Chapter Three: Envy.
It is a nobler fate to be envied than to be pitied – Pindar.
Eve's whiskers wavered with a mixture of fear and intrigue as she stared, unblinking at the sparring turtles in front of her. After spending the night in their warm, comfortable lair, Eve was personally invited by Splinter to watch the turtles' training lesson the next morning. Although she still wasn't used to seeing one-on-one fighting matches, Eve managed to develop a mild fascination with the ninjitsu style, but only enough to maintain her focus and not turn around and close her eyes when anything became too scary.
A single bead of sweat molded and formed on Donatello's domed, bald head, before rolling and trailing down the side of his face and dripping onto the mats below. Raphael was equally as tired as his brother, but in conjunction with a large intake of air, the turtle managed to muster a flying forward kick as the final blow. Eve winced slightly, but still watched the scene in front of her. Splinter simply smiled at his two sons and officially concluded the match; Raphael being the winner against Donatello.
Leonardo shifted in his place, knowing that he would most likely be called to spar against Venus, like in most lessons. It was sometimes difficult having an odd number of students, in that one turtle usually had to fight twice in order for everyone to have a turn, or Splinter would have to spar instead. Leo frowned as he quickly wiped the sweat off his brow that had formed as a result of his recent sparring match with Michelangelo, knowing that he'd need a lot of endurance for his upcoming battle with the female turtle. His forehead creased with confusion when Splinter unexpectedly called forth all of his students like he usually did at the very end of the lesson. His brow wrinkled even further when his suspicions were correct.
"Leonardo. Good work, but make sure you do not lock your elbow when you punch. Raphael, try to conserve your strength. If a simple punch or kick is all that's needed, then don't perform a higher level technique that exerts more energy. Donatello, try not to look exhausted in front of your opponent. Always attempt to look formidable, as sometimes a simple, defiant look is all that's needed to turn away an enemy. Michelangelo… don't show off," Splinter concluded the lesson by delivering his final comments. For the second day in a row, the aging ninjitsu master overlooked Venus.
"Um… Master Splinter. Venus didn't get to spar," Leonardo mentioned. He didn't want to offend his father by suggesting that he was forgetful, but a part of him wanted to prove himself against the female turtle. After all, he had a couple of moves that he wanted to test out. Splinter remained unresponsive, as though he never heard Leo's words.
"You are dismissed." The rat spoke firmly, demonstrating that there was no mistake on his behalf made, but rather it was purely his own decision. Venus stormed out of the dojo and made a beeline for her room. With a loud thud, she recklessly slid the door shut. To her, Splinter's actions and exclusions were like a slap in the face. For a whole two hours she had practiced beside the boys; tediously going through each technique, every kata and performed each set combination of moves. But all that training was meaningless if in the end she could not present or express what she had learned through a sparring match. There was no point in learning how to attack and defend herself if she couldn't practice it in a more realistic situation. It was as though Splinter was playing mind games with her, like he wanted her to realise that her time could be better spent elsewhere. All Venus wanted to do was to break down into a fit of tears, but she didn't allow herself the pleasure of such an emotional release and therefore resorted to pacing relentlessly back and forth inside the enclosed train carriage.
There was a knock on the door. Venus stopped pacing. With a sigh, she reluctantly answered by sliding open the door. Michelangelo stared at her with an unusual solemn expression, while Don looked over his shoulder. "Can we come in?" Mike asked simply. Venus nodded and allowed the two turtles to enter her room, then slid the door shut once again. The female stared at them as Don and Mike exchanged apprehensive glances. "Eve told me what Splinter suggested to you," Mike started. Venus took a deep breath, rather worried what their opinions on the matter would be, yet at the same time she became annoyed that the mouse didn't seem to know when to keep her mouth shut.
"Who else have you told? Who else knows?" Venus wondered.
"Just me, Eve and Donny."
"We didn't think it was true until after this morning's lesson," Donatello explained. The trio of turtles fell silent due to the awkwardness of the conversation. Mike started to suck at his bottom lip but stopped when he knew that something should be said.
"I don't think it's right," Mike stated his opinion. Don simply nodded in agreement. "You're an awesome fighter and I don't think you should give it up," Mike continued. Venus gave him a weak smile in acknowledgment of his compliment.
"Thank you," she whispered. "But Splinter doesn't think the same way," Venus said, relieved that she could finally discuss her problems with someone else.
"What exactly did he say?" Don wondered.
"He said that a battle was no place for a lady," Venus repeated Splinter's words as more anger started to build up due to his decision. "He told me that I should consider raising a family; settle down with Leo," Venus growled, and through her subconscious mind, she clenched and unclenched her fists. She suddenly froze in her spot when she realised what she had just said. The words had just toppled out of her mouth. Venus glanced at the two males in the hopes that they didn't hear the last part of her sentence, but it was clear from the long silence that followed that they heard everything.
"Wow… I hate it when Raph is right," Mike said, his voice turning back to his bubbly, light-hearted self.
"Right in what?" Don was curious.
"Right that Leo is Splinter's favourite! Raph wasn't paranoid; he was right all along," Mike commented with a little giggle. Don and Venus couldn't help but smile at his reasoning as well, even though the situation had just turned awkward.
"If it's any consolation, he used Leo more as an example of the rest of you-"
"-Venus, don't worry about it. The fact is that Splinter really shouldn't have suggested this to you at all," Don interrupted. Deep down, it did hurt that Splinter preferred Leo to hook up with Venus. While Mike simply hid his emotions under a façade of giggles and smiles, Don thought more rationally about the situation Venus was in, and soon started to feel sorry for Leonardo instead; as a reverse effect, Venus was now less likely to choose him in order to spite Splinter.
"Maybe you could spar at another time? Like, continue to go to the morning lesson so you still get to practice all the techniques, then when Splinter goes to bed at night, sneak out of the lair and spar with someone. He'll never know. Splinter can't control everything you do," Michelangelo suggested. Venus smiled, even though her situation was a bit more complicated than that.
"Thanks. I might try that," she said simply. "Just don't tell Leo about all this," Venus returned to the earlier issue.
All three turtles jumped in shock when Venus' carriage door was suddenly slid open. "Don't tell Leo what?" Raphael asked warily as he invited himself into Venus' room.
"How long were you standing there? How much did you hear?" Venus hurriedly asked, quickly getting worried.
"I heard a little bit," Raph admitted. He crossed his arms across his plastron, as though he was waiting for someone to fill him in on what was happening.
"You know it's rude to eavesdrop," Venus commented.
"And it's also rude to talk about people behind their backs and behind closed doors. You guys preach to me about how important it is to stick together as a family, and then you go off and leave people out of the loop," Raphael criticised, not really knowing what he was getting himself into. "So what's going on?" Raph asked more forcefully. There was a long silence filled with awkward glances. "Yeah, that'd be right. Don't tell 'crazy' Raphael anything! Leave me outta the loop, why don'tcha? Let's leave Raph clueless!" Raphael mimicked and mocked. He really didn't care about what they were walking about, but whatever it was, it did seem important. But what irritated him so much was the fact that he was being excluded.
Don sighed, knowing that it would be best if they just came clean, since Raphael was only going to get angrier and blow things out of proportion. Yet Don made the mistake in explaining to Raph the situation, instead of consulting Venus first. In the end, Venus wished her last sentence was, 'Don't tell Leo and Raph about this', as she had inadvertently given Don and Mike the permission to pass the information on.
"Well maybe Splinter's right," was Raphael's reaction.
"What?"
"How can you say that?" Mike and Don were both shocked, but Venus wasn't surprised at all. Raphael had always viewed Venus as a threat. He couldn't stand the fact that a girl could fight better than him. Although he held some respect for her abilities, he still desired the position of top dog; to be recognised as the best ninja in the clan. Raph was now given the opportunity to bring Venus down, so that things could return to the way they were, with Leo being his one and only competitor. Venus knew all this, and sometimes she really believed that Raph held stronger sexist views than Splinter. Although Raph was attracted to Venus' spunk and sometimes enjoyed the challenge she presented in a fight, he still couldn't deny the urge to ultimately win.
"Well it's true. Maybe she should start acting like a girl and start thinking of settling down," Raphael argued his opinion.
"But why now? I have plenty of time to do that later," Venus said.
"Have you ever thought of the possibility that maybe one of us would like to settle down sometime soon? Did you ever think of us? I wish you could just pick one of us already and get it over and done with, so the rest of us can go back to our ordinary lives!" Raphael yelled. There was nothing he hated more than procrastinating when it came to life-altering decisions.
"And what about me? I just stay in the lair all day and keep popping out babies!" Venus snarled.
"Don't try and prolong the inevitable." There was a short, shocked silence.
"So that's what you guys truly think of me as? Some floozy whose only purpose is to be eye-candy!" Don and Mike knew that Venus was getting really riled up, and it didn't help that Raphael kept egging her on. They both wanted to jump in and prevent the upcoming hotheaded argument, but neither really knew what to say in Venus' defense. Although Raphael was quickly getting cocky and arrogant, there still was an ounce of truth behind his politically incorrect words. It was true that one day, in order to continue on with the existence of the species, Venus would have to choose a mate. It was now only a question of when.
"Well isn't that the whole purpose of the only female member of our species?" Raph continued to debate.
"In case you have forgotten, I came to America to avenge Chung I!"
"So what? That doesn't mean that we can't deal with Dragon Lord ourselves."
"Dragon Lord is my enemy as well. If anything, I have a stronger reason to defeat him than the rest of you put together!"
"Oh really! Then how come you were the one to defeat the Shredder? Do you know how long we fought him for? How much all of us personally wanted to get back at him for all the horrible things he did to us? How is that fair?"
"What! That was different! If I didn't step in, Leo would be headless by now! How dare you compare the Shredder to the position I am in."
"Lies! What total bullshit! We would have gotten out of that mess without your help. We always had in the past. You took away our glory of defeating Shredder, so why can't we destroy Dragon Lord?" Raphael irrationally reasoned.
"What's going on in here?" Leonardo walked into Venus' bedroom only to find the rest of his family in the midst of a heated argument. As the leader, Leo instinctually felt the need to quell any qualms and to know what was happening in the clan and between particular members. Silence quickly returned to the room, which was sort of surreal considering there was non-stop talking within the last couple of minutes. Suddenly the lair's perimeter alarm started to wail. Although it was never a good thing to hear it, Venus was relieved that this time she was 'saved by the bell'. Donatello immediately bolted over to his computer in the main living room, with the others closely following behind.
"Dragons," Don said as he analysed the symbols and patterns that appeared over the computerised sewer tunnel map. "That's really weird…"
"What is?" Leo wondered, looking over Don's shoulder.
"Usually the Rank storms the sewers in huge groups. Today they're scattered all over the place, moving in groups of two or three individuals."
"Maybe they're just scouts?" Raph suggested.
"What should we do? If we attack the groups closer to the lair, then that might cause them to search this area more thoroughly," Donatello said to Leo.
"Well we can't just lie low, otherwise we risk our lair being found. We'll have to attack the groups one by one, but try to do it at random locations so that they don't suspect the general area where we live. We should be able to do it if we use the Hummer to travel topside from place to place," Leonardo formulated a plan. Everyone nodded in agreement. With no more words being shared, the turtles hurried over towards the rack where they kept their weapons and started to equip themselves. It wasn't long till Leo noticed that they were one member short. "Aren't you gonna come, Venus?" Leo asked.
"You know what? I'm going to sit this one out. See how you fare without me!" Venus stubbornly declared, not moving away from Donny's computer.
"Venus, don't do this. Now c'mon, we need you," Leo said, wanting to stop whatever nonsense that had occurred before he had burst into Venus' room.
"Well Raph certainly doesn't think that," Venus quipped.
"C'mon Leo. You can't force her to come. It'll be like the old times with just us four," Raphael ignored Venus' last comment in order to manipulate the scenario into his favour. In a sadistic sort of way, Venus wanted Raphael to suffer. She wanted to see him come crawling back, begging her to join the team again. But she knew that it wasn't going to happen, and she didn't really have the heart to wish such horrible things on another family member. She just wanted to be appreciated, and while she could have shown off her worth by going with the others, she also knew that she was currently too riled up and flustered to be focused enough to fight effectively. Right now, she just wanted to be away from Raphael.
"Are you sure?" Leo asked Venus again. She nodded, confirming her decision. With a reluctant sigh, Leo headed off towards the Hummer, leaving Venus behind.
Making no sound, the four male turtle hugged the sewer wall and inched closer and closer to where the dragons were. With a quick peep around the corner, Leonardo counted two enemies. While he was wary as to why there were so few, he also felt certain that they would have an easy victory. Breathing low and frequently glancing around the corner, Leo signaled to his brothers when it was safe to make their move.
Unfortunately they weren't quick enough to knock the dragons unconscious without their presence being detected, but it didn't worry the turtles too much since they still outnumbered them. The two parties of reptiles stared at each other, wondering who was going to make the first move. The turtles stood in a line; their weapons at the ready, their feet prepared to quickly dodge anything, and their minds were completely focused on the task at hand. If they didn't have their bandannas or weapons, they would have looked identical to each other, just like old times.
While they waited for the dragons to make their first move, Leo could sense that something was wrong. The Rank usually attacked them head-on with no hesitation, yet today they seemed to stand back. The turtles' eyes grew wide when they realised that the two dragons were going to use their laser guns instead. Their muscles tensed out of both fear and instinct. The lasers usually hurt, but not that much. It was mainly the fact that the highly focused heated beams were hard to avoid.
As a group, the turtles rushed forward, hoping to get in close range before they could effectively shoot. The dragons cleverly focused their attack on Leonardo, and while he successfully managed to block a shot with his single katana, he still took two hits. A searing hot pain swept and spread across his leg. Leo's knee instantly buckled, causing him to fall to the ground; the other three continued to run forwards. It didn't take long for Leo to realise that these weren't the laser guns that they were used to versing, as the burning sensation was so painful that Leo couldn't help but to let out a short scream. Then the world suddenly seemed to fade away from Leo's sight. He never got to feel the pain from the second shot.
To be continued…
