It had been a week since Donnie had treated Kara's injuries. She laid on the couch flipping through the channels with a bored expression on her face; not really paying attention to what was on. Turning the TV off she laid her head back groaning loudly out of boredom and glanced down at her stomach, feeling the bandages wrapped around her upper body in a deathgrip underneath her nightshirt, her arms covered in patches of bandaids as well as her cheeks. She scratched on the patch idly wishing she could go home and at least get her laptop or guitar for some entertainment but was forced to stay bedridden for another week; doctor's orders.
She, of course, ignored them and walked around the lair whenever they were out on patrols and sometimes went into their rooms except for Mikey's. She shuddered at the image of his so-called room and almost gagged remembering spotting a dirty wad of underwear, next time she decided to go in there she'd definitely be wearing a hazmat suit. Hearing her phone ring, recognizing the personal ringtone as Casey's, and answered. "What's up Mafia Man?...uhuh...well I guess..I mean it's not like I'm doing anything else but it's pretty late to be doing this now..do you have them?..Alright, fine. I'll meet you there." She slowly got up and put on her hoodie and shoes before walking out of the lair to the surface.
She glanced around looking towards the roofs to make sure the guys weren't around so she wouldn't get scolded by Donnie for obvious reasons, pulling on her hoodie to keep her features hidden as she jogged between the opening of an alley and looked around. "Nope, no one in sight." She mumbled to herself and grinned before walking causally to meet up with Casey not noticing the guys were on the other side fighting the Foot. Spotting Casey and Mary in the middle of the warehouse where they had their meeting with the fighter and scowled to herself remembering his face as she made her way towards them only to change to a smile, seeing them waving at her, Casey holding onto a suitcase.
"Hello Blind Bandit...h-how are you feeling?" Mary asks voice full of concern.
Kara smiled at her and gently patted her head. "I'm doing better, thank you for your concern." She said with her voice disguised before her smile disappeared. "Now tell me..what are your plans now that your uh..job is over with?"
Mary looked down in thought and sighed softly. "I suppose returning home to my family in Washington..all my money was going to my sick mother.. but I need to find another job for that..I don't even have a place to stay..." She clenched the end of her shirt feeling tears welling in her eyes.
Casey and Kara looked to each other and smiled before Casey put his arm around her shoulder. "Have I got good news for you. You see, after we all parted ways, I called your manager and we both had a private meeting. I bet him the money he offered us to forfeit on Blind Bandit over here and well guess who won." He said with a smirk, opening the suitcase to reveal the money.
Mary looked down in awe at it all but gasped as he closed it and handed it to her. "W-What?! I can't take this! You've earned it!" She said pushing it towards Kara who shook her head and gave it back. "I'm well off on my own. I don't need all of this money..you need it more than me." Mary looked at Kara, tears falling down her face before she cried out and hugged Kara tightly making her cringe in pain but ignored it as she hugged back.
Mary blinked her eyes feeling something hard yet squishy against her chest and looked down, poking Kara's chest, her whole face exploding in red. "Oh..oh my!" Kara busted out laughing which caused her to hold her side and cringe, her voice no longer disguised. "Ow..ow ok, ow..I regret that. Heh, guess the cat's out of the bag, huh?" Kara said taking off her shirt, revealing her chest. "I'm a girl." She said with a wide grin.
Kara was laughing all the way back to the lair after Mary's reaction to her being a girl. She even apologized about the kiss. "Oh, that poor girl." She chuckled to herself as she entered the lair. She yawned softly and laid down, resuming her spot on the couch, turning the TV on just as the guys came back.
"Hey, guys. How'd patrolling go?" She sat up, hugging a pillow to her chest while Donnie sat down beside her. "It was alright.."
"Something bothering you?" She asked, scooting closer to him.
"We met the Pulverizer and he's working with the Foot Ninjas."
"P?! Now way! That guy is going to get himself hurt!" She stood up suddenly enraged at the kid. "Why doesn't he-Ow..ok, ow.." She held her side and slowly sat back down with Donnie's help.
"Hey hey, calm down. I don't like it either but he's our eyes and ears in the Foot." She sighed and grabbed the pillow before laying it down on Donnie's lap, putting her head on it. "Fine..he better not do anything stupid." She yawned softly before closing her eyes to sleep. Donnie smiled at her and started stroking her head til she was deep asleep and snuck away easing her head down on the couch with the pillow and left to get her a blanket, kissing her forehead goodnight.
She sat in the dojo the next morning to watch them train, sipping her hot lemon tea quietly knowing they had to concentrate. She looked up, the cup to her lips, listening in on Master Splinter's lesson noticing he didn't look very pleased or satisfied about something; crossing his arms as he looked to his sons. "You four have defeated much of the foot clan with ease."
"Why does he make that sound like a bad thing?" Raph muttered to his older brother.
"Because you have grown complacent!" She almost spurted her tea out jumping in surprise at Master Splinter's sudden shout, the guys tensing up as he continues to speak, "Each of you has become dependent on your own weapon but there are times when you may not be able to fight with what you know and when that happens you must adapt to your environment."
"Oh yeah? What if there is only, say, a comic book?" Mikey commented holding up one of his comics books with a small grin on his face making Master Splinter smack him in the face with it knocking him backwards. She giggles but stops and goes back to her tea seeing Master Splinter's eyes were on her. "Anything can be a weapon."
Raph looked down at his brother then up to Splinter, "Sensei, you can't seriously send us out there armed with nothing but a comic book!"
"For a ninja anything can be a weapon."
"So, what do you want us to do?" Leo asked clearly not understanding the lesson in this.
"I want you to embrace the unfamiliar: Switch weapons!"
"What a twist.." Kara muttered into her cup as she watched Leo take Donnie's staff, Donnie take Raph's sais, Raph take Mikey's nunchuks, and Mikey take Leo's katanas.
"Look, I'm Leo!" Mikey shouted with a smile on his face while holding up the katanas. "Guys, shh! We have to be quiet. Ninjas are quiet. Quiet down." Kara, Donnie, and Raph laugh at Mikey while Leo fumes about it.
"I sound nothing like that!"
"Yes, that's why we're laughing. Because you sound nothing like that." Raph said with a grin.
"Face each other." Kara set her teacup down and watched them face each other to spar but it was clear that they didn't know how to use the other's weapon. She grinned and brought out her phone immediately recording.
"Hajime!" Master Splinter shouted.
Raph was the first to charge, swinging the nunchuks but ended up hitting himself on the head with both of them.
Leo went to take a step but the staff was too long and he ended up tripping over it falling over in front of Raph who had fallen as well.
Mikey started twirling the katanas around and Kara made sure to keep her eye on them as they spun out of his hand. One of them landed in front of him making him jump back with a startled cry, the other one falling beside it, Mikey falling to his butt in time to avoid its sharp edge.
Donnie would put the two ends of the sais together to try and make a staff but it wouldn't work and with every new position he tried it just didn't feel right to him. He looked at the sais and accidentally poked himself on the chin making him drop them and grab his chin.
"Yame!" Master Splinter shouted as they all looked at him all but Donnie on the ground, Raph somehow tied up in the nunchuks. She grinned, zooming in on him with her phone and saved it after Mikey spoke up. "That was messed up."
"You will continue to fight this way. It will teach you resourcefulness and versatility."
"Not so easy, is it?" Mikey said at Raph. "H-hey, I'm getting the hang of-ow!" Raph ended up hitting himself with the nunchuk again making Mikey laugh at him.
Kara took two pieces of pizza and watched the guys study their weapons and try to use them, except for Mikey who was using it to slice up the already sliced pizza and stab two pieces eating it like a kaboob. She groaned at him before looking up, hearing Donnie's phone go off. "Uh oh. Text message from you know who." Everyone looked his way, Mikey the only one with a confused look. "Text message from everyone but Mikey knows who." Mikey gave him a thumbs up and walked over to him having finished his pizza slices. "The Pulverizer is telling us where the foot are going to strike next."
"What'd ya know? He's actually useful." Rah said swinging the nunchuk almost looking as if he figured it out.
"Yeah, but he can't stay in the foot they'll toast him!" Donnie shouted clearly not liking the idea.
"Inside information, Donnie. It's worth the risk." Leo said.
"But we're not the ones taking the risk, the Pulverizer is." She could tell this really bugged him and sighed wishing there was some way for her to help. "I mean it would be totally understandable if it was someone who actually had skills to be a spy but P..it just doesn't feel right..no matter how much of a doofus he is but..this is what he wanted..he's going to have to accept the punishment.." She clenched her fists deep in thought but blinked, looking over at Mikey as he talks about being the sword guy.
"Hey guys..is it ok if I come along? I won't get in the way, I'll stay hidden! I just need some fresh air." She gave them all the puppy eyes with the quivering lip and no one, NO ONE, can say no to her puppy eyes which they didn't! She smiled and jumped up before running to catch up with them.
As promised, she stayed on the rooftop looking down at them, watching P trying to be sneaky and groaned softly. "Why does that boy always have to get himself into trouble.." She squinted her eyes seeing Donnie grab at him and smiled, thinking they were going to get him out of there before trouble came their way, but sighed seeing Dogpound, Fishface, and a handle full of foot ninjas appear. "What next?" She sighed, leaning against the edge with her arm propping her head up watching them but blinked hearing P shouting, "HELP! IT'S THE TURTLES, THEY'VE GOT ME!"
"What the heck, man!?" Kara shouted but blinked and quickly fell to the ground seeing Dogpound look her way but saw nothing and started attacking. She sighed in relief knowing she wasn't fit to fight just yet despite her recovery exercises and slowly poked her head out seeing the guys were having trouble adapting to their weapons. "Come on, guys. You can do it." She said to herself. "How come you guys didn't teach each other instead of figuring it out on your own." She pouted and resisted the urge, no matter how great it was, to stay and not fight.
They ended up switching weapons back and smiled seeing their fighting spirit return but knew they would be in trouble for disobeying one of Master Splinter's orders. She blinked and looked ahead seeing a door open revealing two foot ninjas coming out carrying mutagen.
"Oh crap!" She started climbing down the fire exit telling herself she'd apologize to Donnie later but when she reached the bottom they were already gone. "That can't be good.." "Psst, over here." She looked over seeing P hiding behind a trashcan and followed behind the guys to see him.
"You don't have to hide, Pulverizer. The foot are gone." Donnie said.
"Ahem. You shouldn't use my real name." P said with a deep voice trying to disguise it but clearly failed.
"Your real name is Pulverizer?"
"No..it's Timothy."
"Stop talking like that, Tim."
"Guys!" Timothy said with his real voice. "You'll never guess what Shredder is going to do with the mutagen!"
"He's going to create a mutant army to destroy us?" Donnie questioned with a raised brow
"Yeah, we pretty much know his plans, Tim. It's the only thing he obsesses about." Kara said crossing her arms over her chest, using the same unamused tone Donnie had.
"Yeah, but there's a lot more to it than that."
"Really?" Kara and Donnie said together making her look at him and smile before looking back at Tim who rubbed the back of his head in shame. "No, you guessed."
"Pulverizer, you're in over your head. Go home."
"Wait." Leo started making her look at him with a raised brow. "Not until he finds out more about Shredder's mutation plan."
"What's there to-" She was cut off by Tim shouting, "-Oh yeah, baby! The Pulverizer stays in the game! Up high!" He shouted but Kara looked at him, leaving him hanging as well as everyone else. "Ok, I'm off! I'm practically invisible!" She winced hearing a horn blaring and the sound of a car crash before turning back to Leo.
"You can't possibly be serious! He's been there long enough! He needs to go home where he belongs. He wasn't made for any of this!" Leo turned to her, giving her a stern look making her look at him in surprise. "Right now, he's the only option we have to figure out what Shredder's plan is and what we need to do to stop it. It's worth the risk. He wanted to be a part of this. So, here's his chance."
"So, what if he's building an army of mutants? They're no match for my sais! High three!" Leo and Mikey high three'd him and Kara sighed before looking at Raph, mentally thanking him for interrupting before she said something she'd probably regret. She looked towards Donnie and saw worry plastered on his face.
The guys were whooping and hollering as they entered the lair and she sighed but smiled while shaking her head. "Heh, boys."
"And I was makin' the bucks with my ol' nunchucks!" Mikey shouted while twirling his weapon with ease.
"I was droppin' the foot like flies with my sais." Raph said while spinning his weapon in his hands then doing a flip, landing beside Mikey. "Yeah, Raph! Leo!" She walked off, ignoring the rest of the conversation and walked into the kitchen pouring herself a glass of water and chugging it down as if she had eaten a bag full of crackers and sighed in content before walking out seeing Master Splinter approach them. "Uh oh." She said with a smile.
"So," Master Splinter started, snatching up one of Raph's sais. "You decided not to follow my lesson."
"Sensei, we don't get it. How does switching weapons help us in a fight? We were doing fine on our own." Raph shrugged his shoulders thinking he wasn't being fair.
"Then you still do not know the point of the lesson." He said while tapping Raph's sai in his hand. "So, you will learn to adapt with no weapons."
"Huh?!" The guys shouted, eyes wide in disbelief. "Hand over your weapons, now!"
The guys did as they were told and Splinter walked away with them in his arms.
"Wooooow." Kara said walking over to them in two large steps. "I'd hate to be the ones who rely mainly on weapons. Oh, wait, that's you guys." She said with a wide Chesire like grin making steam come out of Raph's ears and chase her around. "I regret nothing!" She laughed but winced feeling him tackle her to the ground and tickle her making her kick and flail her arms around laughing her butt off til her face showed pain. "Ow. Ow. Ow!"
"Woah, you ok?" He said getting off of her and helping her up. "Yeah, it's just pain." She said with a weak smile, gently punching his shoulder.
She was on the floor playing with Spike, Raph beside her when she heard Donnie's phone go off and say, "Oh, It's our spy."
Everyone gathered around him as he put his phone on speaker. "This is special agent delta niner calling from behind enemy lines."
"Spit it out Timothy." Kara walks up just as he gives out the location, holding Spike in her arms. She looks down at him and smiles, whispering, "That's the doofus that's gonna get himself hurt." She gently rubs under Spike's chin making him nibble on her finger and she smiles. "Aww, too cute."
"Shredder's only going to mutate one foot soldier as a test! And guess what; I volunteered!" Kara almost dropped Spike but luckily caught him in time before setting him down on the ground. "You what?!"
"Isn't that cool?"
"No! Why would you think that's cool?!" Donnie shouted his eyes pleading for him to say that wasn't true.
"This is my chance to be like you guys! Throw some mutagen on me and BOOM! I'm a superhero! I'm taking Shredder down!"
Kara took the phone from Donnie and started pointing at it violently. "Listen, here Timothy!" She said his name with such loathing it felt like venom coming out of her mouth, "You have no idea what you're getting into, the effects that mutagen will have on you! Your idea is stupid and dangerous, very stupid!"
Leo and Raph had to pull her away, covering her mouth while Donnie took the phone back in time to hear him speak. "Once I mutate I'll unleash my mighty mutant power on Shredder! I'll be all like Waaah! Hiyah! Take that pointy man! Oh, gotta go. Signing off." He whispered as motorcycle engines began to rev.
"Ugh! I knew we should of gotten him out while we had the chance."
"Well, we're getting him out now." Kara nodded and followed them into the Shellraiser, glaring at whoever tried to talk her into staying.
They saw the foot ahead and followed after the trail of bikes, Kara holding onto the security line tightly.
"Eat hot trash, Fishboy!" Raph shouted at the screen where Fishface was driving towards the van. Fishface dodged the compressed garbage and jumped onto the top biting and kicking the canon.
"He's on the roof!"
"I got this" Raph said and opened the top to face him but yelled in surprise as Fishface pounced, mouth open and ready to bite him but he closed the top before he could and fell to the floor without his head making Mikey and Kara scream til his head popped back out. She sighed in relief and smiled at him. "Good thing you're a turtle."
"Short turtle at that." He said with a grin. "Alright, plan B."
He went back to the controllers making the canon spin and grinned. "Whatcha gonna do now?" She blinked when the Shellraiser suddenly drove out of control, the van tilting towards the right. "Why do I ask these questions. Why?" He said crossing his arms and pouting.
"Cause you don't know when to shut up!" She shouted as the Shellraiser toppled over everyone yelling in surprise. Everyone climbed out, luckily with no damage, while Fishface fled to follow after the others.
"Splinter once told me that the Pulverizer is my responsibility. I gotta stop him." Donnie said pulling the Stealth Bike out and climbing on. She gets on behind him, putting Raph's helmet on. "What're you doing?" He asked having his helmet on "He's not just your responsibility, he's mine as well. We're doing this together." She said giving him a stern look but he smiled at her and nodded making her smile as she puts his arms around him and they drove off.
He was going pretty fast and she could see the location just up ahead but when he wasn't slowing down she thanked herself for putting Raph's helmet on, knowing what was going through his head. She yelled in surprise as they jumped over a large tow truck and flew through the glass. Donnie jumped off and grabbed Timothy before they could mutate him and she followed his lead, putting her gloves on noticing he didn't have his weapon. "Aw, sewer apples!"
Not waiting for him, she charged the foot soldiers and went to town on them with ease while Donnie found a broom to use and attacked Fish face and Dogpound. She noticed Timothy running towards the mutagen tank but luckily Donnie stopped him before he could pull the lever. She saw Dogpound going towards him and brought out her taser, tasing one of the soldiers before running up to him, doing the same. He turned his attention on her and she tased him again before doing a spin kick to his face, kicking him away, but not before he grabbed Donnie, bringing him with him to the ground. "Sorry!" She shouted towards Donnie. "I'll save you, Donatello!" Timothy said running towards the tank again. "Didn't you hear what I just said?!" Donnie yelled while being attacked by Dogpound.
She groaned loudly and went after him, pushing him away from the tank only to be kicked by Fishface. She bit her lip in pain and landed low on all fours, growling low in her throat before charging him, using her taser on him then punching him across the face. She saw Donnie pick Tim up and smiled only for it to drop as more foot soldiers came. "Aw, crud.." She said, getting into a fighting stance.
Suddenly, she heard glass breaking and looked up seeing the other three brothers arriving in style and grinned til they reached for their weapons only to remember they weren't there. "Huh..oh, yeah, no weapons. Spread out guys and remember anything can be a weapon." Leo said as the three brothers split up, Donnie and Kara charging into battle. Mikey grabbed a chain, Raph broke a piece of wood off a crate and Leo found a rusty pipe and soon they joined in on the fighting. After knocking a foot out she heard growling and looked over seeing Dogpound waking up after Donnie knocked him out and was walking towards Tim. She sighed and ran towards them. Her eyes widened seeing him going to the tank. "No!" She shouted now standing beside Dogpound, Timothy pulling the lever, mutagen ooze splattering on to his face.
She watched in horror as he walks out screaming in a muffled voice that it burns his skin while reaching out for help. He was walking closer to her but she couldn't move her feet from the shock. Mikey threw the chain around her, pulling her away from him just in time before he could touch her. "What happened?" Mikey asked, keeping Kara behind him.
"Pulverizer got his wish!" Donnie shouted.
"And we got a problem" Leo said as they jumped onto the crates avoiding his touch Mikey holding on to Kara. "That dudes straight nasty!"
"Holy Mackerel.." Donnie muttered in awe at his transformation.
"Timothy is jacked up!" Kara agreed with Mikey, watched in disgust as Timothy's body changed into nothing but ooze, his organs visible for everyone to see as well as his eyes and mouth.
"Uh oh. This place is rigged with plastic explosives!" Donnie shouted snapping her out of her thoughts and she stood up, tasing one of the soldiers as Leo kicks him away. They jump down to try and escape but Dogpound locked them in. "We're trapped! We need to get out now!" "But..what about him?" She looks over and sees him slithering towards them Donnie gently pushing her behind them as they throw their weapons at him. He shrieks in pain but the weapons fall inside him, dissolving them to nothing but vapor.
"He just ate our weapons!" Mikey shouted in fright while everyone had their eyes wide, scared. "And it looks like we're next!"
The guys were shouting at him to get them to remember them while they were backed up in a corner. Kara glared and stepped forward. "Timothy! Knock it off!" He stopped and blinked at her before turning to Donnie. "It's us, the turtles." Timothy looked over at the windows, seeing his own reflection while touching his face before getting angry and attacking them. "We still gotta get out of here. Let's go."
"Not without..Timothy"
"And how do you suppose we get that blob out of here?"
"I've got an idea. Raph, Kara take the Stealth Cycle. Mikey to get Timothy's attention."
"This had better take less than ten seconds!" Kara helped Raph push the cycle up and got in after him as the guys took their positions.
She watched Mikey lead Timothy under the tank where he mutated himself and before he could get to Mikey Donnie shouted, "Now!" and Leo kicked the tank down on Timothy, Donnie tackling Mikey out of harm's way, trapping Timothy inside the tank. "Raph!" Raph drove the cycle towards them, knocking Timothy in the air while enclosing him and Kara under the shell while Donnie jumped up, closing the tank and concealing him inside while his brothers climbed onto of the Stealth Cycle and rode off just in time for the bombs to go off, sending them flying in the air, Raph using his body as a shield to keep her from getting hurt as they fell out of the cycle and to the concrete ground and looked up seeing Timothy rolling til he was stopped by the sidewalk. They all gathered around him, Kara glaring at him.
Back at the lair everyone stood around Timothy just staring at him except for Kara who sat on the couch with her back turned to him. "Do you think Timothy is happy with his new state of being?" Master Splinter asked curiously, stroking his beard.
"Seems that way. He wanted to be a mutant and he got his wish." Leo said staring at Timothy
"Donnie, we're letting you keep him. But you gotta stash him in your lab so I don't have to look at him." Raph said patting his shoulder some.
Master Splinter looked towards Kara sensing the rage inside her. "What do you think of this, my dear?"
"What do I care? It's as Leo said, he got what he wanted! Everyone's peachy keen and happy, right? No! Because of him we were almost blown to pieces. Because all he wanted was to be a mutant and save the day; to be a hero! Well guess what, buddy" She said walking right up to him, glaring down at him. "You may have gotten what you wanted but lost what you had..And I feel no pity for you." She said in disgust before storming out of the lair. Donnie looked at Timothy, pain in his eyes. "I promise Timothy, one day I'll turn you back." He said before running off after Kara not wanting her to be alone.
He found her kicking at some rubble and yelling at herself. "Argh! That stupid boy! Doesn't he think of his family, of his friends?! Why couldn't you listen to me!" She fell to her knees, hearing Master Splinter's voice in her head about him being her responsibility and lowered her head. "I failed..why wouldn't you listen P..." She felt angry tears stinging her eyes as she let them fall. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up seeing Donnie looking down at her before sitting down next to her, holding her close. "He's not just your responsibility to burden.." He said giving her a gentle squeeze. She sniffed and put her arms around him, burying her head against his shoulder. "Why didn't he listen...?"
"I dunno but I promise I'll turn him back to normal and make sure he forgets about this." She looked up at him and smiled softly before stroking his cheek. "You have such a kind heart and a large brain to go with it." She laughed softly before kissing him on the lips. "Just promise me you won't obsess about it and that you'll stay focused on other things as well.." He kissed her back before holding her close, laying his chin on top of her head and sighed softly. "I promise."