Donny and Rita crept into Dragon Lord's fortress, got into the ventilation system, and crawled through to the less-known areas of the building.
"This place is sorta creepy." said Rita, looking around.
"You think this is creepy, you should see the nether areas of his lair at home; scary." said Donny.
Rita looked down out of one of the ventilation grates, then crawled closer to Donny.
They got into a rather desolate area of the building, and took some quick pictures of the area and entered information about it into their small computers.
Back at the lair, Venus and Leo sat in Venus' room, facing each other, eyes closed, holding hands as they meditated.
They saw two dragons standing in front of Dragon Lord (who's eyes they were looking through), as Dragon Lord spoke to them.
"You are to sharpen those swords, especially the jagged ones. No one will stand in the way of our goal." he then turned to Dr. Quease, who stood in the corner of the room. "You're sure that they will be able to slice through shell?"
Dr. Quease nodded reluctantly. He didn't want his subjects dead when they got to him.
"Capital." said Dragon Lord.
Venus and Leo squeezed each other's hands momentarily, upset at the sound of a sword that could, "slice through shell."
Donny and Rita had spent a good while's out, taking in all the information they could. They began heading back to the lair, but first, they stopped a moment on top of an abandoned building.
"Why are we stopping here?" asked Rita.
"I need to take down some information about the surrounding area." said Donny as he began typing something into the small computer he had.
Rita watched him for a moment, then walked off to the edge of the building, and peered over the side, looking down.
Donny had finished doing whatever typing he was doing, and walked over to Rita. "What's so interesting down there?"
Rita looked up at him slightly startled. "Oh, nothing much. Just the city. The lights look so beautiful at night."
Donny looked down. "Yeah, it is kinda nice. You should see Times Square at night. I don't think there's anything like it in the whole world."
Rita looked over at him. "Its that pretty?"
Donny looked over at her, and smiled fondly as he looked into her eyes. "Beautiful." he said.
Rita shyly smiled back.
Donny stepped up a little closer to her, leaned in and kissed her.
Back at the lair, Shelly and Ashton watched the computer intently.
"Why are they like, standing so close?" asked Shelly.
Ashton chuckled. "Do you really have to ask?"
Shelly thought for a moment. "Ohhh . ."
Just then, Ashton's smile faded as she looked at the screen.
Shelly caught her expression. "What's the like, matter Ashton?"
Ashton didn't respond, she just ran out of there in a flash.
"Whoa, where's the fire?" asked Raph as he saw her run out.
"I dunno, she just like, was looking at the screen and suddenly like, jetted outta here."
Raph went over to the computer. He looked at the screen and noticed a figure that disappeared and reappeared off and on the screen. It was almost as if it was too quick for the computer to keep track of. "Who's that guy?"
In her room, Venus' energy was being drained from the heavy concentration.
Splinter walked in just as Venus collapsed.
Leo fell backwards for a moment, breathing hard. "Man, I didn't know meditating could take so much outta ya."
Splinter walked over to Venus, and helped her sit up. "Venus, are you all right?" he asked concernedly.
Venus weakly looked over at him. "Dragon Lord . . . I know . . . what he is planning."
"And its pretty darn bad." added Leo.
Splinter looked worried.
Ashton dashed out the lair, out of the manhole, and up the street.
On top of the building, a shadow quickly flashed past Donny and Rita.
They didn't notice it as they were too involved with each other.
The loud CRASH! of a garbage can being thrown off of the building startled them out of their kiss.
The two Turtles looked around.
"What was that?" asked Donny.
"I don't know, but I didn't like the sound of it." said Rita, holding onto Donny's arm.
A cold chill ran up and down their backs as something moved in the shadows.
Just then, Schiam stepped out of the shadows with a grin.
Donny and Rita didn't know what to do.
"Boo." said Schiam.
Suddenly, a blur whizzed past them all, knocking Schiam down. As he stood up, his cheek felt wet. He touched it, and found blood, coming from five distinct scratches on his cheek.
Donny and Rita looked to the side and noticed Ashton, eyes angrily narrowed to slits, and claws out, walking towards Schiam.
"Leave, them, alone." she hissed angrily.
Schiam grinned. "The panther child. How nice to see you again."
"Donny, Rita, run." said Ashton.
They didn't need to be told twice, and quickly began running to the fire escape.
"Don't you go near them." said Ashton.
"Why would I?" said Schiam. Then his grin faded away. "All I really want is you."
Schiam tried to knock Ashton off of the building, but she got hold of a light pole, and slid all the way down, and began running off.
"Not so fast, kitty." Schiam then slid down the pole, and began chasing Ashton.
Schiam stood directly in Ashton's path.
Ashton stood still and watched Schiam carefully.
"Scared stiff?"
"Hardly the case, snake man."
Schiam came at Ashton, but she jumped out his way, and as she crossed his path, gave him matching scratches on the other side of his face.
Schiam felt his face momentarily. "I see you've been practicing."
"You have no idea."
"So have I." Schiam then came quickly at her, but rapidly changed direction as he came closer to her, causing Ashton to miss him completely.
As Ashton ran to a tree for a certain move she was planning to use, she didn't know Schiam was in the tree. He appeared from behind the trunk of the tree just as Ashton was directly on it, and with great force, smacked her away from it.
The force caused Ashton to fly backwards, and roughly hit a brick wall.
"Aah!!" she exclaimed, and fell to her hands and knees in pain.
"And that's just the tip of the iceberg." said Schiam, and he began lifting her up by her neck.
Ashton coughed as she began choking. She struggled to get free from Schiam's powerful grasp.
Schiam chuckled. "I knew this would be easy. After I've killed you, then Dragon Lord can begin his reign, starting with annihilating your shell-backed friends."
Ashton felt a burning anger rise up within her. "No!" she managed to say. She extended the claws on her toes that she hardly used, and dug into Schiam's legs with them.
"#%&@!!" Schiam exclaimed, letting go of Ashton, and throwing her to the ground.
Ashton slowly got up, coughing and trying to catch her breath.
Blood trickled from Schiam's legs, onto the hard pavement. He held his legs in pain, then glared at Ashton.
"We're not through, cat." he said, then quickly disappeared off into the night.
Ashton looked around, and listened carefully to her surroundings. He was gone. She then turned back to the alleyway where the manhole that was mainly used was, and weakly went over to it.
