It had been almost a week since the "Wormquake" ended and everything was slowly returning to normal. The guys continued looking for mutagen while Kara stayed behind to focus on her job and what school work she missed during the quakes, well, what she could remember.
"It should be safe for them to come back." Kara said to herself just as she brought out her phone ready to call Mrs. Christine's number when her caller ID appeared on the screen. "Oh, what do you know, heh."
"Hello, Mrs. Christine." Kara said answering the phone.
"Hello, Kara. How is everything going?"
"Much better. Everything has calmed down and it's safe for you and Zack to come back." She said with a smile happy to know that they were safe and sound.
"Oh, that is wonderful news, Kara. We will leave immediately and should be back later tonight." Mrs. Christine sighed in relief and was happy to know she could return home.
"Alright, have a safe trip. See you soon." Kara hung up the phone before gathering her stuff up and leaving for the lair. "I wonder how they'll react when I tell them the news. Maybe I should have her see Master Splinter when she returns, just to get it over with."
Nodding her head to her idea she climbed down the manhole and ran towards the lair. Jumping over the admitance rails she looked around wondering where everyone was and jumped hearing Mikey's voice.
"No, you can't! No! No! No, noooooooo!" Kara gasped thinking something was wrong and ran in the direction the yells were coming from, which happened to be the kitchen. "Was Leo cooking again?!"
She ran inside and slid to a hault when she saw them..playing a board game. "My plus one Ring of Awesome didn't save me ehh...Avenge me. Avenge the beloved elf." Mikey cried to Raph who pushed him away clearly unamused with the game.
"Are you serious?!" She shouted getting everyones attention. "I thought you guys were in serious trouble! You had me freaking out!"
"Hey Kara. Check out this game we found in the trash! Someone just threw this away!" Donnie said waving her over. Kara sighed but walked over reading the title. "Maze and Mutants?" She shrugged and sat down beside him watching how to play while taking a slice of pizza.
"Relax, Mikey, your elf is fine..for now." Leo says omninously making Mikey stand up holding his ring in the air triumphantly. She looks over at Raph and grins seeing he wasn't having as much fun as the others.
"But suddenly your party is attacked by evil, vicious, Monkey Goblins! You have to roll a two or higher to avoid being bitten."
"My lady." Donnie says with a smile holding out the die for her. "Blow on it for goodluck." She laughs softly and shrugs before gently blowing on the die before he shook it in his hands and threw it on the table with Mikey both of them getting a twenty.
They smiled excitedly, Donnie hugging Kara making her laugh. Raph tosses his die bored out of his mind and ends up rolling a one.
"One?!"
"CRI-TI-CAL FAIL, DUDE!" Mikey chants with a grin.
"The monkey goblin bites! Raph loses.." Leo rolls the die."Eleven hit points!"
"Eleven?! Give me that! I'm going to use my Magic Sword plus three to strike!" Raph said while shaking his die.
"And here I thought you weren't having fun, Raphie." Kara said watching them play and looks up as Master Splinter walks into the kitchen grabbing a cheesicle from the freezer, Icecream Kitty handing it to him making her smile.
"Hm, what is all of this?"
"It's called "Mazes and Mutants." We found it in the trash up top." Leo said showing the box for the game to Master Splinter.
"A game? Don't you have mutagen to find?"
"But Sensei we just beat the Kraang and Shredder's forces. We could use just one day to relax."
"I cannot understand why you play a fantasy game when your lives are already fantastic."
"We're just teenagers, Master Splinter, let them have some fun like nerdy teenagers do." She giggles going back to watching them.
"Me next! Everyone's favorite elf wants to attack goblins tooooo!" Mikey said with smile shaking his die. "Aw yeah! Plus one Ring of Awesome."
"Something is not right here.."
Master Splinter said something but Kara didn't hear what he said due to getting into the game. "This is pretty cool. Oh! There's a dragon at the end!"
After the game Donnie, Raph, and Kara were sitting in the living room watching the tv and they looked bored. Kara was playing on her phone while the two were watching their favorite show.
"It's MindMaster!" The princess shouts in fear.
Kara glances over at the tv watching the captain try to attack the villain but gets caught in a trap.
"Well..this is an interesting episode.." Kara raises a brow watching the captain guy explain about being trapped in his own mind while showing images of scary, not so scary, creatures. She shakes her head and goes back to her phone.
Hearing an explosion she looks up to see the guys right in front of the tv. "You'll hurt your eyes if you sit too close to the TV like that." Kara said before laying down on the couch setting her phone on her stomach thinking about going home and ordering some food.
"Where'd he pull out the bazooka?" She could hear Raph ask.
"I have theories." Donnie started before leaning close to Raph muttering the last part to him. She sighed in relief when they turned the tv off but blinked hearing an imitation of a trumphet.
Sitting up, she saw Mikey and Leo walking into room behind the couch.
"Hear ye. Hear ye. We have seen the future and it is Larp." Mikey says
Kara looks over at Raph and Donnie before back up at them all of them clearly confused.
"LARP: Live Action Role Play. We dress up as our heroes then finish our Mazes and Mutants game in the sewers!"
Kara giggles at Mikey in the background before standing up, smiling at Leo. "Sounds interesting. Oh, I want to be the dragon you have to fight at the end!"
"Cool! Sounds fun!" Donnie says his face lit up in excitement.
"Sounds like stupid. Count me out." Raph looks away not wanting to be apart of their dorkiness.
"Come on, Raph, if you play with us I'll let you wear my plus one Ring of Awesome." Mikey says while holding out his unicorn ring trying to persuade him into playing.
"Oh really? Can I? Oh, that'll be so keen, Mikey! Forget it! I don't do rings."
"Come on, it'll be fun, Raph. Besides if you make it to the end we could get in some sparring time." kara says doing some fake jabs to his side and grins.
"That's four votes to one. Let's Larp!" Leo says pumping his arm.
"If we're gonna Larp we're gonna need costumes!" Donnie said excitedly all of them running off to work on their costumes.
Being a dragon. Kara just needed some horns, a tail, and markers to draw her scales. Using toilet paper rolls, paper, and tape she, to the best of her ability, made the horns before grabbing some running into the bathroom where she keeps her spare training clothes and brought out her headband and glued the horns to it then started on the tail using paper towel rolls instead. "Not long enough..going to have to use paper for the rest..." She says to herself.
Once she spray painted both of them she began drawing the scales on her arms and face. When that was completed she put on the tail, using wire to attach it to her waist, then the horns pulling her hair back out of her face then looked at herself in the mirror and grinned. "Heeeey, not bad. If I had some sharp teeth I'd look awesome!"
Hearing them coming out of the lab all dressed up she smiled, clapping her hands at their work. "Nice job, guys."
"Introducing Leo: The Knight. Donnie: The Wizard. Mikey: The Elven Theif, thank you very much." Mikey said while winking. "Raph: The Dwarf Barbarian. And lastly, Kara: The Evil Dragon!"
Kara laughs before bowing to them but lifts her head up with a sly grin. "Well done, heroes. You look the part but do you have the skills to defeat me at the end of thyn maze?" She gives them an omnious, soft chuckle before standing up straight and beaming with excitement at them. "This is pretty fun already."
"Alright, guys, I'm going to take Kara to the end of the maze then we can begin." Leo says before leading her to the end where the final battle would be. "So far you've outdone yourself, Leo. Everything looks awesome! Is this what you and Mikey were up to the whole time?"
"Yeah, pretty nifty, don't cha think?"
"Extremely nifty. Alright, I'll wait here but don't take too long." She waves bye to him before he runs off to join up with the others. Once she was alone she began to do some stretches to loosen her muscles up. "Finally able to get some sparring in."
Stopping what she was doing she began to hear a noise. Listening closely she could hear a chuckling sound and soon a low mist came out of nowhere. "Is this part of Leo's maze? Not bad."
The chuckling became louder to a laugh then suddenly stopped. She scanned the area curiously when a bird face was right infront of her. She jumped back with a start but before she could get far it blew some kind of dust at her. Coughing trying to clear her airway she began to feel dizzy and before long passed out.
It felt like hours later when she slowly woke up. Ugh..what was that?..Ngh, my body feels so heavy.." She looked around and blinked in surprise to see a large room filled with nothing but gold coins, and a large crystal ball on a stand in the middle of the room. "Woah, Leo! You've outdone yourself!" She put her hand on the ground to lift herself up but blinks when she hears a thud and immediately looks down to see a black, scaley claw!
She jumps up, opening her mouth to scream but a roar comes out instead. "What the?!" She runs to the crystal ball and is able to see her reflection. "I'm..I'm a dragon!" She runs around in panic and confusion but stops when the crystal ball begins to glow and is able to see the guys through it.
Squinting her eyes she could see the confusion she was feeling. "Guess I'm not the only one who doesn't know what's going on...wait..what's that?" Able to see an eerie glow on their faces a birdman appears in view, beginning to speak but couldn't understand what he said.
"My name is Sir Malachi. I am the one who changeth your clue and the one who broughteth you here and I am the one who will rewardeth you if you win the quest."
"So, he's the one who changed everything and made me a dragon! This!...This is actually pretty cool!" She looks behind her at her tail swaying it back and forth looking herself over. "Not bad, wish I had wings though."
"You four turtles but solveth the puzzles three and defeath the dragon to free Princess April." He said while showing an image of April sleeping. Donnie gasped at the image but then a thought occured to him. "Where's Kara?!"
"Silence thee! Only I reveal the questions! Then and only then will I releaseth you!" The birdman laughs evily while doing a little dance.
"Wait..April is here? She better be ok wait a minute..defeat the dragon...but I'm the dragon.."
"If thou succeedeth I will free your princess and send you all safely back home. Fail and the dragon devours her! Thou will be trapped in the maze forever!" He said while laughing like a maniac.
The image disappears and suddenly April's sleeping form shows inside the crystal ball. She placed her claw/hand onto the crystal ball before lowering it. "Please be safe guys.."
She looked up hearing a poof sound and saw Sir Malachi. She lowered her head, letting out a low growl. "You! What did you do to my friends?! They had better be safe!"
"Simple, I granted them thyn wish to live an adventure! They chose thyn roles and have to surviveth the maze to reach Princess April in time or thou shall devoureth her! Haha!"
"No...No! I refuse to hurt her or them! You can't make me, birdie!" She stood up ready letting out a loud roar making the room tremble with her voice, her eyes burning in rage ready to attack him.
"Poor choice in words, dragon." He said simply just before she ran at him, causing the coins to shake and fall around her. When she was close enough he pointed his wand at her as the end began to glow. She blinked in surprise finding herself unable to move. "Ngh, what the?! Why cant I move?!"
"Now, stareth into thy light and accept the role in whicheth thou has chosen." He said in a low, soothing voice.
She squeezed her eyes shut willing herself not to look but her eyes began to open on their own and she found herself looking into it. "Wow..it's so beautiful." Her body began to relax and soon she was no longer in control of her body.
"Good, dragon. Thou shalt slumber til those who wish to steal thy treasures arriveth and you will crush them!" He chuckled low before it turned into a loud, evil laughter before disappearing.
. "Huh...why is my body moving on it's own..and why am I so sleepy all of a sudden..I'll think better once I've slept it off."She turned away burying herself under the gold coins to sleep til the guys arrived.
"I've been giving this some thought." Leo started, all of them inching their way against a thin wall trying to make it to the other side without falling into the lava pit beneath them.
"About me being a turkey?!" Raph says angrily.
"Uh no, about the riddles. I think I get it all the the riddles are really one single riddle."
"You're saying the riddle points out the true nature of this place." Mikey says causing everyone to look at him.
"You actually understand what Leo is talking about?!" Raph says in disbelief with a gobble at the end.
"Plus one Ring of Awesome, dude! Woah!" Mikey slips and tries to catch his balance before grabbing hold of a wall lantern accidentally pulling on it and revealing a secret door only to fall into it. "Ring of Awesome...uhh."
They all entered the room full of gold and as soon as they took their first step inside Kara's eyes opened, awakening from her slumber, Sir Malachi's words echoing in her head. "Ngh, that nap could of been better." She lifted her head seeing the guys talking to April and something snapped, her body began moving on it's own.
"April!" Donnie shouted, all of them seeing her awake and safe in the middle of the room.
"Guys! Thank goodness! Can you get me out of this snowglobe?"
"Hold on, we'll have you out in a-" Leo didn't get to finish his sentence hearing a low growl and some movement.
"Uh..refresh my memory. Was there some mention of a DRAGON!" Mikey shouts as a tail is revealed slithering through the coin covered ground. They all gather back to back scanning the area around them til suddenly a large, slender black dragon with blue eyes wraps itself around the crystal ball, it's right eye closed with a scar over it, and roars.
The guys gasp in surprise at the creature as fire comes out of it's mouth, flying towards them.. They scream and jump out of the way before scattering.
She snaps her head in Mikey's direction and runs at him opening her mouth with a roar. "No..what am I doing?! These are my friends! Stop it! Stop trying to hurt them!" She screamed in panic trying to take control of her body once more.
Mikey rolls out of the way and she turns her attention to Leo and Donnie, swiping her tail at them but they jumped up and out of the way. "We gotta save April!" Donnie shouts.
"It's not trying to hurt her. Just us." Leo narrows his eyes at the dragon holding his shield up.
"What doesn't make sense is that the other trials had something familiar that we knew, something we faced, but this isn't familiar at all!" Donnie says just before Raph jumped up raising his axe above his head to strike the dragon but his attack did nothing to her and bounced off of her. "Ugh, critical fail." He said under his breath just as the dragon picked him up with it's teeth and threw him around.
The others started attacking and she threw Raph at them. She growled staring at them before stalking towards Mikey. He brought out an arrow, pulled his arm back, and released it right at the dragon's face but it didn't do much but stick on the end of her nose for a second before falling off and charged at him and the others not noticing Donnie trying to set April free.
The dragon shot fire at them as they fled trying to get to them. "No, stop it! Don't hurt them they're your friends! Get it together Kara! There has to be a way for you to let them know it's you!" She suddenly stopped feeling herself having control of her body again and sighed in relief. "No..just have to figure a way to tell them it's me.."
She noticed Leo flying at her and stepped back to dodge the attack but managed to get hit in the face where her scarred eyes was.
Donnie turned around to help Leo but gasped seeing the dragon roar in pain, able to open its other eye to reveal it was purple. Donnie's eyes widened staring at the eyes. "What doesn't make sense is that the other trials had something familiar that we knew, something we faced, but this isn't familiar at all!" Echoed in his mind and for a split second the dragon seemed to be staring right at him. "It's Kara.."
"Wait! Leo! It's-!"
Leo swung the final blow to end the boss battle and the dragon fell. The crystal ball containing April disappeared in a pop and everyone gathered around the dragon as it began to shrink. Donnie pushed everyone out of the way running to it's side but before anyone could ask why their eyes widened seeing Kara where the dragon lay.
Donnie held her close while checking for any injuries while murmuring to himself about how he should of realized it sooner.
"Donnie..I'm so sorry I didn't realize it was her!" Leo said in a panic
Donnie looked up at him sighing softly and opening his mouth to say something but gasped when Kara's body vanished from his arms. "What the..what is going on?!"
"This whole adventure is looney! Show your ugly bird head, Malachi!" Raph says clearly angry not only at the fact that his head was changed into a turkey head but they were forced to hurt their friend.
"Muwahaha! Well done Fellowship of Turtles! Now, I shall prepareth thy next adventure!" Sir Malachi said appearing on the pile of coins where April was at before. "Then, I will playeth the game with you forever and ever!"
"Forget it, Malachi, we figured it out." Leo said pointing his sword at him.
"We did?" Mikey cut in.
"This whole thing is an illusion. It's not real."
"It's not?" Mikey said in disbelief.
"Nonsense! Thou musteth travel the maze until my hearts contenthry."
"No. Way." Leo said with a grin his brothers gathering around him readying for an attack.
"My first attack I cast Magic Mist!" Sir Malachi raised his wand in the air as the end glew and shot out a blueish mist at the brothers but they dodge rolled out of the way. "Told ya. Power of the Ancient Elves." Mikey said with awed excitement.
Donnie charged still ticked at the fact Sir Malachi forced them to hurt Kara and jumped at him to strike but Sir Malachi was one step ahead of him. "Lightning of Long Rango!" He said lightning shooting out of his palm and shocking Donnie before throwing him aside.
"Rockets of Romadoph!" Sir Malachi fired rockets at them causing them to run everywhere to avoid getting hit.
"Everyone, Listen! Malachi is a mutant! He's creating the maze inside our minds."
"Inside our minds?! Are you crazy, Leo?" Raph says to Leo.
"He's got magic but I got the plus one Ring of Awesome." Mikey said with a smile staring in admiration at the toy ring.
Sir Malachi continues firing at the others while Mikey goes and sneaks up to him for an attack. "Thou thinkest thou can surprise the GameMaster?! I cast Eggbombs of Power!" Sir Malachi shouts before turning around and shooting magical eggs out of his butt at Mikey. Mikey Jumped in the air to dodge the bombs but was hit and flew across the room.
"My Ring of Awesome, ehh, it failed..." Mikey said flat on the ground in despair.
"Mikey, give me that ring!" Raph said holding his hand out.
"You..you want to carry my ring?" Mikey said in a hoarse voice holding the ring close to him.
"Not exactly." Raph said before taking the ring and throwing it at Sir Malachi causing him to fall off his tower and tumble down to the ground. "Ow! That smarteth!" Sir Malachi flew back in the air and used his lightning to shock them all.
"Guys focus! The only way we can beat this is if we all believe it's not real." Leo says to them all being the first to free himself.
"I..get it! And I don't..believe!" Donnie smiles able to free himself from the attack and drops his staff.
"Leo says it's not real. Leo says it's not real." Mikey says to himself trying to get himself to not believe and frees himself as well. "Yes!"
Sir Malachi narrows his eyes but looks at Raph lifting him off the ground and towards him.
"It's up to you, Raph!" Leo shouts watching Raph close his eyes and concentrate. "I'm trying!" Running through the maze, getting his head turned into a turkey, and fighting off Kara zoomed through his mind as he tried to tell himself it wasn't real. He began to calm his mind and when he heard Leo shout his name he opened his eyes. "I..don't...believe!"
A flash of light blinded Sir Malachi causing him to lose focus and fall to the ground. Raph landed on his feet and his face returned to normal. "Yes! I'm handsome again." Raph said with a grin.
"We're not playing anymore, Malachi." Leo said just before Sir Malachi went to attack only for his staff to go caput. He screams in frustration as his illusion ends and they all return to the sewers.
"We're back!" Mikey shouts in relief.
"Aw, maan." Sir Malachi says before looking up at Raph hearing him growl like a mad dog. He goes to run but trips over Mikey's arm and falls in front of Donnie. "You shall not pass!" Donnie says in a old man's voice while slamming his staff down.
"We were in the sewers the whole time. What were you trying to do?" Leo asked him but before anyone could say anything everyone stopped.
"Hey..do you..hear that?" Raph asked looking around able to hear something in the distance.
"MalaCHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Kara was running at full speed towards them still in her dragon's costume, her eyes burning in rage making them all scream like girls before tackling Sir Malachi and shaking him, furious at what he did.
"You messed with the wrong person, Malachi! I'm gonna beat you senseless til you start laying golden eggs!"
Leo and Raph pulled her off of him before Donnie grabbed her and held her close making her calm down. She squeezed him tightly trembling, thinking of how she almost hurt them all.
After returning to normal, holding his head from dizziness he looked down in shame. "I wasn't going to let you really hurt them..I...I just wanted to play."
He sighs and looks up at them. "My name is Martin Milton. I use to be obsessed with Mazes and Mutants every hour, every day. All of that changed when I was feeding the birds on my roof..I dawned fair cloak and wizardly hat to become Sir Malachi The Sparrow Wizard. I went into the sewers to play a solo Larping game of Mazes and Mutants when I accidentally found you. I made sure you found the game. I was so happy you liked it! So happy indeed..I just wanted people to play with.." Martin looked down in sadness.
"Dude..solo LARP? That is so sad.." Mikey said sniffing and wiping his nose on his sleeve. Kara looked down feeling sorry for him but narrowed her eyes. "Then why did you force me to fight them?"
"I wasn't really going to let you hurt them. I let them see who you are by uncovering your eye and giving you control of your body again."
Kara looked away in thought remembering feeling like she had control once more and nodded.
"Aw, Malachi wasn't entirely bad. He did leave us clues that everything was an illusion. It really was a game." Donnie says feeling bad for the guy.
"You can go, Malachi but you have to promise you won't force anyone to play with you ever again." Leo says to him giving him a chance.
"Sounds faireth to me." Martin says before Leo smiles and holds out his fist giving him a fistbump, Martin making explosion noises to add effect making Kara smile at how goofy he looked.
"Goodbyeth my friends! Live long and LARP!" He says before turning away to leave.
"And thus, the turtle champions fought the Evil Dragon and Sir Malachi, turning the Dragon to good and won by their shere power of their awesomeness! Booyakasha!"
Everyone turned and left without Mikey heading back home.
"Um..guys? Hey, wait up!" Mikey shouts running after them leaving behind his Ring of Awesome.