Chapter Nine: The Monster

It stung, worst than anything she'd ever felt, because it was him, he'd shot her. Tears began to spill as she look down at the gaping hole in her chest, where her heart was, where it should've been. Blood spurted from the wound as her vision began to haze. Raphael was shouting, and he ran, she turned to the turtle and shook her head and mouthed a no. The turtle froze as the figure clad in black stepped down from the ledge. He towered over her, his eyes staring at her stoic like.

"Ka-Kashira-" she chocked out as she gripped his cloak for support. He smiled softly, his red eyes lighting happily as if there was nothing wrong at all. He cupped her face gingerly and used his thumb against her cheek to wipe away at her flowing tears. She smiled, despite the pain and nuzzled his chest dizzily.

"I'm sorry." he said softly. She cried harder, everything was senseless, but he was here, he was alive, and that's all that mattered. For him, she'd take a million shots to the heart and travel to the depths of Hell and back."I had to shoot him, but I guess I used too strong a gun huh?" Raph inspected the new comer, he looked like he was sixteen or seventeen, with long, tousled white locks that ended at the base of his pale neck and steely red eyes. He looked about 6ft 4 and hand a lean but broad build, he sniffed.

'Night just keeps gettin' weirder and weirder.' he thought and then noticed the Foot soldiers dead on the ground.

"Why?" she croaked. He turned her gently, behind her was another finger clad tightly in black, laying with bullet wounds riddled into his body. He kissed her forehead, brushing aside her bangs and kissed her again on the nose. She giggled and he gave a warm smile.

'It's been far too long.' he looked at her again and nuzzled her neck sweetly.

"Oroku Saki sent them, it hurts doesn't it." he held her tighter as she nodded.

"I-it's not that bad." she replied hastily. Raphael stared up at the two in shock, Yuki had just lost one of the most vital organs in her body, and she still stood? He ran up to her as Kashira's grip tightened, Yuki brought up a hand to his, signaling to him the turtle was not a threat.

"Are you okay?" Raph asked with concern.

"Yeah fine." she smiled.

"Bull shit look at-" he gaped, watching as the torn flesh began to repair itself as a new organ was replaced the torn one, well grew from.

"See? It's starting to heal." Raph shook his head in disbelief.

"Y-you're not human." Yuki shot him an incredulous look.

"I don't think I ever was."

"But you-that-What are you?" she let out a teasing smile.

"That's a secret." Her wound closed, revealing soft white skin beneath. Kashira nuzzled her nape affectionately.

"I missed you," he murmur against her skin, she turned to him and held him at arms length.

"I thought you died." he let out a laugh, startling the two others.

"How many times had I had my head cut off and still came back to watch the Super Bowl?"

"You had your head cut off?" exclaimed Raph, making a slicing geusture with his hands. Kashira nodded.

"And I was shot full of holes, had my heart ripped out and was blown between the eyes, what of it?"

"What the shell are you then?"

"I'm a monster, a creature of the night, the boogie man, this country's best weapon." he pushed himself further, leaning over the turtle until their faces were inches apart. "You know they took me, us, and made us into killing machines, a tool of war, we can never die, we never age, and our abilities just keep growing, until," he drew back. "Until our bodies are thouroughly destroyed, so there's nothing to regenerate from." he turned to Yuki as she averted her eyes from the pair in downcast. "I didn't die because they didn't shoot me enough, oh and they burned me too late." he chuckled.

"So where were you all this time?" she mumbled out softly.

"Sleeping." she scrunched her face and turned to him.

"Sleeping?" she gaped.

"Sleeping. I woke up when I realized who issued the death warrant on me."

"You don't mean-"

"I do, oh and a tip for you turtle man, there's going to be something big you might want to check out at the Purple Dragon areana thing. Why don't you call your friend Casey Jones so you can head over to 'check it out'." his grin spread.

"How do you know about-?" Asked Raph, getting ready to draw his sais.

"And April O'Neil, yeah, it's called hacking into the government's files and security cams, you know, I was looking for Acey and in my search, I found she was dispatched to The Big Apple. Then, I spent time reviewing every security cam available in this city until I tracked her down." she shot him and unreadable look. "So I pretty much exploited everyone who came in contact with her, including you turtles."

"You know about us?" seethed Raph.

"The government knows, but they don't do anything because you help keep NYC a tad bit more tame. Good job turtle heros."

"They know." Raph mumbled a few things incoherently under his breath.

"So are you gonna go?" asked Yuki, pulling herself from Kashira's hold.

"Can I trust him?" asked Raph wearily.

"I would, Kashira may like to mock people, be totally obnoxious, blunt, incredibly cruel, self entered, egotistical-"

"Hey-" the silver haired boy protested with a whimper.

"But, if it's something he'd bring up, then it has meaning." She continued as the silver haired teen purred delightfully long forgetting the insults the raven haired teen spouted at him. Taking off his heavy black cloak he placed it on the girl's nimble shoulders, noticing she shivered a bit from the coldness in the air.

"For the cold." he whispered near her ear. She nodded shyly as Raph looked at the two with a curious expression.

"You two got a thing?" he asked gruffly.

"N-no!"

"Yes." they said in unison. Her face turned red, as she shook her head, his smile grew as he pulled her closer.

"She's my wife."

"Y-your what?" stammered Raph.

"My delicate bride." he clung tighter as Yuki turned around abruptly and uppercutted his stomach, causing the boy to stumble back in a fit of laughter.

"I am not your bride Kashira, I'm single." Raph let out a sigh of relief.

"Shall we go?" asked Kashira.

"Sure, Raph, it's your choice if you want to follow."

"Let me get Case then-"

"No need," pipped a masculine voice, they turned to seen a burly man in a hockey mask, trailing a hockey stick. "Who's yer friend Raph?"

"Um this is Kashira?" Raph said a bit unsure. Casey reached a hand to the tall man. He looked at it curiously.

"Name's Casey, what you never see a hand?" Kashira scoffed as he lifted the girl by the waist firmly despite her desperate flailing and threw her over the ledge. She let out a startled cry as she made her descent, followed by many colorful words.

"What'd ya do that for?" they yelled in unison.

"Let's go," he said coldly. "We're wasting time." he turned before jumping down the stone ledge as well.

"Christ this guy's crazy."

"Tell me bout it Case." Raph said as the duo made their descent. The pair met up with the others as they made their way to the warehouse.

"How we gonna get in?" asked Casey. Kashira pointed upwards and handed Yuki a gun and a few magazines.

"Whoa, whoa, chill, since when was shootin part of the plan?"

"You'll see. You saw what happened didn't you Ace?" she nodded as they made their way to the top. They looked through the open vent to the arena below. Inside, cheers resounded from several men and woman who dressed in tattered street clothes with tattoos littering their body. Yuki made a look to show her displeasure as Kashira merely smirked in response.

'There's too many people involved.' Yuki thought agitated as her eyes narrowed.

"So what's happenin?" asked Raph with a hint of agitation in his voice. Kashira pointed downwards to the cadged arena, inside there were various types of men, both skinny and bulk. Smirking and warming up with a smug expression. Yuki instantaneously shot up as a familiar blonde man entered the ring.

"Bastard." she said under her breath. He stepped up, mike in hand.

"And now Skanks and Lowlifes," Hun began with an arrogant smile. "They cadge fight of the century." The crowd roared. "Are you ready to see some blood?" they cheered again.

"Gotta stop this." Said Raph as Casey nodded in agreement. They readied themselves for the descent, only to be grabbed by Kashira and Yuki.

"Hold it." he grinned, pulling them back. "Let's watch first." the two nodded reluctantly.

"Alright then boys, bring em' in!" gestured Hun, he stepped out of the cadge and locked it securely. Pressing a button, a trap door opened in it's middle, letting out seven chained figures.

"Let the games begin!" with a snap of his fingers, the chains were broken and the seven growling figures dashed towards the twenty or so men in the arena at blinding pace. In less than a few seconds into the match, there was blood, and a hell of a lot of screaming. Kashira's smile grew in sick glee as did Hun's. The members seated in the audience let out gags of disgust and fear as ripped limbs flew. The monsters began to devour away at the cadged men, their mouth agape to reveal rows and rows of dagger like teeth. The crowd erupted into a frenzy as both Raph and Casey stared wide eyed at the grotesque sight.

"Pretty isn't it? Ace, ready your gun and aim for the head, they're incomplete, they'll die like humans." she nodded as she switched her hand gun to a heavy riffle. Casey and Raph looked to Kashira expecting an answer as he smirked in response. Equipping the canon head with a silencer, the blue eyed teen made herself comfortable before flipping off the safety.

"Exion and Ace, preparing to silence targets, removing restrictions to level E, code 9." she said stoicly. "Comencing fire in precisely three seconds, two, one." a bullet whizzed through the stadium, as it nailed a feasting freak in the back of it's head. With a spray of red, it fell to the ground dead. Six more shots infiltrated the warehouse, hitting it's targets smoothly. In precisely 11.59 seconds, the ordeal was dealt with.

"Good work SSoldier A-135." She cringed.

'Don't call me that.' she scolded mentally.

"Affirimtive, SSoldier E-784, as requested, targets have been silenced within the designated time period, restraints now in effect." she said with a hint of agitation.

"What the hell you just call each other?" asked Casey.

"Yeah, I think we need some answers, you know like now!" Followed Raph.

"Freaks." she replied cooly.

"A what?"

"Using a substance call S, it turns it's host into mindless killing machines without the ability to regenerate or differentiate. The government created this in the search for the perfect soldiers, using the assistance of N blood."

"N blood?"

"Blood that belongs to the non-humans." Kashira pipped."You see, non-humans are pretty much a species of their own, how they came to be is a mystery in itself. Basically we're like the super humans or better yet, your successor. But, there isn't much of us left for unknown cases. The government, well governments, everywhere has decided to use their blood to construct the ultimate super soldier, or an artificial non-human."

"But what exactly can you do?" Asked Casey. There were shouts as the trap door opened again, the cadge doors swung open and more freaks were left to roam.

"Ace take care of that."

"Affirmative." She returned to her shooting session.

"As I was saying, those of pure non-human blood like this prize here," he pointed to Yuki. "Have the ability to adapt to harsh surrounding, regenerate effortlessly, learn from their environment, and have a quick intuition and sharper than glass senses. In any means, they have great physical abilities and unlimited tolerance, as well as inphathomal strength. The humans were hoping to use this blood as she was saying, to make the perfect soldier. Greedy leaders, all they want is power, and with power comes war." he shook his head in feigned sympathy. "However, those things down there have only one thing in mind, kill, and they won't stop until they themselves are silenced. This is beacause the scientists who undertook this project decided to use the blood directly from the source, therefore, upon injecting it into the specimen's blood stream, the throttle of it was too much. In less than seconds, it overran the nervous system and gave it a never ending desire to feed, in order to fuel the body with enough energy to maintain it's new heightened abilities. Understand?"

"That's just, insane." Raph fell back, holding his head.

"Isn't it?" Thw shots continued, followed by a few more screams.

"And you, you're not a full Non-Human?" Casey pointed as Kashira shook his head.

"Undortunently not, I'm part, but the other side," his expression darkened. "Is demon blood." the pair stared up at him in disbelief.

"You kiddin?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?" Kashira shrugged.

"Can't explain at the moment but-oh look, here comes the other dogs." Yuki looked up ceasing fire.

"Done already?" He asked bored, she nodded as her eyes shot a look at the commotion below. Men in army attire stormed the warehouse, followed by men dressed in black. She turned, swinging the riffle over her shoulder.

"C'mon, let's go." she beckoned. The three turned to follow but she stopped them by turning abruptly. "You two go home."

"Wha-?"

"There's no need for you to be involved, return to your peaceful lives and leave the monsters to be." Raph opened his mouth in protest only to be stopped by the backside of the tall boy. He turned as Yuki continued down the building out of sight.

"One more secret, we're weak to emotion, desire, lust, and probably a few other necessities, the list could go on." he threw up his hands in a helpless gesture. "By the way, Ace is pretty fragile, for instance, she's extremely sensitive, not to mention emotional. She's anemic and has a heart condition, isn't that cute?"

"Why are you telling me this?" his red eyes narrowed, his voice dangerously low.

"So you don't get involved. Wouldn't want the monster to snap now do we?" Kashira then jumped to join the girl, leaving the pair to their thoughts.

"A monster?"

Chapter Nine: The Monster