Okay, I had 71 views last time I checked and only ONE of you reviewed. Thanks JustineElla2. Hope you like chapter 3 of 'Deception', I'm going to try to update at least every Saturday or more. Please R&R. Enjoy!
(Cathy's POV)
I can't wait to maim – no, kill – the Turtles. They mutated me! They tore me away from me away from my family. I pound the targets with assorted flying weapons thinking of my idiot brother. A few weeks ago I wouldn't have hesitated to send him away on a sleep over or birthday party. Now? I'd give anything to see him and my parents again. But they'd never recognize me. It's an exaggeration to say that I look different than the last time we saw each other. I'm going to make the Turtles' deaths very painful for that.
I throw a knife at Leonardo. I'll kill him first, he's the leader. I throw a tetsu at Splinter. No, him first, he organized the mutation. I toss a shurkin toward Donatello. He made the serum, he should go first. I can't decide who deserves the honor. One of those three for sure…Raphael receives a fuki-ya dart to the head. Him, he looks like the tough guy of the pack. I stab Michelangelo with a shurkin. It would weaken them most to lose their beloved little brother first wouldn't it? I don't know. Do they even care about each other?
"Arrrrrgh!" I scream aloud. I fight the urge to cry, but it's so hard. I can hardly take this anymore. I've lost my family, my humanity, and my rights as a human. I'm so tired. I probably should stop training before I kill myself. Then I won't be able to kill the Turtles. Anger boils in my chest as I think about how I've spent my time at the Foot's HQ.
I think only time I've left the dojo lately is to eat; and only occasionally. I've found a not-so-comfortable bed on the dojo floor on the certain days that I train myself into the ground. Not to mention how many wraps I go through a week from spending so much time at the punching bag. I'm so angry. I've been this way for six months, and I don't think I'll change soon. If someone isn't training me, then I train myself. Getting up, I continue my mental rant.
I'll kill Leonardo first. THWAK! No, Splinter. BAM! Maybe Donatello? CRACK! I barely register the broken target as I send a tetsu through Raphael's heart. THUNK! Michelangelo-
"Catherine." I turn around to look at Lisa. Nobody ever uses my full name. What's her problem? "I don't think you can continue your rampage anymore. Wanna go out on patrol with Danny?" Lisa asks. I give her a funny look while saying,
"Why can't I continue my routine?" Lisa looks at me funny back.
"Uhh, you killed the Donatello target."
"I did?" I glance in its direction. "Oops."
"You coming or not?"
"I guess I don't have anything better to do."
"Come on let's go before they leave with out us!" We race to the roof-top to meet for patrol. Everyone else is already there, splitting up into groups. Liz smiles and waves us over.
"Hey, Danny, could we be a group? If we find the Turtles we'll want them all to ourselves." Liz smiles evilly and cracks her knuckles. Lisa and I join her. Danny fidgets a little, then launches into his compromise.
"If we find the Turtles, we'll call you. If you guys split up-"
"Danny, you can call us if we're a group." Mary points out.
"Yeah, but you four have too much pride to call for help if needed."
"Why would we need to call for help?"
"Because they are good. The pictures don't tell the whole story."
"Please, Danny, for tonight?" Danny fidgets more. In moment of weakness he consents.
"Fine. But don't let the pictures fool you. They are extremely good at ninjutsu. Be careful. You have smoke bombs; use them if needed." I roll my eyes.
"We get it! They're better than the pics suggest!" Liz exclaims.
"Chill, Danny. We'll be fine." I try to reassure him. Not saying that I succeeded.
"Yeah, we can handle them!" Liz whoops.
"Shh!" Danny scolds. This time Liz rolls her eyes.
"We'll be careful. Catch ya later Danny!" Lisa says. She turns to us. "Let's catch us some Turtles!" She smiles wickedly. Cheering, we run across the Foot's roof top, quieting when we reach the next. I have already thought this over in my head, but for months I couldn't figure out where the heck four giant things would hang out, or where they would take their nightly patrols. Mary suggested the crime scene, but none of us are really ready to go back there. Maybe the sewers? That's where Karai says they live, but the sewers are humongous. It'd take weeks to scout the whole place. The roof tops are just as big, but we can see over them. Guess we'll just have to check everywhere.
Run, run, run, and jump. Run, run, run, and jump. Run, run, run, and jump. Man, patrol is boring. How long have we been out? We left around ten, and Time Square says…10:10. Oh, goody. This is going to take forever. Run, run, run, and jump. Run, run, run, and squeak. I twist my head in the direction of the sound. It came from the shadows. I creep towards the offending sound. Squawk!
"Ahh!" I squirm away from the pigeon that flew in my face. I think my expression might be stuck in a permanent glare I do it so often.
"Hold up, did a pigeon just scare the oh-so-tough Catherine?" Liz laughs. I glare at her, kicking myself for not just getting another Donatello target.
"Come on, let's find the freaking Turtles." I grumble. I jump the alley gap, glancing down a little. I see a manhole cover in an empty alley. Maybe we should try the sewers. But then again…the Turtles are on nightly patrol, so they won't be back in the sewers yet. I sigh. Can't anything be easy?
One hour goes by with no action. Bored, we start to do different kinds of flips over the alleys. Another half hour ticks off the clock. Nothing happens.
"This is why I don't do patrol. There is no guaranteed action!" I complain to Lisa.
"The Foot runs into the Turtles almost nightly. Or, at least, whenever they do patrol. Sometimes the Foot takes a break, so maybe the Turtles are taking a break." Lisa says half-heartedly.
"You don't believe that do you?" I ask. Lisa shakes her head.
"Not really. Every now and then the Turtles don't show up, but every time they do, they seem to be on the other side of town." Lisa frowns thoughtfully. "I don't think Danny wants us to run into the Turtles. I can't figure out why, though." I'm about to reply, when I'm interrupted by a scream.
"Help me!" A feminine voice shouts. Her scream is followed by a moan. I stop dead in my tracks.
"We have to help her." I say, remembering that night at the Ninjutsu Dragon. I shiver with the thought. The scream's coming from a few roof tops over, but it should be easy enough to get to. I start hopping over; no one follows me.
"What are you guys waiting for? Come on, she needs help!" I shout without stopping or even turning around.
"Danny said never to reveal ourselves to humans. It's been hard not to help, but…" Lisa starts. My mental jaw drops. This is so not the Lisa I know.
"'Danny says!' Whatever! I'm going to help her!" I say and jump into the alley.
I take a quick survey of the situation and throw a few shurkins at the three gangsters holding up a teenage girl. I make quick work of the three, and walk over to the girl, staying in the shadows that I had been operating in. She has a black eye and a few cuts, but she should be fine. I look at the gang members. They look almost worse than the girl, so she must have been able to fight back for a few minutes. Beside one of the gang members I see her purse and a black fan. I walk over to pick them up, when I hear her talk. She's been looking at my outline while I moved around – not screaming -, and that in itself is surprising. Talking to me? Amazing.
"Raph? What are you doing on this side of town? Everyone else is by the Kraang headquarters." I freeze, still looking at the fan I picked up. A closer look reveals a sharp metal edge. It's a tessen.
"Who's Raph? What in the world are Kraang, and why do you have a tessen?" I ask her, holding up the metal fan. She stiffens and stands. But before she can say anything, Lisa calls.
"Cathy! Get back up here! What's going on?" I curse under my breath.
"Just give me a minute!" I call back up. I look at the girl and whisper,
"Will you wait for me or freak out and run?" The girl sits down indicating that she's willing to wait. She knows something.
"Lisa!" I say when I get to the roof.
"What were you thinking?" Lisa lectures me. "How could you put-"
"Lisa, listen to me. When I was down there, she talked to me. That girl thought I'm some guy – mutant – named Raph. She said everyone else is at Kraang headquarters on the other side of town. And she has a tessen." Lisa stares at me for a minute.
"What the heck are Kraang?" She asks. I gesture toward the alley.
"Want to find out?" I need her to say yes. I really need her to say yes.
"There's a human willing to talk to us? Are you kidding? Let's go!" Liz jumps into the alley, Mary following her. I look at Lisa and she sighs.
"Let's catch up to them." She says. I smile and jump down. After I land I hear the tell-tale rattle of fire escapes indicating Lisa's arrival. Without stepping into the light I ask,
"Do you know any other mutants?" I don't say it threateningly; just curiously. The girl stands up again, this time I notice her blazing red hair. She crosses her arms.
"Maybe. Who are you?" The girl seems to stare right through me with her bright blue eyes. Lisa sighs.
"I knew it was too easy. Come on, Cathy, let's go. We can find them on our own." Lisa says tartly.
"But Lisa we could find them so much easier if we just knew a little-" Lisa cuts me off with a harsh whisper.
"The Shredder isn't exactly a nice person. We can't tell anyone anything." The red-head's eyes narrowed. She lungs for her tessen and assumes fighting stance.
"You're with the Shredder? Then shouldn't you know about other mutants?" She says with sour look on her face.
"Of course we know about other mutants! We wanted to talk to your friends to see if they knew anything about the Turtles! If he looks like me, then they probably mutated him!" I burst, accidently making myself visible. She gasps.
"You think they mutated you?" She shakes her head. "The Foot didn't tell you the whole story." She waits for our answer.
"What do mean?" Mary asks suspiciously.
"I mean they lied." She said matter-of-factly.
"No, the Foot wouldn't do that. They helped us. They saved us. Who knows what Splinter would have done to us!" Red-head blinks after Liz's burst.
"He would have helped you. Given you a place to stay, care for your needs, and possibly even training."
"The Foot did all that and more! The only thing we don't have there is our humanity." Liz is on the brink of tears.
"Sure, but Splinter would have accepted you into his family, if you were comfortable with it."
"The Foot did!" Red-head raises her eyebrows.
"They did? Or did you swear allegiance to the Shredder?"
Liz opens her mouth to speak, but no sound comes out.
"You talk like you personally know Splinter. Do you?" Mary interrogates Red-head. She stands straighter, dropping her fighting stance.
"He's a second father to me." Her voice breaks a little. She knows the Turtles? She's like family to the Turtles? And I helped her? I un-sheath my sai.
"Where are the Turtles? We have some unfinished business." I growl. Red-head reassumes fighting stance.
"Never." I about to make a terrifying threat (not that I'd live up to it) when her phone starts to ring. And, go figure, she had already picked up her purse. She face-palms and looks at the screen.
"Hello?" She says into her turtle shell shaped phone.
"Where are you April?" A teenage boy's slightly muffled voice comes back through.
"I got a little held up, sorry. I won't make it to training for a couple days. Could you apologize to Sensei me?" For a minute there's only silence.
"I will. Call me later, kay?"
"Sure." She answers quietly then hangs up. I tap my foot impatiently.
"So, April. We've heard a lot about you. Would you mind telling us how exactly you ended up on the Foot's 'Most Wanted' list?" Lisa asks.
"They used me for ransom and then sent me to the Kraang. After the Turtles saved me again, I started harassing and spying on the Foot." April shrugs. "And I might have beaten up Karai." Modest, huh?
"Karai has her weak points. Now would you answer the question already?" I'm getting incredibly frustrated. April pretends to think.
"Hm…no." She smirks. "That would be telling." I let out an exasperated sigh. I could wring her neck right now, but then we would lose our best chance at finding the Turtles.
"Would you please give us a clue?" I ask in the nicest way currently possible.
"I don't think you understand how important these guys are to me. I'm not going to tell you." She smiles a little. "Plus, puzzles are so much funner when you do them yourself."
"Funner isn't a word. You should know that by now. Or did Splinter not teach you English?" Mary snaps. I mentally face-palm. Who teaches English in the middle of an argument? April sighs.
"I go to school! I know that funner isn't a word. Jeez!"
"She's on the Foot's 'Most Wanted' list? I didn't know that."