sighed, looking a bit disappointed.
"Fine, pretty sure he usually hangs around the edge of Long Island Woods. But that don't sound nearly as cool," he lamented.
Katerina's smile widened back at him nonetheless.
"Thank you, Mr. Mantis," she said with a slight bow of respect. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Guess we just need to find a ride to Long Island," she said to the others.
. . .
A few hours, and a bumpy ride in the back of an old truck later, the group arrived at said forest. Luckily the vehicle owner wasn't moving very quickly, allowing them to dive out of the bed with little effort, Katerina much less gracefully than the others.
"Thanks for the ride!" Michelangelo called out as they did so.
Although the driver didn't answer, most likely because he wasn't actually aware he'd been giving a ride.
There was a small boy in a yellow raincoat standing next to a rather large man in a gray shirt waiting at the bus stop near where they got off. They were both carrying open umbrellas even though it wasn't currently raining. They flashed the odd group surprised expressions at their sudden appearance as they headed deeper into the forest, but not before Katerina paused to get a better look.
She felt a sudden sense of nostalgia rush over her at the sight and offered them a friendly wave. They actually returned her wave, albeit a bit awkwardly. It still made her smile, before she turned and hurried to catch up with the others.
"I ran a profile on this guy," Donatello informed them, shining a flashlight out of his Battle Shell to illuminate their way through the darkening woods. "Lawless loner, doesn't pay his bills, lives in this very spooky forest," he explained, waving a hand at their surroundings as the sound of a crow cawing seemed to emphasize his point.
Meanwhile, Michelangelo had a death grip on his right arm, looking rather nervous. Although while not directly acknowledging it, Donatello didn't seem to mind. It made Katerina kind of wish she had someone to hold onto right now.
"He is a ninety eight percent match for the Spine Breaking Bandit!" Donatello exclaimed in a whisper-shout.
The sudden tinkling of an empty can rolling along the ground caused Katerina's fur to stand on end, and she froze. Michelangelo and Donatello jumped as well, the latter pulling the two of them down behind a row of bushes. A moment later, he noticed Katerina still standing next to them, looking simple.
"What are you doing?! Get down!" he hissed, grabbing her arm and roughly yanking her to the ground.
Not knowing how to answer for her lapse in judgment, the cat girl simply stared at her wrist, rubbing the spot where he'd gripped her. Meanwhile, Michelangelo narrowed his eyes in determination.
"I'm not scared of some 'no-good forest dweller!" he scoffed. "Let's see him." He pulled back the leaves of the bush to get a better look at the RV on the other side. "There's his RV!" he realized.
Peering through the foliage, the three of them watched as the side door swung open. Light from inside poured onto the ground below, and a creature stuck it's head out, revealing a giant pair of snarling fangs.
The guys yelled in fright, recoiling away from the disturbing sight. Donatello inadvertently backing up into Katerina hard enough that it kind of hurt. She grunted and narrowed her eyes at them skeptically.
"That's the biggest forest dweller I've ever seen!" Michelangelo shouted.
"Don't you guys fight evil mutants and stuff all the time?" she questioned dubiously, not understanding their fear.
"No. Not all the time," Donatello pouted back at her.
"Plus, those other guys weren't 'spine breaking' bandits!" Michelangelo emphasized.
"He is totally gonna break our spines!" Donatello lamented. "Maybe we should call Raph and Leo," he suggested, making a motion to dial them on his omni-tool.
"No! Nononono!" Michelangelo barked, diving on top of him and grabbing at the omni-tool to stop him.
Katerina quickly backed away, so as not to get involved with their scuffle.
"We got this! Think of all the boss adventures we could have in the Moon Buggy," Michelangelo argued.
"But, what's so bad about calling for some backup?" Katerina wondered.
"We can't! If we chicken out now, they'll never let us live it down," he explained. "We gotta pull this off on our own."
"And you're sure this is worth it?" Katerina stressed, but Michelangelo just nodded sternly in response.
"Ugh, alright. If you are dead set on doing this, we gotta go stealth," Donatello told him.
The snapping of a twig behind her drew Katerina's attention over her shoulder, and she turned to find a shadowy figure standing there.
"Sneak-jutsu one o one, never let a spine breaker get behind you," Donatello was continuing to warn them.
"You mean, like the one standing behind us right now?" she pointed out, right before the figure clicked on his flashlight.
Being a little more quick on the uptake this time, Katerina jumped up with the others as they let out high-pitched squeals of terror and began bolting in the other direction.
"No! Why didn't you say that he was directly behind us?!" Donatello demanded, as a large dog suddenly lunged at them from the bushes to their side.
They sprang away from it, still in a mad attempt to scramble to safety.
"I only just noticed him!" Katerina argued, while Michelangelo continued his shrill shrieking as it dawned on them that the RV was also filled to bursting with wildly barking dogs.
They altered course again, diving over the table out in front of the RV and ending up in a loose gravel pile. They all turned back with a gasp to see the other mutant was still directly behind them and had one of his dogs currently clutched in his grasp. He let out what sounded like a growl, before suddenly pulling on a rope that caused an enormous spot light to burst on, all but blinding them.
"Hey, I'm Todd! Welcome to Cuddle Cakes Puppy Rescue!" The large, apparently harmless, rodent-looking man announced, as a hoard of enthusiastically yipping puppies converged on them with wagging tails and slobbering kisses. "The puppy-est place on Earth!" he added with a laugh.
Now that the initial shock was wearing off, Katerina began pushing the bothersome things away, trying to wipe all the puppy drool out of her fur. She'd never been much of a dog person, and her changing into a cat girl did nothing to improve her opinion.
"Puppies? Right. . ." Donatello trailed skeptically, glancing around their now lit up surroundings. "And which one are you having, for dinner?" he accused ominously.
"Oh, right!" Todd exclaimed, as if he'd just remembered something very important. "It's dinner time!" he declared, pulling on another rope to release a flood of dog kibbles that poured into a metal feeding trough below.
Now having something even more enjoyable to occupy their attention, the puppies abandoned their affection quarry to begin rapidly scarfing down food at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, the only thing the kids could managed to do was stare down at them with an encompassing air of confusion. That is, until Todd invited them to sit at the table and rest for a bit. He even went so far as to provide blankets so they wouldn't get cold in the nighttime forest air.
However, Katerina politely declined the one he offered to her, already feeling plenty warm from their earlier exertions. Todd then moved back inside his RV, and Katerina began picking up the distinct smell of freshly chopped lemons.
"Hey. You guys want some of my internet famous, homemade lemonade?" he offered. "I donate it to folks in Alaska who need a little sunshine," he explained, setting full glasses down in front of them without actually waiting for a response.
The boys looked reluctant as they each picked up a glass and sampled a sip. They both instantly brightened at the taste.
"Oh wow! This is pretty good," Michelangelo confessed.
"That honestly tastes exactly like sunshine," Donatello added.
"Katy, you gotta try this," Michelangelo encouraged, pushing her glass a bit closer to her.
Katerina tentatively placed the straw in her mouth and took a swig. Her face scrunched in response and a small, involuntary shiver ran down her spine, not being real fond of sour flavors. Even so, she decided against saying anything to try and be polite. However, Michelangelo still fixed her with a bewildered expression at her reaction, making her feel the need to explain.
"Since my mutation, I've been having a little trouble tasting sweet things," she confessed.
So, while the sugar level in the drink was probably perfect for them, she could hardly detect it at all.
"Oh, I guess kitties do tend to have trouble with sugar. Here," Todd realized, plopping several more sugar cubes into her glass and mixing it up for her. "Try it now," he suggested.
She sampled it, taking another long drag at the straw.
"Much better," she acknowledged with a contented sigh.
Todd nodded with satisfaction before turning back to his RV. Donatello fixed his retreating form with a dubious look.
"Wow, and sidebar!" he interjected, this time pulling them both aside to speak to them in private.
"Cute puppies? Nonprofit lemonade?" he questioned skeptically, as the others continued nursing their straws. He seemed to not be able to help polishing off his own glass before continuing. "This is no 'spine breaking' bandit!" he declared with dismay.
"So? Doesn't that make things easier?" Katerina asked.
"No! This is way harder! We were supposed to be taking back an RV from a hardened criminal. This is like, the nicest guy in the world! How are we supposed to live with ourselves if we repo his home!" Michelangelo lamented.
"Oh. . ." Katerina trailed, understanding the predicament.
She glanced back in Todd's direction. It would be really hard not to feel bad, forcing this guy and his puppies to be homeless just so they could get their hands on that silly buggy!
"But we need that RV," Donatello reminded them. "We gotta be tough with him!" he determined, biting into the lemon slice on the side of his glass before spitting it away like he was some kind of hard case. "Hard as nails!" he cried in determination.
Michelangelo quickly polished off his drink.
"Got it!" he agreed.
They both turned and marched back over to the table with no-nonsense attitudes, plopping themselves down in front of the mutant capybara.
Katerina just shook her head at them with an amused smirk. She seriously had her doubts that they'd be able to go through with this. Michelangelo was just too nice, and she didn't think Donatello had it in him to be that heartless, either.
"So, Todd, let's get down to business about your RV," Michelangelo insisted nonetheless, pointing at the live-in vehicle parked behind him.
"Sure thing," he agreed with a chuckle, but then reached down to pluck up one of the puppies from off the ground. "Could you hold Willis?" he suddenly requested, offering the creature towards Michelangelo.
"Oh, I – I, I don't know if I'm – No –" he stuttered in his attempt to protest, but the puppy bounded across the table towards him anyway, lapping him in the face. He seemed powerless to resist at that point, plucking up the puppy. "Oh! You little mischief maker!" he cooed at it.
At the same time, Todd rolled another one towards Donatello, who simply rolled it back callously. Katerina looked a little surprised at that, but maybe he wasn't a dog fan either.
"Wait a minute! We're supposed to be talking about your RV!" Michelangelo realized, holding the dog away from himself.
"Look, Todd, ya haven't made a payment in two years, and that means –!" Donatello didn't get a chance to finish before Todd cut him off.
"Yeah. Turns out, all you get for rescuing puppies are million dollar smiles," he acknowledged with a sigh. "Oooo! Miha wants her belly rubbed." Todd gestured at the puppy who'd rolled herself back in front of Donatello, but he pushed her away again.
"My hard as nails brother and I are here ta –" he stopped short, however, once he realized that Michelangelo had abandoned the table and was now currently occupied with feeding the younger puppies with a bottle-laden vest that he had mysteriously donned.
"And I'll call you Indiana Bones, and you, Little Bones," he was babbling at them.
Katerina couldn't help but giggle at Donatello's frustrated expression at discovering where his little brother was. This was already heading rapidly downhill, and she didn't see anyway of turning it around. The purple turtle pushed himself up from the table.
"Mikey! Come on!" he protested, but was interrupted by a ball flying out of nowhere and smacking him in the face. Donatello waved his arms around in alarm.
"Ooo hoo hoo! Melvin wants to play!" Todd explained. They glanced down to spy the larger, brown puppy. The blue rubber ball clenched between his teeth. "Could you toss his ball?" he requested.
Meanwhile, Katerina felt a sharp pain at the end of one of her tails!
"Ow!" she exclaimed, flipping around to find it was being chewed on by yet another puppy. She quickly snapped it away from it with a glare.
"Oh, sorry. Bella's teething right now. Chews on everything," Todd told her, but it did little to soothe her throbbing appendage.
"Okay, fine!" Donatello finally consented, plucking up the puppy and the ball. He leaned over and took a step, throwing the ball away. "I will toss the ball if you give us the keys to your –!" he was cut off once again by the sound and sensation of a squish, and froze in horror.
"I am in something squishy. I am in something squishy!" he fretted in a panic, glancing down with a grimace to find the culprit.
Katerina felt herself cringing away as well.
"Oh yeah. I am so swamped, I never get to clean the yard up," Todd confessed sadly. "But you guys are so good at this!" he realized, perking up. He hopped down from the table and moved around back before bringing out several shovels. "You wanna grab a couple shovels?" he suggested, holding them out to the group despite the frustrated expressions he got in return.
Amazingly, both the boys robotically took the offered tools and began completing the implied task. During this time, Todd called a guy to bring his truck around as the vessel for disposal of the – offending material. When Katerina didn't immediately comply with the impromptu mucking, Todd moved over to address her directly, waving the extra shovel in front of her.
"You sure you don't wanna join in?" he pressed.
Katerina's face contorted into a grimace at the idea, but since the others were already busy helping. . .
"Oh, what the hell," she sighed, realizing that if nothing else, it would at least help move the plot along.
She could only hope that the truck that showed up to assist wasn't the same one they'd hitched a ride in to get there. The implications of that were, uncomfortable, to say the least.
. . .
As the last shovelful of whatsit was finally loaded into the back of the truck, the group of teens simply stood around, appearing baffled at the strange turn of events. Todd waved to the truck driver in thanks as he pulled away.
"Why did we just do that?" Michelangelo found himself wondering aloud.
"I don't know, Michael. I don't know," Donatello replied, sounding less than pleased with himself. "Niceness is his superpower!" he realized.
"Eh, I'd say it's more emotional manipulation and guilt tripping disguised as 'niceness'. Doesn't the fact that you guys were willing to clean up the whole yard for free make you the nice ones?" Katerina offered.
"Well, I mean, you helped too," Michelangelo told her.
She just shrugged.
"Nothing better to do." Even so, she couldn't help the warm sensation that was continually growing in her heart basically since they got there.
Try as they might, they just couldn't seem to bring themselves to be mean to the rodent man, even if it meant getting something they really wanted. Speaking of which, when Todd came back outside to see that they were finished, he didn't come empty-handed, sporting more glasses of lemonade which Katerina assumed were for them.
"You guys must be exhausted," he realized, Michelangelo readily snapping up one of the cups. "Why don't you sleep over?" he suggested, noting the late hour. "In the morning, I can hold Sir Chomps-A-Lot while you guys floss his giant fangs!"
"That sounds grea–" Donatello surprisingly began, but quickly cut himself off before he could finish. "No! No! We didn't come here to help you!" he snapped, throwing the shovel on the ground in protest. "We came to repo your RV!" he yelled, glaring at the capybara.
Todd lowered his head in despair before plopping down on the steps of his soon to be taken home. He glanced up for them to see large streams of tears falling from his eyes, and he sniffed hard before speaking.
"Yeah, I guess me and the pups will just, sleep under the stars tonight," he whimpered, right before dark rain clouds began to mysteriously roll into the sky overhead.
A moment later, and they were instantly soaked in the ensuing torrential downpour! Todd and the puppies all looking incredibly pathetic, as the small creatures ducked for cover.
"And every night," he continued. "During puppy hurricane season!" he lamented.
"Seriously?" Katerina questioned dubiously. "Pretty sure that's not a thing," she criticized, pulling a hand over her sopping face.
The sob story seemed to be affecting Michelangelo, however. He swiped at his teary eyes as one of the puppies brought over an orange umbrella, setting it down right in front of the matching turtle.
"Hello darkness, my old friend," Katerina sang with a silly grin.
Donatello side eyed her.
"Stop!" Michelangelo moaned, waving a hand in her direction. "I can't do it!" He fell to his knees before plucking up the umbrella and opening it above him and the puppy to reveal that it was actually full of holes!
"Okay! The umbrella is too much! There's gotta be a way that we can make a compromise," she reasoned in a practical manner.
"Sure," Donatello pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration before continuing. "How about Todd trades us that dusty RV, and we make him a new place to sleep," he offered reluctantly.
Todd gasped in surprise at his words and stared up at them with eyes full of joy.
"A-are you for real?" the cat girl wondered at him. Not that she knew much about construction, but building a home sounded like a monumental undertaking!
"I don't see how we have any other options. Besides, even if we leave the RV with Todd and forget about the Moon Buggy, it'll only be a matter of time before Repo Mantis sends someone else, or just comes to get it himself," Donatello argued.
"Yeah, that makes sense. Guess we're gonna have to build a puppy paradise," Katerina teased.
"Really? And it'll have a place to feed the puppies, and bathe and – and diaper them, and play with them?" Todd asked hopefully.
"Yes," Donatello confirmed, blowing out a heavy sigh.
"I don't suppose. . ." Todd then trailed before finishing what was no doubt another request.
"Yes, obviously there will be robot assistants!" Donatello snapped at him.
"That's obvious?" Katerina asked skeptically, following after the purple turtle as he turned back to the table to make a plan.
The rain seemed to magically clear up after that, and Katerina shook herself to try and dry out her fur. Donatello recoiled away from it, not wanting to get any wetter than he already was! He turned to find her ringing out her tails.
"Do you mind?" he glowered at her. "Just because you look like a cat, doesn't mean you gotta act like one!"
"My bad, but I've learned why animals always shake now. Having wet fur is heavy and uncomfortable," she informed him.
Donatello hauled some tools out of his Battle Shell and spread them on the table.
"So, how do you plan on pulling this off?" she had to wonder, taking a seat next to him.
"Well, first things first. We're gonna need materials," he determined.
"Naturally, but, where are they gonna come from?" she stressed.
"Same place I get most of my stuff," he offered cryptically, before flashing her a big grin.
. . .
They spent the next several days moving back and forth from local landfills and junkyards, collecting supplies that the people of the city no longer saw any value in. However, Donatello looked at all forms of junk with a completely different perspective, being able to find a use for just about everything! His ability to transform the ordinary into extraordinary was nothing short of incredible! At least, in Katerina's opinion.
There was a great deal of reworking of discarded two by fours and wooden planks, not to mention the smelting and soldering of metal to create structures and frameworks. Donatello had it all planned out in his head, giving clear and concise instructions to his amateur construction crew.
Even Todd was joining in with the work this time, putting his own touch of creativity into the project. He busied himself with creating the aesthetically pleasing portions of the new homestead, like making sure everything was painted pretty colors and even adding a giant puppy head statue to the top of what ended up being an elaborate entrance to the facility. The whole thing slowly began to take on a more theme park appearance than an actual puppy rescue.
They worked tirelessly for days, Todd making sure to keep them fed, as well as fueled, with plenty of his signature lemonade. Until they'd managed to provide him with everything he'd initially requested, plus a few extras. Such as an automatic Frisbee thrower Donatello whipped together that Michelangelo seemed to find just as much enjoyment with as the puppies!
The boys were sporting exhausted and disgruntled expressions as they finally took the keys to the RV from Todd and began to drive away with their prize.
"Thanks guys! I'll never forget you!" Todd called after them, as Donatello started the engine. The capybara man suddenly appeared right next to the driver side window, waving wildly at them. "And come back, if you ever wanna milk the puppies! They have eight nipples!" he continued to yell, Donatello rolling up the window as quickly as the electronic mechanism would allow.
"No! Stop! No!" he shouted back, hitting the gas so hard it caused Katerina to stumble backwards onto her butt, since both he and Michelangelo had taken the available seats.
"Ugh! Also, why. . .?" she trailed.
Michelangelo turned to find her prostrate on the floor.
"Never mind, I don't need to know," she realized, not possessing the energy to actually care.
He turned back to his brother behind the wheel, and both of them flashed each other excited grins as they finally pulled away from the hateful place, hoping to never have to see it again!
"Hard as nails!" they exclaimed together, slapping palms.
At hearing this, Katerina instantly burst out laughing at the irony of the statement. They both turned to cast her irritated glares, Donatello for only an instant.
"What's so funny?" Michelangelo asked with a pout.
"We built that guy a theme park in exchange for this thing!" she stressed, patting at the floor below her for emphasis.
"Yeah, and, it was really hard," Donatello argued.
"Well, I suppose when you put it that way. . ." she admitted for him with a smirk. "The important thing is that we can finally get you guys that buggy," she decided, sitting back up to fix the orange turtle with a big smile.
He returned the smile before adverting his eyes to the floor, looking a tad sheepish.
"Thanks for all your help, Katy. You didn't have to, but I don't know if we could have done it without you," he confessed.
"Aw! It was no problem. Owning that buggy obviously means a lot to you guys if you were willing to go through all of that to get it," she reasoned, Michelangelo giving her another grateful gaze. "But, if nobody minds, I think I'm gonna need a bit of a nap," she under-exaggerated, before flopping back once again.
She was practically out as soon as her head hit the floor.
. . .
Another long car ride later, and Katerina felt herself being roused by the sensation of their speed reducing and the vehicle's engine quieting. She sat up and rubbed at her sleepy eyes, before lifting herself high enough so she could see out the windows. She found that Donatello was pulling the RV back into the front entrance of Repo Mantis Salvage.
"Alright!" he declared with satisfaction.
"We did it!" Michelangelo cheered. "Hey, Repo!" he called to the purple mantis man. "One RV, as promised. Wax up that Moon Buggy, baby!" he told him, patting the side of the rig for emphasis.
"Not bad. Not bad," Repo admitted, sounding slightly impressed as he made his way over to where they'd parked. "But what had happened was. . ." he suddenly trailed, instantly giving everyone that sensation of not liking where this was going. "I ain't giving it to ya," he told them harshly.
And there it was! The purple mutant gestured over to a corner of his lot to where he'd appeared to have set up the Moon Buggy as some kind of display. He'd even added signs and a backdrop to help showcase it.
"Turns out, dorky Jupiter Jim fans will pay big bucks just to sit in that thing," he explained, obviously having realized this fact in the last day or two.
"What?!" Donatello demanded with fury. "We had a deal, buddy-o!" he reminded him, the group of kids hoping out of the now irrelevant RV.
They converged on the mantas man.
"Scraping is a tricky business, kids. And you got tricked!" Repo taunted with a sinister grin.
"We are not leaving without our Moon Buggy!" Donatello snapped, getting right in the shady dealer's face.
"Hey! The purple one's funny," Repo continued to tease, pushing said turtle out of his personal space and onto his back.
"I keep telling you guys I'm funny," said purple one concurred.
"Not sure if it's the same context though," Katerina pointed out.
They didn't get a chance to argue about it, before Repo suddenly impaled a pair of steel blocks with his mantis talons, brandishing them above his head as he leapt into the air.
"I'm gonna break your legs half-way through, a-twice!" he threatened, following through a moment later by attempting to bring them down on top of Donatello's head!
The purple turtle managed to roll out of the way with little trouble, but it still left Katerina staring where he'd just been with a stunned expression.
"Well, that escalated quickly," she realized.
Meanwhile, Donatello had hardly been phased before turning to his brother. A plan already fully formed in his mind.
"Mikey, the magnet!" he hollered in his direction.
Seeming to know exactly what he had in mind, Michelangelo launched his weighted chain towards the crane controls directly behind the mantis man. It latched onto the lever which activated the aforementioned electromagnet, instantly hoisting Repo off the ground via his metallic boxing gloves.
He struggled hard to get loose, grunting profanities at the turtles as they darted towards their prize. Katerina following after once she realized she was getting left behind.
"A deal's a deal, Chico!" Mikey called in response.
"Is there anything magnet's can't do?" Donnie asked rhetorically.
All three of them scrambling into, what Katerina could only describe as the cockpit, of the movie vehicle.
It appeared to take Donatello all of two seconds to figure out the controls, both of the turtles spastically chortling as the buggy roared to life.
"Tally ho! Eat trailer dust, bug man!" Donnie taunted, as they pulled out of the yard.
However, it didn't take them long to realize that even at top speed, it felt like they were crawling along at a snail's pace.
"Man this thing is super slow!" the purple turtle complained as they watched a guy on a bicycle speed past them.
"Of course it is. It was built for the gravity of the moon," Mikey reasoned.
"But it's not like they actually–"
Katerina was suddenly cut off by the loud crash of something slamming into the back of them, throwing them all forward. She flipped around in surprise to find Repo riding their tail in a bright, green tow truck.
"Gimmie back my dork-moblie!" they heard him roar with rage.
"I think he means business, guys!" Katerina worriedly warned.
"Core lasers, activate!" Michelangelo announced, before slamming his finger against a button on the console.
They all glanced behind them to find – nothing happening.
"Aw!" Michelangelo whined in disappointment.
"Uh. . ." Donatello simply trailed.
"Crater dust cloud?" Mikey tried another button, still no reaction.
"Was that supposed to do something?" Katerina wondered.
"Zero atmosphere Gatling missiles?" He pressed the rest of the buttons in rapid fire, only for the last one to break, comically boinging up on the now loose spring. "Aw, nuts!" he complained, before Repo rear ended them again, causing his face to smash into the dash.
The crazy mutant mantis swerved around and sped up next to them, slamming his truck into the side of the buggy in an attempt to knock it over. It caused the teens to bounce painfully around in the cabin, but luckily the thing was too tank-like to be toppled so easily.
"This is a movie vehicle, pal. They wouldn't load it up with advanced lunar artillery," Donatello finally pointed out dubiously.
"Not unless it's the Moon Buggy from Jupiter Jim's, Third Last Trip to the Moon," Mikey determined, sticking his hand through the cheap aluminum console and proceeding to completely rip it off! "Which had a fake dashboard to fool the plutonians!" he cheered excitedly at discovering he was right. "Pasta Fazul! I'm kickin' in Jupiter Jim Titan Turbo Mode!"
Pulling up on a handle ostentatiously labeled, 'Pull To Activate', Michelangelo raised up a glowing, purple cylinder made of glass and who knows what else. This surprisingly caused a loud rumble from the engine, before a pair of bright, bursting flames shot out of the back of the buggy, instantly propelling them forward at a rapid speed!
Mikey only had the chance to make one face at their pursuer before they rocketed ahead of him, barely missing a guy with an armful of groceries. Donatello attempted some fancy maneuvering, but the crazed mutant remained right on their tail.
"I can't shake him!" he growled.
"I'll try the gravity grease three thousand!" Mikey decided, pressing yet another button.
Katerina leaned over the edge of the buggy to see to her amazement that oil actually began pumping out the sides, leaving a black mess in their wake. Unfortunately, the oil slick did little to deter Repo, slipping around them, but still managing to maintain control. Instead doing more damage to the innocent bystanders than anything.
"I think we got a bunch of people pretty oily," Donatello confirmed.
They had to brace themselves as Repo continued knocking them around, the slamming eventually wrenching the glass dome of the cab completely off!
"Guys, this isn't working!" Katerina cried, her voice edging on panic.
"Well, you're the one with the ranged weapons! Why don't you do something about it!?" Donatello barked back at her irritably.
"W-what? What exactly am I supposed to do?" she wailed.
"Ugh! Do I have to spoon feed everything to you?! Take out one of his tires!" he practically demanded.
Katerina glanced over at the wildly swerving truck and felt her stomach drop. There was no way!
"He's moving around too much! I'll never be able to –"
Donatello slammed his hand against the steering wheel in frustration, effectively cutting her off.
"Enough! You're a cat for crying out loud! You've got some of the best eyes in the animal kingdom! Now stop whining, and just do it!" he ordered.
Katerina glared at the back of his head with a scowl. A part of her seriously wanted to tell him off, but now was not the time. She also knew that since they really didn't have anything to lose, there was no reason she couldn't at least try.
Propping herself up on the edge of the car to get a better vantage point, the cat girl readied her newly acquired bow, drawing out and nocking an arrow. She pulled back the string, aimed, and took a deep breath.
In that moment, the world around her seemed to slow and somehow, simultaneously zoom. Similar to video games featuring bow and arrow mechanics. She realized she hadn't noticed this occurrence before when she'd only been aiming at a lifeless dummy. But now, the high speed and stress of the current situation made it almost impossible to ignore, and made her wonder, how any of it was happening in the first place?
Realizing there was no time to question, she waited for the perfect opportunity. Feeling an almost instinctual indication of timing, she released, an incredible sense of satisfaction washing over her at the sound of the arrow thunking into the rubber of the tire.
This was followed by a violent hissing as the pressurized gas rushed out into the air. A second later, and the frame of the truck hit the pavement, causing Repo to swing violently out of control, until finally connecting full force with a rather formidable lamp post. Meanwhile, the teens continued to zoom away, leaving the dazed mantis slumped over his totaled dashboard.
"Yeah-heah! Nice shot, Katy! You did it!" Michelangelo praised, lifting his hand towards her. "Hard as nails!"
She grinned and made a motion to return the gesture, however, a snort of derision from Donatello caused her to freeze halfway.
"Yeah right! More like, hard as mush," he mocked. "But at least I was right about the eyesight. Now we just gotta get this baby all fixed up as soon as we get her home," he observed as he patted the dash, the comment leaving Katerina open mouthed.
Did he – seriously just take credit for what she managed to do?
Forgetting about the high-five, or three in his case, Mikey turned back to his brother in excitement.
"This is gonna be so awesome! I can't wait to show the others!" he said merrily.
"Patience Michael, all in good time," Donnie concurred.
Meanwhile, Katerina simply blew out a long sigh as she sank back down behind the seats in the now topless cab. While she was still struggling to comprehend exactly what the purple turtle's beef was with her, she knew one thing for certain – it was time to start doubling up on the training!
What she couldn't have known, because not even Donatello himself fully understood, was that her continual lack of confidence in herself bothered him on a deeper level. Simply due to it being a painful reflection of his own.