Author's Note:

And...chapter 3 is up! Now to let you know that Katt B. will be coming back this coming Sunday and she'll be uploading each chapter once a week on Sundays beyond that point. So look forward to her return...I'm not because she's told me she has ten more chapters for me to edit...*sigh*

Anyhoo, read and enjoy! All advice and comments are welcome!

-Ravyne

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN TMNT**

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Strike of the Dragon

PART 2

3

3-2: "A Foot Too Big"

"No, no, he's a Fallen."

"Like an angel…yeah, we got it…"

"No!"

Venus stands up and shoves Ryu to the side so that she can take the floor. Rolling her eyes she throws a glare at the shorter girl, "You really got to learn some better explaining techniques. What she's saying is that Venn is what we call a 'Fallen'. He was a Dragon, but then he was 'killed' in a sense and dropped to…the status he is now." Venus points off at Venn's white blonde hair, a few strands of darker brown painting a short section of it braided at the nape of his neck.

On the other side of the porch, opposite of where the turtles, Casey, and April sit on the steps, Venn drops his head into his hands. Ryu leans against the banister beside him and crosses one leg over the other to tap her toe in the grass. "You two are making me sound like…some kind of freak?" he sighs.

Venus and Ryu both look up at him, "You are."

Venn flips off the banister where he sits and grabs Ryu by the hair tied off at the side of her head and pulls her across the yard.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"

Venus shakes her head and rolls her eyes, "Just so you guys know, I am not related to those idiot in any way, shape, or form."

Mikey laughs at her comment before stuffing a slice of frozen pizza into his mouth, "If you weren't related to them, then how come you know them?"

Raph smacks him on the back of the head, throwing him forward off the bottom step and face first into the grass.

"So, what makes him a Fallen then?" Leo asks, "If he's no longer a Dragon, wouldn't that just mean that he's like you and Ryu?"

"In a way, yes, only he's still got a few of the Dragon traits in his system. He may not be like the Dragon's anymore, but he's still faster, stronger, and more agile than the other followers who've gone through the trial. Also his hair is the same as theirs-white blonde, with a dark brown stripe somewhere in it," Venus explains as she stares after the guy in question at the moment. "What are you doing?" she calls across the yard to him.

Venn still holds Ryu by the hair who struggles at his side to open his hand so that she can get her hair freed, but his hand is clasped tighter than the Jaws of Life. There's no getting that fist open unless Venn wants to let go. "Waiting for you to stop yammering so we can train already," he answers.

"He's right, time to get some training in," Leo agrees as he stands up and leans on his crutch. With that, the morning takes off at a casual speed as everyone splits off to get some stretching and sparing in before the day gets too late.

Near the end of two hours, Venn goes out into the woods and comes back with four thick pieces of wood nearly as round as a baseball bat and gives two to Ryu and the other pair to Venus, "Speed test, take your stances."

The two girls face each other with a groan and spread their feet shoulder width apart, holding the sticks in their left hands down by their thighs while lifting the other to cross them in the area between them.

"Remember, this isn't about strength, it's about speed and defense. Venus you'll take lead first," he leans over and whispers something in her ear and she nods. "Ryu, just match her. Start off slow."

"I know," Ryu mumbles.

He steps back and they tap their sticks against each other once before Venus swings and Ryu quickly does the same, bringing the branches together with a loud clack. She swings again and again, writing out a pattern that only she knows and Ryu swings to match each move to hit her branch against the opposing one.

After a few minutes, Venn sits down on a nearby stump to watch, crossing his legs indian-style, "Next speed, Venus."

Venus responds almost immediately, her swings picking up a new pace and the loud clacks repeating faster. Over on the other side of the swing between each group, April looks up from her spar with Donnie to see what they're doing. Both of them share a look of curiosity before heading over to watch. Pretty soon everyone is heading over to watch, except Raph who collapses into the swing in frustration.

"What exactly are they doing?" Leo asks Venn quietly.

"Working on defense and speed. What happens when you meet an opponent is that you have to defend yourself from their attacks but also deliver your own, correct?"

"Yeah," Leo agrees.

"Well, in this exercise, one person knows a pattern to follow but the other doesn't, meaning the person left out of the loop will have to defend while the other attacks. Every so often, they'll pick up the pace in order to keep the mind from getting too comfortable with the pace since a battle never stays one pace. So all in all, it helps train your defense, speed, and focus," Venn explains.

"But they switch it up right, so that they both get to practice?" April asks.

Venn laughs, but it sounds like he's laughing at some inside joke, "Good point. Watch this." He goes to stand behind Ryu as the girl's continue their swings, their feet rooted into the ground, and he whispers something to her. As he retakes his seat on the stump, he calls out, "Switch."

Ryu swings the opposite way out of the blue and catches Venus on the wrist, "Ow!"

Ryu bites back a grin.

"What the heck?!"

"Venn told us to switch," Ryu pushes the blame off herself with a shrug.

Venus glares at Venn who is rolling in laughter by that time, "When did you say that?!"

He looks up at April who is trying to hold back her own smile, "You see why I said focus?"

"Yeah," she smirks.

"Can I give it a shot?" Leo asks.

"Sure."

Leo walks up and Venus passes him her branches before showing him how to plant his feet and where to start off his stance, "When you start, tap your branches together once before you actually begin. It's just a thing we started, no real reason why we do it."

"Alright," Venn starts as Venus steps back from their swing range, "Ryu start off with the beginner pattern first. Let's work him up."

"Kay," Ryu nods. They both bring the branches in their left hands down by their thigh and the right ones up in front of them to cross in the area between them. "All we're going to do is criss-cross like this," Ryu explains, slowly bringing both her hands up and swinging her right arm first to her left and then doing the opposite with the left. Leo responds by blocking her with mirrored movements. "Good!" she grins, glad that he's picked it up quickly, "Alright, we'll start off slow."

They return to their starting stances and wait for Venus to begin the round. "Begin," the girl calls. Leo and Ryu start and for the next hour, everyone takes turns practicing the training until finally Raph stands up and explodes.

"Would you guys quite already?!"

They all turn to him, Ryu pausing mid-swing on Mikey's head, and throw him questioning looks. Ryu drops her eyes when his glare spins on her, unable to meet his anger anymore; for some reason whenever she sees it, she thinks of Gigi all alone in that big city with no one there to take care of him. That's how all of it started, right? She wasn't there to protect him; he's just a small lizard in a huge mess of aliens with guns and other weapons. And now look what's happened.

"Alright, Raph, you're right. Let's get some sparring in," Leo gives his brother an understanding look before turning to Mikey and Donnie, "Let's try some survival skills."

"Yeah, like how 'bout we have a turtle hunt," Raph smile evilly at his younger brothers. "Want to join, Leo?"

Ryu glances at Venus and Venn, too sure that they aren't going to be invited, and they both nod at her. Together they all head back towards the house and sit down on the porch in a circle.

"Is it just me or has this group split into…two different segments?" Venus grumbles as she puts her back to the banisters, flipping a cherry lollipop into her mouth.

"It's annoying, but we just have to put up with it," Venn tells her, "We've got to get rid of these aliens and these guys have the most experience with them. Sadly we need them."

"Ryu's gone against them," Venus points out in frustration.

"Yeah, but I can't move their metals, they're not from this dimension," Ryu picks at her nails as she lays her hands in her lap absentmindedly. Her thoughts really aren't here; her eyes following after the turtles who disappear into the woods without Leo who's leaning heavily on his crutch. "Switching subjects," Ryu says suddenly, stopping the conversation from her comrades, "Venus, do you think that you could do something with Leo's leg? Maybe speed up its healing?"

"I already told you, there's nothing wrong with it. Either it's still just weak muscles or it's…"

Ryu lifts her head, "What?"

Venus takes a deep breath and continues a bit slower, as if she's choosing her words carefully so as to not say anything that would come back to bite her in the butt, "I think it's all in his mind."

"Uh…" Ryu's voice dies in her throat, the rag she'd been using to dust the railing on the stairs slips out of her hands and falls to the floor with a muffled flop. Her eyes widen in disbelief, unsure of what she's seeing, blinking in utter bewilderment, "Venus?"

"What?" comes the annoyed responds from the living room.

"I…think I believe you now."

There's silence for a long moment, but then there's the quick, flustered snap of a magazine slapping closed before footsteps come stomping out into the area Ryu stands in, "Believe me about…what…" Venus stops at Ryu's side with a huge grin on her face, the first since arriving at this farmhouse. Swinging an arm over Ryu's shoulder, her smile turns triumphant, "Told you they were real."

Before them, behind Mikey, Donnie, and Raph, standing six foot tall, is none other than a giant bigfoot. Ryu can't really find anything to say at the moment, still trying to get over the fact that all those times Venus had tried to scare her with those tall tales about the yeti living on their mountain…she'd actually been telling her the truth! She'd actually been trying to scare her for real!

That little… Ryu turns her head slowly to glare at the girl about an inch taller than her and wants nothing more than to shorten her down to her real size: the size of the imp she really is.

Venus suddenly holds out her hand and grins up at bigfoot, "Hi there, I'm Venus. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss….?"

The bigfoot shakes her hand with a weird smile of gapping teeth and seriously chapped lips, but Ryu doesn't say anything; the poor thing looks absolutely sweet underneath all that. That's when Venus's words click in her head, "Wait, 'miss'?"

"Yeah, she's female. Can't you tell? It's kind of obvious," Venus spits at her.

"Uh…" Ryu looks back up at the bigfoot and takes in the creature before her. Nothing about it screams female at all. "Sure," Ryu lies with a big smile.

The bigfoot smiles back and opens her mouth to speak in a deep, booming voice, "My name…Bigfoot."

Ryu's gaze instantly zooms to Mikey, "All of your naming skills and you couldn't come up with anything better?"

"Donnie's fault!" Mikey waves off the blame and zooms up the stairs, but he's stopped by Leo who's hobbling down them.

"What the heck is that?!"

"Bigfoot!" April exclaims from the next floor.

"Whoa!" Casey adds from beside her.

"You can't just bring home bigfoot?!" Leo argues.

"But its hurt," Donnie shows the animal's arm and April hurries down to get a better look.

"She," Venus glares, "She's a she."

Donnie and April help Bigfoot into the living room where they all sit on the couch to fix up her arm. Venus and Ryu follow them in to watch from the other side of the coffee table silently. After the arm is bandaged and fixed up, Bigfoot turns to Donnie and smiles.

"Bigfoot…thank Donnie," she says.

From her place beside the coffee table, Ryu rest her chin down on her crossed arms and grins up at Donnie. It's nice to see the kid getting some thanks from someone finally.

"No problem," Donnie waves off her thanks with a kind smile that everyone knows all too well.

Bigfoot's expression suddenly turns worried as she grabs her bandaged arm, "Bad man…after Bigfoot…name…the finger."

Ryu's eyebrows draw together as she listens in, glancing up at Venus who shrugs. Who the heck would name their kid 'the finger'?, Ryu thinks.

"The finger?" Donnie repeats thoughtfully.

"Yeah…very bad mans…" Bigfoot continues. Abruptly she folds her hands together and gazes at Donnie with a very odd expression that Ryu can't exactly place. "But Donnie….good mans…"

"Aw, thanks, Bigfoot," Donnie pats her shoulder. That's when Ryu sits up in realization the kid just made the wrong move. The expression Bigfoot gives Donnie is...

"Donnie very good mans…"

Donnie flinches back, his face going stone cold fear. Ryu jolts to her feet and Venus grabs her elbow suddenly; apparently she's not the only one who recognizes that look. Both of them quickly clamp their hands over their mouths as their eyes widen to the size of saucers on their faces.

"Donnie very good mans…" Bigfoot leans towards him with a completely obvious flirty look on her face, "So good…Bigfoot…" She pauses midsentence and gives Donnie a big kiss on the side of the cheek and Ryu and Venus tear out of the room, across the hall, and into the kitchen where everyone else is sitting around talking. They look up as the girls stampede in, their hands clamped over their mouths tightly, and slam their backs up against the wall on either side of the kitchen door frame.

Venn leans back to raise an eyebrow at them around the back of Leo's head, "Uh…what's up with you two?"

First it's a snort from Venus and then they both collapse to the floor in a fit of loud laughter that neither of them can control. Curious, all the guys stand up from the table and rush into the living room just in time to see Bigfoot pick Donnie up a big hug and hold him close.

When Venus and Ryu return to the room, the guys are laughing even harder than they were and that just gets them laughing all over again. Poor Donnie gazes at the floor helplessly as the other's around him laugh their faces off without a sign of stopping in sight.

It's only the shock of cold that shoots up through the floor and up Ryu's spine that gets her to stop, instantly turning her focus to the song sung to her from the earth below her.

In…der…wa…ch…!

She narrows her eyes, straining to hear it more clearly, but with all the noise from everyone's teasing it's almost impossible. Her glare turns to the group around her in frustration; it's good to laugh every so often and yes it's kind of funny that Bigfoot has a thing for Donnie but enough is enough.

Venus being the loudest, she turns her attention to the olive skinned girl in front of her.

"Venus, shut up!" Ryu roars over the laughter. "All of you shut it!"

Slowly everyone turns to her with a mix of confusion, anger, and surprise, but Ryu's already tuning the earth's song back into her mind.

Intruder! Watch!

Her eyes dart to the window picking up the tree line in an instant. Something's there. Moving. Watching.

Intruder, she thinks. Ryu ducks quickly out of the room and out the front door to the top of the steps. The wind meets her, blowing her hair out of her face. Something taints it sharply, but her nose isn't strong enough to place it.

"What's your damage?" Venus barks.

Ryu reaches back and grabs the front of Venn's shirt beside the dark skinned girl and drags him outside, "You smell that?"

Venn takes a deep inhale, but shakes his head, "No, not at-." He pauses, taking another deeper inhale. There's another beat before his eyes too start scanning the tree line beyond the yard. Suddenly those trees don't feel safe; their shadows feel dangerous.

"I don't smell nothing," Venus goes to Ryu's other side and takes a deep whiff.

"It's 'anything' and you're not a Fallen so your nose sucks," Ryu grumbles, shushing her.

"I'll go check it out, don't kill each other while I'm gone," Venn demands as he pulls the hood up on his sweat shirt and jogs off into the woods, the darkness eating him almost too quickly for their taste.

"Where's he going?"

"Running," Venus and Ryu say in union as they spin around to meet the eyes of the rest of the group hovering behind them. The word may have been a lie, but why stir up any more panic than there already is?

It's not until the early hours of the next morning that Venn returns and speaks to both Venus and Ryu in the darkness of the room. Someone had been watching the house, someone with some sort of blasting powder that Venn couldn't place so it had to be a home mixture. That means that, at all times, at least one of them would have to be on look out in case something happened. They'd have to find some way of keeping everyone out of the woods without raising suspicions about the intruder.

So for the next two days, Ryu watched and waited for something to happen, keeping a close eye on the amusing relationship between Donnie and Bigfoot. Donnie obviously didn't feel comfortable with it, continuously avoiding her or running in the opposite direction. It reminded her a lot of how April acted towards Donnie.

One afternoon, after Donnie, Mikey, and Bigfoot had returned from being sent out into the woods by Raph to study up on their 'camouflage', Ryu is coming down the stairs from the bathroom drying her hair with a towel and overhears Donnie and Raph talking in the living room.

"Ugh, this is so uncomfortable," Donnie confesses as he glances out the door of the living room as if he's on look out, "Bigfoot follows me around everywhere like a love struck puppy."

"Now you know how April feels," Raph says from the couch where he's busy playing video games. "Like I told you before, Don, we're mutants, she's a girl. It's never going to happen with you and April."

Ryu back steps her way back up the stairs to lean against the wall next to the bathroom with a sigh. She slides down the wall until she's sitting against it and wraps her arms around her knees. Why does it feel like he was talking about…someone else when he said that?, Ryu thinks, rolling over the words Raph had just said. His tone had taken a duller note at that last sentence; it almost sounded like he didn't want to believe the words himself. Was he just sad for his brother?

Unable to take the tight feeling in her chest, or the unexpected feeling of claustrophobia being in the house, Ryu skips down the steps and rushes out the front door. She gulps in deep swallows of the cool night air as she tries to calm herself down.

A loud thump makes her jump and turn to find a shadow landing on the grass off to her left at the far end of the porch. It's Bigfoot. Ryu decides to follow after her to find out how she is since she hadn't spoken to her since they had left to go train in the woods. Bigfoot stops at the open door to the barn, refusing to go in.

Ryu raise an eyebrow in confusion and as she comes closer she can hear Leo and Casey inside laughing. She pauses again.

"Do you think she's his type?" Casey barks a chuckle.

Leo laughs at the impossibility, "Maybe after a shave!"

Ryu's anger hits the roof, her mood already set off its balance by Raph's words, and now Casey and Leo have got to be so mean?

Bigfoot spins around and races off crying into the woods right past Ryu who tries to stop her unsuccessfully. Casey and Leo obviously heard Bigfoot and come rushing out a second later from the barn.

"Aw, man," Casey groans.

"We didn't mean to…hurt her feelings?" Leo confesses.

"What's going on?" April calls from the house beyond.

Ryu spins enough to slam her foot into the ground and the earth tears up at the boys' feet, tossing them back onto their butt. "Didn't mean it?!" She screams, "I don't buy that for a second! You're all just a bunch of inconsiderate, heartless morons!"

"What happened?" Venn calls, running up with Venus, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie in tow.

The second Ryu sets eyes on Raph, her anger skyrockets. "Ask the jerks in this screwed up group," she bores her eyes into Raph's gaze before finishing, "All of them."

With that, Ryu kicks up dirt as she takes off after Bigfoot into the night.

Venus turns to the two boys sitting up on the ground, "What did you do?"

"Why are you asking us?" Casey snaps defensively.

Venus steps up into his face, forcing him to stumble a few inches back, "Because Ryu doesn't lose her anger very often but when she does, she starts finally speaking up for herself. She spits out the truth and the only jerks I see standing here now are you two and anger-management boy over here."

Jabbing a finger at Raph, he blink and drops his glare to the ground.

"We were talking…about Bigfoot and…we said some things we probably shouldn't have," Leo admits guiltily.

"Probably…shouldn't have?!" Venus erupts.

Venn grabs her around the waist and pulls her back behind him before she can rip the guys' faces off with her claws, "What exactly did you say?"

Casey and Leo glance at each other remorsefully but Leo is the one to answer, "That she'd be Donnie's type if she'd just shave."

"What?" Donnie yelps at the back of the group.

"You two really are a buncha inconsiderate, heartless jerks!" Venus snarls over Venn's shoulder, "Ryu should've buried you both six feet in the ground!"

"Calm down," Venn tells her.

"Don't tell me to calm down. These idiots deserve more than what they got!"

Venn grabs her by the shoulders and moves to stop her, "Breathe!"

Venus crosses her arms stubbornly and turns to give them all her back.

"We've got to go find Bigfoot," Donnie says.

They all nod, but then a static sound makes them pause.

"Was that your radio?" Venus perks up, glancing down at the back of his belt. "The screen is lighting up."

Venn pulls the radio off his belt and is about to press down the button when another static sound crackles and a familiar voice breaks through.

"Stay out of the woods!" Ryu's voice hisses through. "Stay where you are!"

Venus snatches the radio away and holds the side button down, "Why? What's going on?"

Venn takes it back, "Ryu, where are you? What's happening?"

"Stay out of the woods!" Ryu's voice hisses back even louder. "It's not-!"

There's a loud explosion from far off and they all duck down in alarm before looking up at a giant black cloud spilling out the tops of the trees and into the night sky. As the roar subsides, a scream is heard.

Normal at first, the scream becomes increasingly louder and louder until it changes into something much more feral. Venn and Venus throw each other a look.

"Oh…"

"Chiz…" Venn finishes her statement as they turn their gazes back to the dark woods.

"Watch your language, this is a PG story," Venus smacks his arm before they both take off into the night to follow after their friend.

Ryu can only stare down at herself, can only focus on the blood pouring out of her shoulder and down her arm, can only focus on the pain sending her body into a state of stress.

A state of absolute stress, a state where the survival of the body is threatened.

That's what Ryu remembers the Dragons telling her, those are the words she keeps rolling over in her mind as her vision starts to change, crashing in on itself as it starts to feel like she's looking down a tunnel.

Other than that, it's hard not to notice the arrow protruding out of her left shoulder, its black feathers resembling one of death's own weapons. Her breathing is labored, strict against her ribcage. Her heart is pounding terribly, sending adrenaline pumping into her veins.

She lets her tight fists loosen so that the radio she'd been carrying in the side pocket of her cargo pants falls to the ground with a loud clack. She can feel her power swirl dangerously at the sound, making her head spin and goosebumps flush out across her skin.

Pull it out, she orders herself, demanding her body to move, Pull it out, Ryu. Move!

"Ryu!"

Someone calls to her, the voice sounding far off as if she's underwater. It's nearly drowned out by the song of her power screaming to be released. She forces her right hand to move, to lift up and take the shaft of the black arrow in her hand.

"Ryu."

"No, stop!"

Ryu lifts her heavy head a little to look out across the way through her bangs. Blurry images, outlines of forms she knows. She can't tell through the tunnel vision still trying desperately to crash in on itself and turn her sight dark.

"Don't move!"

Ryu's eyes dart to the side of the group of blurry images as one comes to a skidding stop beside the tallest one, a male she's sure.

"Ryu."

The next voice is softer, calmer.

Pull it out, Ryu! Move!, she turns her attention back down to the arrow in her hands, feeling the warm, wet blood still flowing out of her chest. Pull it out! Now!

With one solid jerk, Ryu dislodges it out of the tree behind her and then slowly pulls it through her. Each inch is agonizing as she's forced to live through the feeling of the arrow shaft inside of her muscles, her tissues. It's wrong! It's not natural!

Pull it out!

With one final pull, the arrow comes out and she holds it out in front of her. Under the shade of the tree, she doesn't have any moonlight to see by, but the red blood still shines through her tunnel vision all the same, the outline of the arrow tip sharp and clear to her vision.

Something explodes nearby and her power screams again. Ryu turns her head slowly in its direction.

"Ryu. Ryu don't!"

Those voices again.

So distant, she thinks without looking back at them.

"Don't!"

Her feet move her before she has a chance to think the command and she's suddenly flying through the trees. Each tree trunk like a haze as she tears past them, whooshing right by without stirring so much as a blade of grass. There's a roar, one she recognizes, an angry shout, one that she's targeting. Then a dark laughter follows.

She doesn't take a step to stop. Instead she simply leaps up and brings her fist into the ground with a loud bang. Tremors shake the earth and the ground splits, pulling down dirt and plants into the chasm that opens up.

Someone shouts in alarm and she looks up to find a figure stumbling back away from the tear that travels towards him. Her tunnel vision narrows, targeting in, and the figure clears up, sharpening in her sight.

A bigger man with some kind of Mohawk looking hairstyle and decked out in outdoor gear. That's all she sees but that's all she really needs. She'd seen him attack and trap Bigfoot. She'd seen him shoot an arrow at her dozens of times and somehow manage to pin her with one.

That's all she needs. That's all she cares about.

The man loads another arrow into his bow again and aims. When he fires, this time the arrow doesn't come at her as it had last time. This time it's slow as if time is stopping around her. Ryu's sure that she could run to the ocean and back and the arrow would still not have reached the place where she stands.

So she waits patiently, letting her power fight against the sudden limbo that has taken over her, and then just as the arrow is about to pierce her forehead she steps back casually. The arrow creeps by her face like a snail and Ryu pulls her hand up just as slow, feeling the earth respond to her and shoot up just as sluggish to become the dart board for the arrow.

The man jerks back in surprise as Ryu pushes her fists forward and sends the rock flying over her shoulder at him, arrow and all. It hits him square in the gut, knocking him back a ways, before another explosion roars to life from the arrow she'd sent back at him.

Time goes back to normal then as the smell of burnt ground fills her nose and suddenly she feels light headed.

Her mind spins, her knees shake weakly, and her power fades back to normal within her. I've…lost too much…blood, she thinks.

"Ryu!"

The cry is slow, sluggish as time slows for a split second, and she looks up just as her legs give way. Her vision is slowly starting to creep out of its tunnel vision, clearing back to her regular sight, and everything around her comes back into focus just a second before she passes out.

All she can remember seeing before everything goes black is a set of green eyes blazing wildly behind a sea of red. She blacks out before she even hits the ground; never feeling the impact.

Author's Note:

Okay, see you guys next week for the next chapter of "Strike of the Dragon"!

-Ravyne