Chapter 3: Snake Eyes
Karai was attempting to relax with a session of freerunning. Having fun always helped clear her mind. She began to lose herself in her run when she heard someone nearby say her name. Turning to the source, she found Raph.
"You're not gonna hog all the fun, are you?" Raph said with a smirk.
"This coming from you?" she replied. Raph wasn't exactly her favorite of the turtles, but they were at least on speaking terms due to having to live together. Besides, with Leo in his current condition, they shouldn't be arguing with themselves.
"Listen, I know we ain't best buds," he started, as if reading her mind, "but I figured we could both use some time away from the lair. And who knows, maybe we'll actually get along by the time we get home?" Raph said sarcastically.
"Alright, then. Catch me if you can," Karai said as she threw a smoke bomb at him, then ran off into the night.
"Oh, it is ON!" Raph exclaimed, not sure whether to be angry or amused, and chased after her.
Eventually, Karai saw something that made her stop cold. Down in the streets, there was a horde of FootBots. They seemed to be fighting someone. Raph came up beside her and saw this. They exchanged smirks, then jumped into the fight. Karai, Raph, and the mystery fighter made short work of every last robot. When it was all over, both Karai and Raph's jaws dropped to the ground as they saw who was fighting before.
Back at the lair, Mikey was enjoying a gummy worm, peanut butter, and chocolate syrup pizza when he heard excited voices from the entrance.
"Look who we found!" Raph exclaimed triumphantly, leading the real Leo into the lair, who smiled awkwardly. Raph and Karai beamed as Mikey, Donnie, and Splinter rushed in and nearly suffocated Leo in a hug.
"But... How?" Donnie started.
"Shredder had some retromutagen lying around. I guess some part of me knew that I needed to use it," Leo shrugged and smiled.
"But if you used retromutagen, you should be a regular turtle now!" Donnie exclaimed, extremely confused.
"Guess Stockman's brand of mutagen is just a little different than the Kraang's. Or maybe I just got lucky," Leo laughed. Everyone was a little confused, but at the same time, they were just happy to have Leo back.
Later, everyone was asleep. Except for Karai, and as she was about to find out, Leo. He knocked on her door.
"Can I come in?" he half-whispered. Karai simply walked to the door and opened it, smiling at him. Leo started in.
"So... You've probably realized by now I kind of... Uh..." he stammered until Karai shut him up by kissing him. Before Leo could respond, she pulled away and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her, still dazed.
"Better get some sleep, sword boy. You probably haven't been getting much lately," Karai smirked at him.
"Alright..." Leo smiled. Karai winked at him and closed her door back.
As soon as she did, Leo snapped out of his daze and grinned evilly. He blinked his eyes, and they turned to a beady black. His mouth shifted into that of a snake's.
"Ssssssuch foolsssss," he murmured as he sneaked over to Master Splinter's private quarters. Splinter was meditating with his back to Leo. Seeing this, Leo smirked as he slowly moved towards his former master. As he was about to strike, Splinter spoke up.
"My son would know better than to try to sneak up on me."
Leo gasped as Splinter turned around and punched him hard in the stomach, sending him flying. For a moment, he was surprised. Then, he just got very, very angry. Shifting into his full on mutant form, he hissed and suddenly wrapped his tail around Splinter, squeezing hard.
This took the rat off guard, but he quickly knocked his head against Leo's, stunning him once more, then kicked him back into the wall.
"My son would also know better than to try and defeat me in combat," Splinter smirked, simply standing there.
Leo growled, then started laughing. Splinter raised an eyebrow, then it dawned on him.
"Yesssss, that'sssss right, rat! It wassss not my objective to finish you off here! I jusssst thought I might do it assss an extra bonussss..." Leo teased as he fled, making his way out of the lair before Splinter could react.
Running after Leo, Splinter called for everyone to wake up.
"This is getting old..." Mikey muttered.
"Where's Leo?" Karai exclaimed.
"He is not himself! I should have seen it... He has found our lair and is going to inform Shredder of our location! We must not let this happen!" Splinter yelled out. Everyone gasped as Raph scowled and Karai's heart dropped once again. To think she kissed that... Thing.
However, without another word, all of them set out and split up to find Leo.
Karai saw a figure ahead of her in the tunnel she took. Sprinting towards it, she saw Leo as his normal self. He turned around and started towards her. She drew her sword and pointed it towards him. Then, he put his hands up in surrender.
"Whoa!" he said. "I only wanted to say that Splinter attacked me, thinking I was still that monster! I had to flee before I could tell you!" he exclaimed.
Karai nodded. "That's awful!"
Leo smiled, thinking she had fallen for it, then was taken off guard yet again by a punch to the chest.
"That's for making me think that you were the real Leo, you sick bastard!" she yelled in pure hate.
Leo glared at her, then drew two new black swords from the sheathes on his back.
"I guesssssss it comes down to thissss, then," he said quietly as they stared each other down.
Karai held up her sword and charged him without a word.
Time seemed to lose its meaning as they dueled. This time, it wasn't a friendly sparring match. They repeatedly exchanged blows, evenly matched. However, if one were to look closely, it almost seemed as if they were holding back a little. Finally, Leo got the upper hand and twisted Karai's sword out of her hands. She gasped and prepared to fight with her fists, but Leo simply knocked her over the head with the butt end of his sword, knocking her out cold.
Leo stood over Karai, indecisive about what to do. He could finish her off, or better yet, win extra points with Shredder for bringing her to him. Then, a part of him said not to do that.
After staring her down for a few more seconds, he simply stated, "You're lucky it wassssn't Raph who got mutated," and sped off to Foot HQ.
Karai woke up with a pounding headache in her bed, the other turtles and Splinter around her. She was sore all over, and only then realized she was bruised and cut all over from the fight with Leo.
"I.. I let him go..." she sighed, trying not to cry again. Always having been the tough girl, she hated to cry, especially in front of the turtles.
"Just relax... At least now we know we can't trust Snakeshifter," Mikey tried to comfort her in his own weird way.
Karai rolled her eyes. "We are NOT giving Leo a mutant name!" she muttered, slightly annoyed.
"It does not matter now. Shredder can attack at any time. We must be ready. Miwa... You should rest up. You will need your strength," Splinter said, trying to get back on topic.
Karai frowned, but nodded. Everyone left her room after that, and she turned over to go back to sleep.
Donnie turned to Splinter once they left.
"Sensei, if Shredder comes to our lair, he'll probably bring Leo with him, right?" he asked as Splinter considered this.
"You want to capture Leonardo if we see him again?" Splinter concluded.
"Exactly! And we also may get a chance to take out Shredder!" Donnie exclaimed.
"Very well, Donatello. Although we should not simply do nothing while we wait around for Shredder to come. We will let him come to us, but we will also be ready for him," Splinter said.
Donnie nodded and kept going. "Plus, Leo actually gave me a clue as to how to cure him! He said that Stockman made his own brand of mutagen. Since the Kraang's mutagen is what mutated Leo into Leo, I should be able to make a retromutagen specifically for Stockman's version, therefore turning Leo back into himself!" Donnie explained as he grinned. Splinter smiled back at his son.
"You always have been very observant. Perhaps tomorrow you should tell the rest of the family this news," Splinter told Donnie.
"Yes, sensei," Donnie replied as he went back to his room. Splinter retreated to his own quarters and began to meditate on all that had happened, as well as where Leo might be now...
In Shredder's stronghold, Leonardo approached the Shredder himself at his throne, kneeling before him.
"What news do you bring?" Shredder questioned.
"I have located the lair, massssster Sssssshredder! We can now attack them at any time!" Leo exclaimed with a grin, leaving out the part where he could have captured Karai. His grin only grew wider when the Shredder's eyes lit up.
"Well done, Leonardo. I see that I did not make a mistake enlisting your help," he praised, then got up and led Leo to a room full of rat.
"This is your reward. Continue to serve me well, and there will be many more like it," the Shredder left Leo to his meal as the snake-turtle lit up and ate to his heart's content, barely a thought to the fact that his family was now in danger.
Shredder began to laugh a victorious laugh as he left, knowing he was a step away from finally winning.
Almost seems like it's about to end, doesn't it? In all reality, it's just getting started. Extra long chapter to make up for the short one last time. Hope y'all enjoyed! Also, I hate to do this, but since I'm feeling extra evil tonight... Next chapter at 10 reviews. :3 Not that hard, just a few more. I really just love knowing what people think of my work and what I could do to improve it. Thank all of you for reading, and I really appreciate the feedback so far! Peace out, and expect great things in the future. c: