This is the finale-the ending to Part 2. I don't know when Part 3 will be finished and opened, but I am working on it as you read. All suggestions on anything you would like to see in the next part are welcomed. Enjoy!

Please review! All advice, suggestions, and critiques are welcome.

-Katt B.

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN TMNT**

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Strike of the Dragon

PART 2

18

3-9.2: "Raph"

They had all shifted around in the vehicles. Venn now drives their white van with Venus is the passenger seat communicating with Ryu who had somehow outrun the cop and lost him on the way back to the city. Donnie has his laptop open with his brothers around him in the back of the party wagon while Casey drives and April rides in the passenger seat.

Donnie speaks through the com on his ear with Ryu who rides down the deserted highway on her bike between the two vans on the center line of the road.

"Can you see anything ahead?" Donnie asks into the com.

Raph leans in close to hear the conversation on the com, earning him a nudge from his younger brain of a brother, but he doesn't move away. The conversation is a bit muffled but he's able to make it out, secretly glad to hear Ryu's voice sounding much calmer than it had before—slowing returning to normal.

"I'm picking up something at the end of this highway. My scanner isn't as strong as the one in Metalhead, so can you get him to do one?"

Donnie turns to Metalhead, the small robot leaning against the side of the back of the van, "Can he do that?"

"Yeah, just tell him to do a scan of the city and make a visual map that'll show where the groups of Kraang are. The scanner in him may be basic but it still has that capability."

Donnie relays the order to Metalhead and the small robot begins to whirl and beep in response. A second later a new map scan appears of Donnie's laptop screen, "Oh no."

"What is it?"

"There's a blockade at the end of the highway!"

"What?!" Venus's voice finally comes to life.

Donnie pulls the com away from his ear to escape the abrupt outburst, "Anyone have any…helpful words?"

"I can hear you, stick-boy."

"Shut it, Venus. Donnie, send me that scan so I can take a look at it."

Donnie clicks a few buttons on his computer and a load bar blinks, "Okay, it's sending now."

"Alright, I got it."

There's a pause.

"I've got an idea, but I don't think y'all are going to like it."

"We're jumping it aren't we?"

"Yep," Ryu replies to Venus.

"Wait, what?!" Donnie squeaks. "We can't jump that!"

Casey chuckles from the front seat and tightens his hands on the steering wheel, "Alright, Casey Jones likes this plan."

"Are you crazy?!" April growls at the kid before turning in her seat towards the turtles. "Donnie, tell her she's got to have another plan. This is insane."

"I heard that and, no, there is no other way. Not if we want to get into the city tonight. Just follow behind me and try to keep up," Ryu responds.

Outside the side door, Raph can suddenly hear Ryu's engine rev up and she takes off ahead of them. Casey and Venn move the vehicles in a line behind her and Raph grips the back of April's seat.

"Hang on, guys!" Leo braces everyone. Not far ahead, Raph can just make out a checkpoint, guards standing at the entrance, but none of them look like Kraang. They're just regular police officers.

His eyes narrow in confusion. Ryu throws her hand out and then jerks it back towards her; a platform of asphalt tears up out of the road in front of the guards and forms a make-shift ramp. Raph's eyes open wide in realization—they're really about to jump the barricade!

"Get your speeds up or you won't make it," Ryu tells Donnie and Venus over the coms before her motorcycle tears off at an alarming speed towards the barricade.

Venn and Casey follow suit, pressing the gas pedals to the floor board as they take off after her.

The guards at the gate group up at the barricade and lift their guns, preparing to shoot.

"Oh my-!" April cries.

A shot rings out and something tears past the turtle's vehicle in a flash of light and then past Ryu before hitting the ground at the guards' feet and exploding. A wall of blue electricity flares out before them.

"Nice shot," Ryu laughs. She hits the gas again and gains even more speed.

She hits the ramp first, then Casey, then Venn, and they all fly over the barricade and land in the street beyond.

"Radical!" Mikey whoops in midair. "This is better than rocket skateboarding, dudes!"

"So now what?" Donnie asks into the com.

Ryu skids to a stop, lifting her left leg to press her foot against the fence and keep the motorcycle with colliding against it, and then hoping off to lean the machine against said fence. The other two vans pull up quietly into the dark, deserted ally way side by side as she's pulling off her helmet, gazing at the screen flipping through random information along the sides of the fiberglass face shield.

Venn closes his door, "Think you got close enough there, Ryu?"

She throws him a look and then follows his direction to her bike.

"Says mister 'I got to back into every pole in the-.' "

"Do not finish that sentence," Venn snaps at Venus as he passes her, pointing a finger directly at her nose. She throws him a toothy grin. "Let's get inside before we're spotted."

"No need," Donnie grins as he pulls out a small remote, "There's secret entrance to the tunnel right on the other side of this fence."

They all leap over, using sheer force or the boxes and trash cans at the base of the fence, and land on the other side. Donnie presses a button and the ground opens up to them.

"Let's do this," Leo motions for everyone to head in, "Full on stealth, people."

The darkness swallows them and the sewers are a welcoming sight…for some.

"Well, I was hoping never to have to face this nastiness again," Venus gags.

"Get over it and keep it down," Venn shushes her as they sneak around corner to corner. The subway tunnels are deserted too, offline. They almost make it to the old lair when the sound of Kraang forces them all to stop and duck down below a stair well. Something else sparks Raph's attention too and he throws a hand gesture down their line to Leo who nods in return.

"What'd they say?" Venus hisses in Ryu's ear.

The white-haired girl slaps a hand over her mouth and jabs a finger above them. They all jump up to the rafters above just as a stray Kraang comes to investigate the noise. Ryu glares at Venus.

"April, do you think you could use your powers to locate master Splinter?" Donnie asks when all is clear.

"I can try but…well, you said his mind is no longer one with his body, right? Which means he could be crazy or unconscious or…or who knows what," the red head drops her eyes in defeat along with all the turtles.

"Yeah…but we still need to find him," Donnie urges.

"Wait, what about the lair?" Mikey adds.

The lair is trashed. There's literally no other way to put it. Raph's eyes shift over the rubble in despair, wanting nothing more than to see something familiar that had survived. Mainly his sensei.

Ryu's hand touches in the inside of his wrist as she stops beside him and lowers her eyes to the floor, "I'm sorry I wasn't here."

He grabs her hand snuggly, giving it a gently squeeze, "Don't dwell on that. It happened, it's okay. You're here now."

"Everyone stays here," Leo nods to Raph and Donnie and they both move towards the lair, leaving everyone else behind to hide in the shadows. Ryu watches them both go, sending a small prayer for their safety with them.

The brothers move to the dojo first, finding the same demolition there as well. A second later they're forced to duck down as some kind of Kraang drone hovers by. Donnie uses a ninja star to peek around the corner and try to get a good look at the machine. It's made of the same metal and pink-purple glow as the usual Kraang tech, but this appear different somehow.

The drone spins suddenly and pops open, revealing the half a dozen laser guns that it has hidden under the smooth surface, and begins firing in their direction. Donnie and Raph cover their heads against the wave of ammunition and debris that comes loose from the edge of the walls beside them. When it finally ceases, a rat runs by, and the drone moves on.

Both brothers jump when Leo appears out of nowhere and drags them away.

They regroup with the others outside and bring them the bad news, breathing heavy.

"No sign of Splinter," Leo sighs.

"The Kraang have some kind of…freaky security system to make sure we don't come back," Raph adds.

"Guess that means Ryu's no help there," Venus nudges the shorter girl, rewarding her with the white-haired girl back handing her against the head.

"Why not just go take it down and move back in? I miss our home, I miss my comic books, my VHS tapes, my action kick unicorn man, my collection of human underwear-."

"It's not that simple, Mikey," Donnie stops him, "We can't just move ba-."

"Ah! Guys, I…I think…I think I sense Splinter close by," April announces as she grabs her head. "It's faint and he seems…different. Come on! Hurry!"

They all follow after the red-head as she takes off back the way the turtles had come from, disappearing in the darkness. Raph's not sure what the girl had seen, but he's just glad to know that his father is nearby. He can sense Ryu close behind him to his flank and he looks back over his shoulder. She glances back at him and nods.

After a few corners she stops in a corridor of six different tunnels leading in opposite directions and April closes her eyes to concentrate, "He's…moving around in…such a panic. I can't get a pin point on him."

"Ryu," Venn calls.

They all glance back as the older teen steps up to the wall and sets her hand against it, closing her eyes. Things go unearthly quiet. Raph's seen her do this so many times and yet it never ceases to amaze him. Startling them all, they jump when Ryu pulls back and slams her fist into the wall, going silent again.

Without opening her eyes, she points to the tunnel behind her, "That way." And off she goes.

They follow after her and as the tunnel opens up to a bigger corridor, they all come face to face with the one who had trained the turtles; their father in all aspects of the word. But something is wrong.

Ryu skids to a stop as the turtles rush forward.

"Sensei!" Mikey exclaims. There's no answer from the master ninja. He just coils back on all fours and hisses at them with the wild eyes of a crazed animal. His kimono is gone, leaving behind only shorts and the bindings around his arms. Around him, the so-called M.O.U.S.E.R.S. lie torn and sparking on the floor from the assault the rat had given them.

Splinter lunges at them, claws bared, and they all scatter to avoid being hit. He lands on Casey, the one with the biggest fear of rats, and starts biting at the teen's face. Casey screams out in panic.

"Get him off of me! Get him off of me!"

The turtles go and together pull their father away by the arms.

"It's okay, sensei," Donnie tries to call to his master, "It's us! Your sons!"

They struggle to hold him still, Venus and Venn going to help Casey up to his feet while April stands before Splinter. Ryu backs herself away from the scene to remain close by Venn's side if he needs any help, throwing wary glances at her other family's struggle.

"Try to remember," Donnie pleads, but their master just continues to pull and bite at them wildly.

"He's too strong," Mikey grunts.

"Sensei, it's us!" Leo cries. "Calm down!"

Splinter finally loses his strength and goes limp in their arms, glancing around at them in defeat as if they are nothing but captors to him. Ryu bites her bottom lip, watching him. Those eyes, though the stare of a crazed animal, remind her so much of how she once looked at the world: lost and defenseless. It's not something anyone should have to feel.

Whiirllliii!

Ryu spins and gasps, "Guys!"

They all look up as a nearby M.O.U.S.E.R stands up and screeches at the group. Almost instantly, a group of Footbots swing in from the darkness above them and circle them.

"Oh no!"

"The Foot!"

"Don't let them harm Splinter!" Leo orders. Ryu faces the three coming at her and slams her foot into the stone beneath her. A long slab rises up and she kicks it forward, sending it barreling into the bots and they fly backward.

Startled, Splinter breaks free from the turtles' hold and races off down a nearby tunnel.

"Splinter! Raph cries.

"Go after him. We got this handled!" Venn calls. Venus drops Casey to the floor and races off at an approaching bot, spinning gracefully through the air and smashing the heel of her boot into the machine's shoulder. It cracks under her beating and falls to the ground.

Around them, the bots vanish down the tunnel, leaving the battle before it even starts.

"I was just getting started!" Venus gripes.

"Come on!" Ryu orders.

They catch up to the turtles only to find them standing at a blocked tunnel and watching their master be taken away by Footbots yet again.

"Sensei!" Mikey shouts.

"Nice pad," Venus mumbles to herself.

"Nice doesn't even describe it," Ryu growls, "The guy who runs it is hideous…inside and out."

Venus throws her a look, watching the girl's angered expression, "Don't mean his house ain't nice."

Ryu's about to say something else, but she tunes back in to Leo's plan as his voice shoots an octave higher.

"It will work," Leo snaps.

"And I say it won't. We can't all just go in there together. It's too risky and too many on one mission. There needs to be someone on the outside for surveillance and back up in case the others are caught. If we all go in, there won't be anyone left to call on," Venn tries to explain.

"Look, this is my father we're talking about and this place is overrun with mutants and robots. It's going to take all of us. This is my team, I give the orders," Leo steps up to the taller guy angrily.

Ryu rolls her eyes and props her hands on her hips with a heavy sigh.

"Venus and Ryu are my responsibility; they don't belong to you. That means they are not yours to order."

"How about you two idiots just stop yammering for a second and take a breather," they all turn to Venus who leans against a wood pole holding up the water tank on the building top, picking at her nails. She looks up at them with a look of disgust, "My two year old brothers are more mature than you."

Venn opens his mouth to tell her to zip her mouth, but he spots the familiar hoody slung over her elbow and sighs, "Where'd she go now?"

She grins at him sarcastically, "She got sick of listening to you two egotistical maniacs argue like a bunch of five year olds. Where do you think she went?"

Venn whips his head around, eyes searching the building across the street for any signs of familiar movement. Raph spots her first and points in her direction.

"There," he watches her slip from the shadows of a chimney, spin the neck of a Footbot until it falls to the ground without a sound, and then leap elegantly through the hole in the triangle window at the front of the roof. "Wow, she's not half bad," he admires with a crooked smile.

"Stop drooling and get moving," Venus steps off the side of the building and they all follow suit, leaving Casey and Venn behind to keep a look out.

Ryu ducks into a vent after ducking through the double doors of the empty main hall and crawls through them until she comes to a four-way intersection with a drop in the center. She gazes down the drop shaft in thought, taking a moment to decide whether or not she wants to take the leap.

Guess I really don't have a choice since I'm already in here…So why did I even stop?, Ryu swings her legs around and drops into the shaft, loving the free fall feeling rushing through her. It doesn't last long though as she lands on her feet not long later in a long, round channel a few seconds later. Looking down one end, she's got the channel disappearing off into the darkness while the other end opens up to a strange room beyond. No argument there, she thinks, raising an eyebrow.

She sneaks over to the edge of the channel and peeks out into the large, round room. This room is huge, reminding Ryu of a giant cylinder with different levels all up the sides, with a giant containment unit filled with that glowing, green mutagen goo that once again seems to be at the center of everything…literally.

The hair stands up on the back of her neck. Her body reacts faster than her thoughts, her hand reaching out to pin the hand coming at her against the wall while the other goes for the neck.

Her heart, breath, brain…they all catch up a millisecond later.

Ryu releases a heavy sigh, "Raph! Would you stop doing that?!"

He clamps a hand down over her mouth as her hiss echoes out through the tunnel a bit too loudly for any of their liking. Leo, Donnie, and Mikey, followed closely by April, step into view behind him.

"Ryu, we have to stay together. No more running off on your own until a plan has been made. We don't need two Raph's on the team," Leo orders in a low voice as he slips up to the edge of the tunnel's opening and peeks out over into the large room beyond. They all join him a second later, Ryu swallowing her opinion at being barked at.

"There's master Splinter!" Leo points out a room lower down and across on the other side of the chamber and they all follow his direction. Sure enough, a large form down on all fours is pacing back and forth in front of a glass wall as the only means of seeing into the enclosed cell.

"Alright, here's the plan. Are you listening this time, Ryu?" Leo throws her a glare across Raph.

She narrows her eyes in response, "Get to talkin' or I leave you all behind again."

"April, you and I will go help master Splinter. Everyone else will stand guard while she tries to get his memory back."

"Wow, that took all of two seconds to come up with that obvious plan of action."

Leo stands tall and pushes Raph back so that he can glare at her directly, "You know what, Ryu. I don't know what your deal is but ever since we've returned to the city, you've been really acting strange. It's like you're rushing to leap at everything before looking to see how steep the cliff is."

Ryu rolls her eyes, "As little sense as that made, I'm here to rescue Splinter same as you. Does it really matter that I don't wait for you to keep up?"

"It does when you're not working with us as a team!"

"You're not my lead-!"

"Okay, calm down!" Raph pushes in between them both and halts their argument before it can get too loud and too out of hand, "We can have this argument later, but right now we're the only people who can get master Splinter out of here. Like you told me before, Leo, we all have the same enemy so we have to work together. Truce?"

Donnie and Mikey watch from the sidelines, sharing a worried look, while Raph stands as referee for the fight. Ryu and Leo continue to glare at each other, completely oblivious to Venus who has stepped up to the edge and blinked in amusement.

"Hey, Beeves and Butthead, would you two take a moment from beating your chests like apes and tell me if there's supposed to be a…giant, monster fly-man zooming around…"

"That's Stockman," Leo explains. "He's their…scientist in a way."

"And he's staring at us why?"

They all flinch in surprise as they catch the fly staring at them, raising a mutated hand to point at them and scream, "Innnnn-trrrru-ders! Get zztheeem!"

From behind them, there's a terrible screech and they spin to face it. A miniature version of Shredder bounces around like an evil energizer bunny from hades. Ryu cocks her head to the side in straight up 'what-the-heck'.

"Not you again!" Mikey whines before jumping out of the tunnel and into the massive hall. "Come on! Let's get sensei and go."

They all jump out after him as Leo starts barking his orders once more, "April, you and I get to Splinter, the rest of you on point. Move!"

Ryu lands on the first floor, rushes over to the side, flips over the railing and drops down to the next where Splinter is. Leo and April land next and rush to the glass. "We've got to get this open!" April exclaims.

"Move," Ryu grabs hold of the metal railing with her powers and rips it up as easily as she would a blade of grass before hurling it at the glass. It darts through it, sending ripples of cracks in all directions. Leo finishes the job by jumping and kicking it the rest of the way through. The glass shatters and April rushes in, holding her hands up when Splinter recoils away and tries to slink off into a corner.

"Ryu, watch out!" Leo shouts, rushing towards her. She blinks in surprise, pulling her eyes away from April's work. Something slams into her side, knocking the wind right out of her and Ryu goes soaring through the air. She can feel her back hit the glass of the neighboring cell and it bows…creaks…bends…

Crash!

Ryu hits the floor and rolls across in chaotically until she crashes into the back wall, "O-ow…what…just h-happened…?" She sits up and rubs the back of her neck as it pops when she tries to stretch it out. Her ears are ringing so loudly she's unsure if it's coming from her own head or somewhere nearby, but just faintly through it all there's a voice. It sounds so far away and yet the person screams at the top of their lungs; it's the weirdest things she ever heard in her life. Almost as if she's sinking deeper and deeper underwater and the person is shouting at her from above the surface.

Ryu blinks open her eyes slowly, trying to disperse the blurriness fogging up her vision. Something zips across the room to stand in front of her and then in rapid procession, gunfire echoes through the room faster than she can count. Each shot fired, makes her heart shudder terribly, wanting nothing more than to be able to see who was on the receiving end of the ammo.

For a split second between each bullet echo, another sound followed; it's faint, barely noticeable, but familiar none the less.

Is that…ice?, she thinks.

The shouting pauses until the gun shots cease, but resume while accompanied by a hallow banging. Closer to her, feet shift across the hard floor, brushing across it almost as if…

Almost as if the bottom of the feet were covered in pads…

Ryu blinks faster, pushing against the wall behind her as she struggles to stand on her stunned legs, heart hammering faster in alarm. With the wall being the only thing holding her up, her eyes finally begin to clear and the image moving towards her comes into focus. Time stops around her, the earth pauses. As if it's waiting to see what move she will make.

Her body starts recovering from the roll-about and her legs kick start. She dives to her left as an ice bullet explodes where she had been. Again she rolls as another bullet hits and bursts into heat at her side.

"You should have never returned here, cub!" Tigerclaw growls, raising his guns to fire again.

Ryu pulls the floor up with her power and it responds, shooting up like a column to protect her from the projectile, but the bullet cracks it easily and the eruption knocks her back. The fall rattles her rib cage as she lands on her back and quickly tries to recover.

"You're hold over the earth seems to have weakened," he chuckles.

"Just because I'm not here to fight you."

Tigerclaw pauses, glaring deeper at her in confusion, "To free the rat. We know of your plan already, cub."

Ryu places her back against the pillar she's called up to catch her breath and starts fiddling through her pockets, searching for any of the smoke bombs she pilfered off of Donnie a few days ago. She had gone a little giddy while goofing around the yard, throwing them at Mikey, so she's not sure if she has any-.

She grins, Two left!

Pulling them up out of her pocket to see them, she tucks them close to her chest in preparation.

"Yeah," Ryu answers, "We came for our sensei. What's it to you? He's not yours to hold prisoner here. That's kidnapping and illegal."

"True as that may be," Tigerclaw shifts his weight, waiting for an opening to attack again, "You would not miss a final chance to get your revenge. I know you, cub. Losing your whole family to an innocent fire is not something you would so easily get over. That is why you are truly here."

Her blood boils under her skin, her power flashing behind her eyes. Her fists tighten, nails digging into her palms. "I-Innocent…?" she mutters.

Tigerclaw hears her despite her muted response and he laughs, "I see I was correct. You have not made peace with it."

"Never."

"Which is why you will never beat me, cub. Even if you were to move on, you still would never match me," Tigerclaw lifts his gun and aims at the slight sign of the edge of her arm poking out from behind the pillar. "You will never win."

The gun fires, but Ryu is already gone. She races off from the other side of the pillar that he shoots at and raises her fist in midair, "Yes I will! You'll pay for what you did! Murderer!"

Her fist hits the floor and two shafts of metal fire up from the ground at lightning speed from under the floor, slamming into his wrists and knocking his guns out of his hands before he can defend himself. Ryu flashes forward and takes him head on, using all her training in hand-to-hand combat that she learned from Splinter to take him down.

"You set those flames and destroyed three innocent people that night! You murdered innocent souls, you demon!" she shouts at him with each punch, her power fueling both her anger and her attacks, setting her skin ablaze with boiling heat and burning the edges of her eyes. "I HATE YOU!"

Tigerclaw dodges easily, stumbling back from a few attacks and throwing a few of his own, but after a dozen rounds, he finally makes it through her defenses and grabs her around the throat. He lifts her and slams her back against the wall high enough to make her kicks useless.

Ryu grabs at his wrist, trying to dislodge his grasp, but he raises a paw and extracts his claws threateningly. She pauses in her struggle.

"T-take a chance…flea-bag…" she growls through the lack of air and crushing pressure on her neck. With a flick of her wrist, two sharp, jagged spears shoot out of the floor on either side of him and the tips halt a few inches from his own neck. "Let's see…w-who dies first."

"You wish for death so freely," Tigerclaw states, glaring up at her, "How little respect you have for your own life."

"Even if I d-die trying…I will…avenge…m-my family," Ryu growls, glaring back steadily.

"Then avenge them!" he raises his voice, "But take you anger out on your real enemy."

"I AM!" she screams.

"I DID NOT KILL YOUR FAMILY, CUB!"

THE END.

Go away.

Now.

See you in PART THREE.

Author's Note:

Here's a layout of the text affects again:

Italics-any words in this affect are personal Thoughts or Sounds.

Bold-any words in this affect are Computer Messages/Text Messages.

"Bold"-any words in this affect inside quotation marks are Computer Voices.

"Italics"-any words in this affect inside quotation marks are Past words/Emphasizing.

"Bold/Italics"-any words in this dual affect inside quotation marks are Past Computer Messages/Past Text Messages.

Bold/Italics-any words in this dual affect are Voice of the Earth.

Italics/Underlined-any words in this dual affect are Voice of the Spirit Guides.

Bold Underlined-any words in this dual affect are an Unknown Voice.

Again, all reviews, suggestions, and critiques are welcome.

-Katt B.