?
Dark. Quiet.
A flash of lightening lit the small room as thunder BOOMED outside the window.
A glint of steel.
Slowly the room returned to darkness as the thunder rumbled to silence.
Another flash!
No. Not a glint of steel.
A man. Dressed in an entire suit of steel.
The Shredder.
As shadows played across his armor he sat in the middle of his meditation room. His eyes closed in deep concentration.
"Daddy?"
His eyes shot open.
Behind him a dark haired little girl stood in the doorway, her eyes filled with fear.
"Enter…Karai."
Lightening CRAHSED outside the window.
Age: Five years old
Karai ran across the room, her tiny feet patting against the floor as she flew to her daddy's armor clad lap.
Shredder opened his arms as she slid into his grasp and clung to his chest.
"What is wrong, my daughter?"
Karai looked up at him.
"There's a monster in my room."
Shredder smiled beneath his iron faceplate.
"Is that so?"
Karai nodded.
Shredder laughed.
"Then let us go slay this monster."
Slowly, Karai smiled.
Footsteps echoed through the halls as Shredder led his daughter back to her room. Shredder's home was a large place. In the five years since he had slain Hamato Yoshi he had slaved through sweet, blood, and tears to build his new empire. It was small now, but one day it would become the greatest in all of Japan.
But there were…complications.
Before his daughter had intruded upon his meditation Shredder had been pondering all that had happened since the fall of the Hamato clan. With no Hamato ninjas to act as vigilante police, crime had risen all across Japan.
The Silver Serpents, a gang which the Hamatos had previously almost wiped out, had quickly risen back to power. And even more troubling, new gangs, syndicates, and criminal organizations had begun springing up like vile weeds across the land.
Shredder had expected that with the Hamato Clan gone there would be nothing to stop the Foot Clan's total domination of Japan's criminal underworld! But with all the competition, his plans had been extremely hampered.
It didn't matter though. Soon, all would bow before him.
Very very soon.
They arrived at Karai's room. Shredder slid the door open and stepped inside.
He stood in the doorway for a moment observing the room as lightening flashed outside the window.
Shredder had spared no expense in giving his daughter the very best. A large bed covered in jet black, silk sheets took up the center of the room while art work depicting great ninjas covered the walls.
Almost all Karai's toys, of which there were many, were dutifully locked away in a wooden chest at the side of the room decorated with golden dragons while her clothes were hung neatly behind the closed cherry wood doors of her walk in closet.
It was a sleek, streamlined place that portrayed little of the warmth and color one would expect from a child's room. The only sign that this room did indeed belong to a little girl was a stuffed fox toy which lay upon Karai's pillow smiling up at a mural on the ceiling depicting a traditional Japanese festival in traditional Japanese style.
Was it every little kid's dream room? Probably not. But Shredder had a certain aesthetic taste, and over time Karai had grown to love her dark, rigidly disciplined room just as much as her father.
Karai peeked around the side of the door into her room.
"Is the monster still there?" she asked with trembling voice.
Shredder looked down at her, a warm smile plain in his eyes.
"Come, Karai. It's time for bed."
Laying a gentle hand upon his daughter's back, Shredder led her across the room's plush, black and white carpet and lifted her into bed.
"Let me tell you a story." said Shredder sitting on the bed as he drew the covers across her tiny form.
"A story?" asked Karai, the fear somewhat dissipating in the wake of her newfound curiosity.
Shredder nodded.
"Once upon a time there was a great kunoichi named Karai."
"Just like me!" exclaimed Karai.
Shredder laughed.
"Just like you. This great kunoichi traveled the land defeating anyone who stood in her way. She was loved by her father, a mighty warlord, and feared by all her enemies.
One day however her father sent her on a mission to the distant mountains. She was to obtain a great treasure known as the serpent's sword. For days she hiked through enemy lands, battling hordes of ninja and laying them all low.
She arrived at the mountains, great black cliffs whose tops sparkled with soft, white snow. She climbed to the top of the mountain, and there saw the sword, resting beneath a giant tree covered in pink blossoms.
She went to grab the blade when suddenly a fearsome monster leapt out!"
Karai gasped and ducked beneath her covers.
"It was a great beast with a ferocious looking face and razor sharp claws. Truly a monster if ever there was one."
Karai peaked out from beneath her covers.
"What happened next?" she asked curiously.
Shredder smiled at her as he stroked his hand across her soft, raven hair.
And then SHOT up from the bed, across the room where he SLAMMED his metal clad hand right through Karai's closet doors!
With a mighty heave he jerked his fist back through the door, and with it came a humanoid form dressed in a silver robe.
Shredder threw the figure to the ground as splintered wood rained across the room.
Karai SCREAMED!
The figure looked up revealing a ferocious mask in the shape of a hissing snake's face.
Their hands whipped out of their silver sleeves revealing a set of metal claws on their knuckles.
They leapt at Shredder, ready to finish him then and there, but with two swift movements Shredder grabbed the figure's head, SLAMMED it against the wall, and then threw them back to the ground.
The figure started to get up, their hand going to a short sword strapped to their side, but Shredder SLAMMED his knee down on top of their chest and leveled a single, razor tipped gauntlet straight at their face.
He leaned in close, the figure's serpent-like mask reflected in the gleaming metal of Shredder's own helmet.
"Tell the Silver Serpents that if they ever try to come after my daughter again, I will personally separate every single one of their heads from their shoulders."
With that he grabbed the front of the figure's robe, and, spinning them only once, HURLED them across the room and straight through the window!
The music of broken glass danced across the room.
And then there was silence.
Karai slowly peaked out from beneath the covers.
Before her was her father, standing triumphantly in the middle of the room as lightening flashed across his imposing form, the masked warrior's short sword clutched in his razor tipped fist.
Two Foot Clan ninja rushed into the room.
"Master, we heard noise. What—"
Shredder held up a hand for silence.
"Double security. And I want this window permanently sealed shut before sunrise."
The two foot ninja bowed before running off to fulfill their tasks.
Shredder turned to his daughter and handed her the serpent warrior's short sword.
"Let this be a lesson to you, Karai. We do not fear monsters. We find them…and crush them."
Karai took the sword gingerly in her hands.
Shredder lifted his daughter up into his arms.
"Come. Tonight we shall sleep in my room."
Karai stared for a moment before a smile formed across her face.
She nodded.
As Shredder walked down the halls with his beloved daughter in his arms, Karai leaned against his strong chest and clutched the sword like a teddy bear as she closed her eyed.
"Find them…and crush them." she repeated, her voice fading as she gently drifted off to sleep.
Author's Note: HYPER HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE~! And, even more awesomely, HYPER ULTRA HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY TOTALLY AWESOME MOMMA~!
(Disclaimer: Today is not really my Momma's birthday, buuuut it either was or will be in a time frame no more than three months from the posting of this chapter. Remember kids, revealing your actual birthday online is just not safe.)
Aaaaanyway, legal stuff aside, I present the promised SURPRISE chapter that I mentioned during the last Author's note! YAAAAY~! I know this is normally a Turtles-centric story, but in honor of both Halloween and my Momma's birthday it felt like it would be totally AWESOME to spice things up with a spooktastic chapter centered around the Turtle-verse's most dangerous kunoichi! And hence the first Karai chapter was born!
It was actually ultra-fun getting to explore the Shredder/Karai family dynamic. Like, I've several stories that explore the Turtles' childhood (WHICH I LOVE), but I've never actually seen stories exploring Karai's childhood. Go figure.
But enough of that. I had sooooo much fun writing this, and I hope you had just as much if not MORE fun reading it! Let me know what you think of this latest chapter. Thank you so hyper much for reading, and HYPER HAPPY HALLOWEEN! LOVE YOU GUYS~!