(April's POV)
"Ow…"
What hit me? Did Mikey nail me with a water balloon again? No, those hurt a little less. Maybe one of Donnie's mutagen experiments went wrong? Never mind; they definitely end worse.
"Rise and shine, Princess. We have some questions.", a smooth voice with a rough dialogue snaps. Why is it familiar? I look up, only to be temporarily blinded by a bright light.
"So, would you mind telling me who called last night?" The voice says again. Classic interrogation, huh?
"What do you…oh, you again?" My eyes adjust in mid-sentence to see a giant (and reasonably tall) feminine turtle with a scarlet bandana. All my memories of last night come back in a rush. And after what happened last night, I think I vaguely know what gave me my mild concussion. The girl smirks.
"You say that like its unpleasant."
"Would you be offended if I said it is?"
"Not really. Now, I'll repeat the question; who called you last night?" They haven't figured it by now? Geez, the Foot has down graded.
"You didn't go through my phone? I'm genuinely surprised." I earn a nasty look from – Cathy, was it? I'm not sure.
"Of course someone went through your phone! We didn't recognize the nicknames! Or faces for that matter." I put on a sour look.
"They are the only Turtles I know. If you didn't recognize anything, then why am I still here?"
"She's not done yet. And fyi, we did manage to get some information. For instance, we know which part of the sewers they live in now."
Crud! Letting my head fall back, I inwardly groan. I should've told the guys what was going on in that alley! But I might be able to them a little good for all the trouble I've caused them.
"So you know that they live in the east sewers?" I make an attempt to throw her off track.
"They live in the western sewers. Did they tell you something different?" Cathy looks confused and happy at the same time. Confused because what I said doesn't match with what she knows, and happy because I'm angry and miserable. That girl is really ticking me off.
"A little bit! Do you have any idea what you've done? Please tell me you haven't given the address to any of the Foot soldiers!" I lower my voice a little at the end.
"No, not yet. Mary hasn't finished getting everything off of it. Why?" She's toying with me. I hate being toyed with.
"Do you not know how many times they've saved the city?"
"No."
"Let me help you. Wait, I lost count!" Cathy raises an eyebrow ridge.
"And what did they save the city from?"
"Assorted organizations. The Foot and Kraang mainly." I try to wave the question off, but I find my arm – and all my other body parts – strapped to a chair. Cathy looks a little annoyed.
"What. The heck. Are. The Kraang?!"
"The Foot didn't tell you?" Cathy fidgets a little.
"No." Why am I not surprised? She won't believe me if I tell her, but if she finds out what I tell her is true, she may trust me a little. It's worth a shot, right?
"Better get a seat. Okay, the Kraang are aliens from another dimension. They're currently trying to mutate the earth and every one on it, and seeing that they have an unlimited supply of mutagen, it shouldn't be that hard. But they're missing-"
"Do you expect me to believe that?" She cuts me off. She didn't even let me finish before she dissed it!
"No. But I guess after you're fed lies that contradict the facts, the truth is harder to believe."
Cathy steams. Victory!
"Why you little-" She looks ready to strangle me, and she actually might. But I seriously doubt it. Other from being their best shot at information on the Turtles, she's not allowed too. And I (reluctantly) admit, she seems to want to help people. Why else would she have helped me?
"You're awake! Great, I have some questions." Another turtle walks in. She's medium height with a violet bandana.
That's what your friend said. I don't think I need to mention the outcome." I tell her.
"Yeah, I'm not surprised. Catherine has some anger issues." The new turtle says. Cathy shoots her we'll-talk-about-this-later glare.
"Anyway, could you explain the pictures on your phone? Who are the mutants featured?" The new turtle asks. So this must be Mary. I hold back an exasperated sigh; I can use their arrogance to my advantage.
"Just some friends. They call themselves the Turtles. They've saved the city multiple times."
"There are two sets of Turtles?" I shrug off Mary's question.
"Are you sure they aren't the guys you're looking for?"
Mary snorts.
"Please. The difference is staggering."
"And by that you mean…?"
"Cathy, will you please go get a picture for me? Thank you." Mary asks. I hear a few mumbles, but Cathy does what she was asked.
"So, is this like a good cop bad cop thing?" I inquire after Cathy leaves.
"I guess. I'm not as harsh as Cathy, but right now I'm not mad. Now, if you had pictures of the Turtles we're looking for it might be a different story."
"Oh." Just then Cathy walks in with a piece of paper in her hands. She hands it to her friend and sits down. Then they show me the drawing.
"Uh…what are those things? 'Cause they do not look like turtles." I ask, bewildered. I mean really! I expected a little bit of imagination, but this is just wrong.
The thing is drawn similar to a family portrait. But instead of posing, they're snarling. Their features are exaggerated to the point of flat down ugliness. Leo's beak is sharp, like it might cut you, his katana are twisted, and for some reason, his shell is tiny.
Mikey is extremely short, he has no beak because it's covered by his chubby cheeks. But this isn't cute; he looks like he's a mad balloon. His shell is huge and his nun chucks have spikes on the ends.
Donnie is taller than normal, wielding a warped staff topped with a loose fitting blade. He's not muscular like the others, he's stringy, almost like you can take him apart, his features are bland, and (luckily) his shell is normal.
Raph is so big it's a wonder he can stand. It's all muscle, but nonetheless, his shell looks stretched, as does his face, and instead of sai, he has a huge mace swung across his shoulder, complementing his pointed beak.
But it's Master Splinter that makes me sad. His fur is matted, his eyes are red with no pupils, and he's bald in some spots. His teeth are sharp, pointing to the side because of his eerily stooped back. He looks very similar to Casey's description of the Demon Rat. I want to cry and puke at the same time.
The Turtles have white eyes with no pupils and wear ratty bandanas. The only color is in Splinter's eyes and even that is a little dim. They look extremely stupid, like addition-is-hard stupid. Why? I'm not completely sure, but I think they're trying to make them easy to hate and kill. If so, they've succeeded.
"These things wouldn't be able to order pizza, much less mutate somebody." I exclaim. Mikey not ordering pizza. Yeah, that'll happen.
"That's what we thought. But Donatello's the one who perfected the mutagen, Leonardo made the plan, Splinter set it up, and the others carried it out." Cathy shrugs. "That's what we know." I disguise my laugh as a cough. They have no idea how many lies they've been told.
"Can I go now? Obviously we're talking about different Turtles."
"No. Because first off, you're criminal here, and second off Karai wants to question you in private before the Shredder decides what to do with you. Sorry." says May. I moan. Cathy's eyebrow ridges shoot up.
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"Yeah, isn't there always something wrong with being captured by your enemies?" I snap.
"Whatever. Karai should be here soon, so I'm going to the dojo." Cathy replies.
"And I thought I had the skills to stay safe…" I mumble. Somehow, I need to get at least one of them to listen to Karai's interrogation. Cathy smirks as se gets up.
"We all have those days." She says.
"Yeah? Well, I bet you don't have the skills either. Unless you can stay undetected by Karai, and I seriously doubt you can." I'm rewarded by a glare. This might work.
"That's so unrelated." Mary mumbles. Maybe I should've lengthened my proposal. But, luckily, Cathy ignores her.
"You really think that? I'll show you undetected!" Cathy leaps up, onto one of the roof beams. She places herself so she's sheltered from sight. Clever. Now she just has to be quiet. Mary shakes her head.
"She can be baited into anything." She says this too quietly to be heard by Cathy, but just barely. "I have to check on the test I ran on your phone. Easiest way to check for tracking devices. I wish I could've asked more questions, but my time is about to run out." She walks out the door, and Karai walks in.
"Long time no see, April." Karai addresses me in a steely voice.
"What do you want?" I growl.
"Relax. We're probably not going to hurt you." Karai laughs.
"Please, I can take torture. But it'll be very hard to keep the world from being mutated if you give me to the Kraang again!"
"We're not working with the Kraang anymore."
"Who would want to work with aliens from Dimension X anyway, right?"
"Shredder doesn't think the Kraang are reliable anymore since the mutagen drop. Now let's get down to business. What are the weaknesses of the Turtles and Splinter?"
"And I'd tell you this because…?"
"Don't test me April. I can do serious damage, as you have found out."
"Okay, first, I recall winning that fight, and second, I can take torture, remember?"
"You got lucky." She growls.
"Sure. Anyway, I noticed that you got some new goons. Why turtles?"
"They're pretty good fighters."
"I got that part. I mean, they look like the Turtles. Why did you give them those bandanas? And why the same weapons?"
"That's none of your business."
"They're even geared the same way. Well, except their pads are thinner I guess."
"I said that it's none of your business. Now answer the question!"
"Naw, I have to leave you hanging there. That was a pretty sick drawing that you guys whipped up. I bet the Shredder himself designed Splinter. Speaking of which, why do you hate Splinter so much?"
"You don't know? I seriously doubt that."
"Splinter's story might be different than yours and I like to listen to both sides." So Karai told the Shredder's version of the story quickly.
"And the Turtles?" I push.
"They work for Splinter."
"Ah. Now I have to ask."
"No more questions. Answer mine!"
"How did you get them so perfectly mutated?"
"As far as they know, Donatello mutated them and we saved them. What's Donatello's weakness?" Karai smirks.
"It's better to know your enemy's strength."
"We know his strength. He's a geek."
"Harsh! He probably has more than one strength."
"I bet he doesn't."
"What about Leo? Wouldn't you want to know the leader's weakness?" Karai rolls her eyes.
"Please. Leo is the one I fight with the most. I've learned his weakness. He's a goody-goody who will sacrifice himself for people he cares about."
That'll convince Cathy. I think to myself.
"How do you know that that isn't his strength?"
"Stop stalling! What is Splinter's weakness?"
"Miwa."
"Miwa? Who's Miwa?"
"Not my secret to tell."
"You know what? Forget you! We'll defeat the Turtles when they come for you!" She says in frustration. She gets up starts toward the door.
"What about your new soldiers? If they see the real Turtles, they won't trust you anymore."
"They're going to be on patrol when the Turtles get here."
"How are you going to control that?"
"You told Leo that you weren't going to make it to training for a few days, didn't you? We'll just call them before they're suspicious of your scarcity." She answers without turning around and leaves. Cathy hops down a few minutes later looking very angry.
"Who was lying?" I ask haughtily. She doesn't answer. Walking out she says,
"Later tonight I'll come for you. I might bring some of the others. We'll grab your stuff and get out. But you have to take me to the Turtles."
"Deal." I answer. She never said I had to take her to the Lair. But how am I going to get Leo to agree to a meeting?
I forgot to mention this in the last two chapters, but this is not a romance story. It's just friendship. I'm horrible at romance stories, sorry. Please feel free to change it on your profile. I don't really like most romance stories, but I'd love to see how it might turn out. Please R&R, and stay tuned for the next chapter!