Chapter 23 – The Revolt Part 1
It was bad. No, it was worse than bad. Drake vowed when he took Erika's place that he would lead her realm in her name – upholding peace and tranquillity. And yet, as Drake stood in front of his army, prepared for Renaldo's army to burst through the doors, he realised just how much he had failed.
Sir Vladimir stood to his left while Sir Albert stood at his right. Behind him he felt Emily's hand gently on his shoulder. He looked over at her and smiled as much as he could.
"I will follow you to the end, my Lord." She whispered
Drake nodded his head. "Thank you, Emily." He replied, "But your place will be beside the princesses. You know what you have to do if things don't work out."
Emily looked into her lord's eyes, seeing the determination in them. She returned with a nod, her own eyes growing in determination. "I do, my Lord."
Drake looked back to the doors as splinters of wood starting breaking off the doors. Renaldo jumped into a battle stance and held his hand up to his army.
"Prepare yourselves!" He shouted
Just as Renaldo's last blast decimated what was left of the doors and sauntered in a bright green light surrounded the entire hall. All of the occupants in the room shielded their eyes at the intensity. Renaldo and his army pulled back away from the light.
When the light faded in the centre of the room stood the rightful rulers of Rayon, their friends at their sides ready for battle. Renaldo growled at the sight of them.
Kim kept her eyes firmly on Renaldo, her eyes narrowed. She smirked at him.
"I'm sorry, Renaldo." She sneered, "Did we crash the party?"
"You should know better than to start the party without us." Riley chuckled darkly, brandishing her shoge.
Renaldo just started laughing manically. He gestured behind him and Charlotte stood beside him.
"Crash the party?" Charlotte laughed, "Why princess, you have made the party more fun!"
"What better way to win a revolution for my followers than to have them watch me take care of the half-bloods." Renaldo hissed, causing his followers to cheer and cry.
Kim stepped forward away from her friends and stood between the two armies. She locked eyes with Renaldo and without breaking eye contact she made air gestures to her family. Without a word her sisters and friends followed the gestures and split up and disappeared to who knows where.
She threw her whole arm up into the air for another gesture – one that was immediately responded with the entire army behind her jumping into battle stances, brandishing their weapons and glowing with magic.
"Once last chance, Renaldo." Kim shouted angrily. "To all of you. Put an end to this before it's too late. Relinquish your right to the throne or you'll pay with your life."
"Never." Renaldo hissed, "Your mother's kingdom will be mine, half-blood!"
With that Renaldo, with a shout, blasted energy at Kim, which she blocked using her katana blade.
With that one attack all hell broke loose. With her own battle cry Kim led her army to battle at the same time Renaldo did with his own.
'You had all better come out of this alive or I'll kill you myself.' Kim thought as her blade made contact with Charlotte's own.
'Don't worry leader, we have this.' Riley replied
'We won't let you down, Kim.' Lilly said
'Nor will we let our kingdom down.' Violet added
'Keep to the plan, girls. Or we might lose this.'
Flashback 30 minutes ago
Everyone stood around the living room table as battle plans were on the surface for everyone to see. Kim stood at the head of the table, her hands firmly on the surface, her face set determinedly.
"From what we've learned in our lessons, Rayon has 4 battle armies, each with it's own commanding princess. Though they will take orders from either Lord Drake, Sir Vladimir or Sir Albert, their traditions have always been to remain solely loyal to and take commands from their commanding royal dignitary." Kim explained
"So what?" Raph asked, "That means the bad guy already knows this. He's probably already prepared for this."
"Yes, but that means we're already up 4 armies to his 1." Riley smirked before looking over at Kim.
Kim nodded. "It does." She agreed, "But we lose the element of surprise because of his station. By law he is a Lord. That means he's a royal dignitary."
Lilly shrugged. "So he knows these armies exist and what their strategies are."
Violet shook her head. "It's not that." She said, "If he's a lord and the armies traditions express their loyalty to their designated dignitary-"
"Renaldo can gain control of your armies." April finished with a gasp.
"But only if he kills Drake before we get there, right?" Mikey said
Lilly looked over at him with a blank stare. "Drake and the four of us."
The group fell into a tense silence at those words.
"Upon our birth our mother designated an army be led by one of us." Kim continued, "But she knew her own bylaws. So she decreed that upon the death of one of us that army would then be led by another sister."
"Without any of us there right now all that stands between Renaldo controlling those 4 armies is Drake." Riley said, "But once we get to Rayon each of us will have complete control of our respective armies. So the number of people he has to…to kill to get to them goes from 1 to 5."
Kim nodded. "To lower the risk of all 5 of us being killed we will need to split up. And split up the armies. Splitting up will give us a better chance of staying alive."
"But who will protect you girls?" Casey cried, "You can take care of yourselves, but if that guy knows this then he's probably already made plans for several people to gang up on you girls individually."
"We'll have our armies." Lilly said optimistically.
"But it won't guarantee your safety." Donnie objected
"…then we'll split up too."
Everyone looked over at Leo, shocked. He had finally spoken up since arriving. He lifted his gaze from the plans and looked at the girls.
"There are 7 of us and 4 of you girls." He continued, "That's almost 2 of us per girl. If we split up too with the sole goal of your protection, we stand a better chance of keeping those armies, and our advantage."
When he finished Leo looked over at Kim. "They won't get to you if we're there at your side."
Everyone watched silently as the two leaders held each other's gaze. Kim finally nodded her agreement before looking back at her sisters.
"He's right." She said, "It's more dangerous for them, but it'll work."
"Dangerous my shell!" Raph cried, slamming a fist on the table. "I'm staying at my girl's side. If any of them even look in her direction I'll bash their skulls in."
Master Splinter placed a paw on Raph's shoulder and he calmed down.
"Very well, my children." He said, "Usually I would advise against splitting the family, but it seems to be our best option."
He raised his furry head and looked at his family with a smile. "We will win this battle. And we will all return safely."
"Then who goes with who?" Lilly asked softly.
Kim opened her mouth to reply but quickly shut it in reluctance. It made sense for 1 turtle to go with 1 girl, but now things were too awkward for the obvious choices.
"We go with the obvious." Leo spoke up, "We don't have time to debate this. Our best options are to go with pairs that have battled together before and work well together."
Leo looked over at his family. "Personal feelings aside, we have a job to do and friends to save. We will keep our heads in the game."
When his family nodded Leo looked back over at the girls.
"Raph and Casey will take Riley." He said
Kim then joined in a pointed to a corner of the map.
"Good team." She remarked, "Riley will control our invisible army, the Stealth Team, over here."
"Donnie and April-" Leo started
"Over with Violet outside by the lake. Her water army, the Aquatics, will be submerged waiting her command." Kim finished
Everyone else watched smugly as Leo and Kim continued to work together finishing their sentences and arranging the last of their plan. As if they weren't meant to be.
"Mikey and Master Splinter with Lilly." Leo said
Kim stopped and looked over at Leo. "Are…are you sure?" She asked nervously.
Leo looked over at Kim. "Mikey and Lilly work best together than I would with her."
Kim nodded, trying not to let disappointment show on her face.
"Right of course." She said, looking back to the plan. "Ahem…then they'll be outside taking to the sky with Team Avian."
"That leaves you and I." Leo finished
Kim nodded and pointed to another section of the plan. "I'll be at the front with Drake. He will control the remainder of our followers whilst I control my knights of the land army, Terra Nova."
"My son," Master Splinter started, looking over at Leo worriedly. "You will be alone in protecting Kimberley. Will you be alright?"
"Master Splinter," Kim said, gaining everyone's attention. "Both Drake and Emily will be there with me, not just Leo. Knowing Drake he will instruct Emily to protect me too. Leo won't be alone."
Master Splinter nodded and with that everything was settled. Kim rolled up the plan and looked over her friends and family.
"That's everything." She said softly, "If anyone has anything they'd like to say now's the time."
Lilly looked down, avoiding Mikey. Mikey crossed his arms but stayed silent. Leo shook his head whilst the others stood awkwardly, waiting for someone to fix things. Riley internally sighed, knowing none of them would say anything to fix this.
'Well, if nobody will step up, might as well make them smile.' She thought
"I'd like to say…" All eyes fell on Riley as she smirked. "You're all the weirdest, most idiotic people I've ever met to do this with us."
That caused them all to laugh or smile a little which eased some of the tension in the room.
"Let's do this!" Riley finished, pumping her fist into the air.
Kim's blade clashed with Charlotte again. The two kept pushing against the other to try and gain the upper hand.
"Give it up, half-blood." Charlotte hissed, "Lord Renaldo will take what is rightfully his."
"And how do you figure that?" Kim hissed back.
Charlotte's eyes flickered off Kim for a fraction of a second before she smirked wide.
"Because we'll take control of your armies." She whispered before suddenly pulling back away from Kim.
Charlotte giggled evilly as she watched Kim stumble forward before quickly catching herself. As she did so she didn't notice the 3 knights behind her about to strike. Suddenly two of them were impaled with katana blades while the third was blasted by an energy blast. When they all fell to the ground dead they revealed Leo and Emily standing behind them.
Charlotte growled angrily when Kim stood back up and stepped closer to Charlotte, her weapon raised, without even turning around to look behind her.
"Somehow I don't think that'll be happening." Kim smirked, "Meet my personal bodyguards, Emily and Leonardo."
Kim looked over her shoulder at the two and nodded at them. With that Emily placed her hand on Leo's shoulder and the two vanished. Kim looked back at Charlotte and swiped her katana causally through the air.
"Now, where were we?" She taunted
Charlotte growled and launched herself at Kim who rolled her eyes and bent down and swiped her leg under Charlotte's leg, toppling her over and losing her sword.
"Karai and the foot were more of a challenge than you are." Kim almost groaned before she thrust her katana through Charlotte's heart.
Lilly breathed out slowly as she saw loads of Renaldo's followers run across the castle grounds and jumped on any free dragon, paladin and winged creature they could find.
Lilly made several hand gestures and her armies on their partnered griffons took to the sky to confront them. She summoned a large tornado and directed it at the enemies, smirking when they couldn't escape its path nor escape the tornado itself.
'I need to get up there.' Lilly thought, preparing her magic to levitate herself up to the battle in the sky.
Suddenly Lilly was nudged forward and she stumbled to her knees. In a panic Lilly spun around, her magic at her fingertips. When she did so she came face to face with a paladin. It was slightly smaller than ones she'd been practising on with Sir Albert. It's skin was pure white while its mane was silver and its eyes were gold.
Lilly looked into its eyes and smiled. "You're the one, aren't you?" She whispered
The paladin whined and nudged Lilly more urgently this time. Lilly looked behind her and saw enemies coming closer to her. She spun around, stood up and created a large wind that blew them away.
"Thanks girl," Lilly said before quickly mounting the paladin and taking to the sky.
As Lilly soared with her army she looked down and smiled when she saw Master Splinter and Mikey fighting archers trying to take down her and her army.
The paladin whined again and Lilly pet her mane. "You whine a lot, you know that? You're creating a symphony."
The paladin looked over at Lilly for a moment and Lilly saw magic flicker in its eyes.
"Symphony?" She said, "Is that your name?"
The magic appeared again and the paladin whined in excitement.
Lilly giggled. "Alright let's take these guys out Symphony!"
Violet looked up from her post by the lake as she heard her sister's giggles and she smiled.
"Brilliant." She said before she brought her fingers to her lips and whistled the first 4 notes of her favourite song.
Within seconds a white paladin with a white mane flew in front of Violet and she jumped on its back and flew over the lake.
"Aquatics!" She shouted as she flew, "Emergent tactic #4!"
At that several water spouts exploded from the water like geysers. The water then swirled through the air and headed towards several enemies on the ground like rushing waves. The water connected with the ground and flooded everywhere before pulling back to the waters, along with several enemies. They each screamed as they were pulled into the water.
Violet frowned sadly as she watched her enemies struggle in the water before being attacked by her underwater knights. Violet sighed, not wanting to see the bloodshed and flew closer to the edge of the water, watching as April and Donnie stood on the high ropes and attacked more enemies.
Riley's head spun but she couldn't give up now. Her family, her kingdom, needed her and she would press on until her last breath.
In the far corner of the castle Riley placed an invisibility belt around her hips, watching as Raph and Casey followed her lead.
Riley nodded at her #1 assailant and watched her knights all become invisible. She walked over to Raph and Casey, showing them how to use the belt before she too became invisible.
"Our aim is to disarm as many enemies as possible. The more we can quickly and secretly defeat the better for our side. Distinguish them by the red capes with Renaldo's symbol he has given them all. Defend our troops where possible and do not give ourselves away to Renaldo. Avoid him or he will know our plan and there goes our advantage at dwindling his troops. Battle strategy Alpha-Prime!"
"Yes ma'am!" The knights all shouted before they all ran out to join the battle.
Raph and Casey turned invisible and noticed that they could see other invisible knights. Raph walked over to Riley and kissed her gently.
"I've got your back." He whispered
"I know that, Red." Riley winked before giving him another kiss.
"Come back to me."
Riley's eyes teared up for a moment before she nodded. "I will."
With that the three of them burst into the rest of the castle, taking out their enemies as they did so.
"No!" Renaldo roared as he watched Kim end Charlotte's life.
He spun back around at Drake and glowed a dangerous dark red. Drake met his threat by glowing gold himself.
"You!" Renaldo shouted, "It's your fault she is here! Your fault this is happening!"
Renaldo's glow intensified and he threw a large energy wave at Drake. Drake released his own golden wave of energy at Renaldo. The two waves connected and exploded in a huge force that caused both Renaldo and Drake to fly back.
Drake quickly stood back up and clapped his hands together creating a beam of light as high as the ceiling. He directed the beam to the still fallen Renaldo who cried and covered his face. The light fell and Drake looked around for Renaldo.
"Miss me?"
Drake cried as Renaldo suddenly blasted him from behind and he slammed into a nearby wall.
He coughed and looked up at Renaldo's smug face.
"If only your queen could see you now." He taunted as he slowly walked over to Drake. "She'd see how pathetic a fighter, and a ruler, you are. She'd be glad she didn't choose you over that mortal."
Drake growled low in his throat and vanished. He appeared at Renaldo's side and used his magic to increase his strength. He punched Renaldo and he flew back across the room, knocking several of his followers out as he did so.
"You will never speak of the queen!" Drake roared angrily, "You do not deserve to know her name!"
Renaldo got to his feet and brushed off some plaster from his shoulder. "Hit a nerve, did I?"
Drake growled and launched at him, throwing multiple energy balls at him as he did so.
Renaldo conjured a barrier around him before pushing the barrier towards Drake, blowing him back across the room.
Drake rolled onto his arms, his body covered in scratches and bruises. He looked up as Renaldo approached and kneeled beside him.
"Want to know what's funny?" He snickered, "You're not even the one I'm after. I'm just stalling for time until my plan is set in motion."
Drake's eyes narrowed. "You mean your plan to take over our armies?" He hissed, "Too late. We've already accounted for that. It won't work."
Renaldo started laughing evilly. "Oh, you are so predictable!" He laughed, "No that wasn't my plan."
Drake's eyes widened along with Renaldo's smirk. He leaned in closer so that he could whisper in Drake's ear.
"I'm talking about my plan of taking out the princesses by their own team."
Drake's eyes widened before his eyes flew around the room, analysing every aspect of the battle. Finally his eyes fell on a group of young magic wielders. He recognised them from the castle's magic program. He watched as the group stayed by the sidelines and watched Kim fight. Suddenly, one of them marched through the battle, their eyes trained on Kim.
Drake was about to shout to his princess when he realised the magic user's target wasn't her. A knight came behind Kim and was about to attack when Leo pushed him away and struck him with his blades.
Drake's eyes widened. The group wasn't waiting for an opening to attack Kim, they were waiting for someone else to draw out Leo.
"They're after the turtles." Drake whispered before he scrambled to his feet, trying to get to Kim, ignoring Renaldo's laughter. "Princess!" He shouted, "Stop! They're after the turtles!"
Kim stopped fighting and looked over at Drake, hearing his panicked shouts.
"The turtles! They're after the turtles!"
Kim spun around to look at Leo…but it was too late. Behind Leo was a young male with purple hair. His hands glowed violet and he shot energy at Leo.
Leo screamed as the blast hit him from behind before falling to the ground.
"Leo!" Kim screamed