Attack

A majority of the night had passed and several Purple Dragons and regular crooks had been put down for the count. The people they had saved only Lily was able to go near to assess for damage, but of course staying secretive and never making eye-contact.

Now the duo were up on a roof-top taking a break. The Neko twitched her ears this way and that, catching a whisk of something only she could pick up on. She felt the wind swirl around her, slightly messing with her hair and fluttering her cloak. "Donatello…" Lily whispered softly to the purple-banded turtle as she held the water bottle he had given her from his duffle bag to her lips, "Something secret, like us…something dark and familiar is near. Do you sense it?" she murmured even softer as she took a casual drink.

Don could. He gave her a slight nod and just shifted. He didn't like this feeling. He knew they were being watched as well as being near. He couldn't tell how many were watching, or how many were near, but he didn't like how dangerous they felt. "Either the Foot or the Elite," He whispered, "No one else knows how to hide like this, besides my brothers."

"None of the regular Foot and definitely not any of us could be this menacing," Lily stated and took another sip before she froze entirely. Coughing lightly to be able to breathe again she wiped the drips of water from her mouth. She took a deep breath before she pressed the lid shut gently and slid it into his duffle bag. She waited for him to follow her lead, putting his away and zipping the bag.

"Ready for a good finale to the night?" she asked looking right into his dark brown eyes. She remembered the last encounter with their foe…

"Yeah," Donatello sighed. He stood up and got his Bo from the ground and watched the shadows with a cautious eye. He knew that they knew that they were figured out. They'll appear, and a fight will begin. He just hoped that there wasn't too many.

It was like she heard his thoughts. She picked her own Bo up and stood by him, but in a different direction. Toward the deeper darkness, "Only four, Donatello, but each strong in their own…" she whispered but didn't look toward him. She stared into the darkness where figures stood out clear as day only to her, and she took a deep breath.

It came out in a low hiss, "Come out…Elite."

Answering to her request, four pairs of eyes glowed red in the darkness before they came forward, and only her cat eyes could see their sweeping movements like they really were; an aggressive approach, not the cautious step Don would see. She crouched in response, Bo at the ready.

As if on cue with her lioness growl, lightning streaked the sky and rain poured as thunder rumbled.

Donatello didn't like the way Lily was tensed. He had a feeling that this fight wasn't just a fight anymore. He twirled the Bo causally, trying to steady his nerves, and find a way to fight easily and with hardly any damage. Something like what Leonardo would do, only faster and not so dragged out. He watched as the Elite showed themselves with a good step forward, and weapons were being drawn. He sighed to himself. This fight was going to be one finale.

"I'm assuming Karai sent you?" Lily asked in her native tongue, narrowing her eyes. She put her hood up so she could see fairly-clearly for the moment and keep from getting soaked right off the bat.

"Hai," One of the elite nodded, "She did," He spoke in a rough Japanese accent.

Don was shocked, 'They spoke!' No matter how many questions he and his brothers shot at them, they always kept their silence. Now he was wondering if the only thing they knew how to speak was Japanese.

"Hai," Lily whispered to him, sensing his thoughts. Why was she so IN-TUNE with him tonight? Except for the fact they were for once out and about rather than in his lab, and then this little tid-bit, it wasn't that different than being with him anywhere else. Then again…she had always seemed to be more in-sink with him more often than not...always knowing what he meant and what he wanted.

She huffed semi-silently and then started the first circlet, "To kill us, I'm sure…a pay-back for the defeat you and she shared?" she eyed them cautiously, "You, twice, way back when. Then Karai, several days ago…"

"Half-right," The man replied.

Lily stopped mid-step. She didn't bother answering…she knew. "Don…any questions you yourself want answered from them, now that you have me as a translator?" she asked rather absently, her eyes never flickering once from the four in front of her.

Don thought for a minute and then shook his head, "No." He knew better. He knew way better. If the Elite were here, then it was certain that this was a response. "Actually, I do have one question. Does this fight have anything to do with Lynx's declaration of war?"

Lily swirled out the same question in Japanese easily.

"Yaya… We are just following orders that Karai-sama sent," Partially…The man replied.

Lily pursed her lips, but didn't translate back to English just yet, "How much do you know?"

"Do we know about what?" He asked.

Lily narrowed her eyes, "This has some sort of purpose, of course; my curiosity is just nagging at me for details…" she admitted, "Isn't there even one small clue? I know you know."

"It's Karai-sama's experiment," The man replied.

Lily froze again, and then swore, "Experiments…" she muttered under her breath for Donatello, "Always some sort of experiment…" she added mostly to herself.

Don sighed, "Then that's all I really need to know." He watched the enemies carefully; he didn't dare do the first strike. He knew that all six of them weren't going to move, until one of them makes one.

"Neither of you are going to attack? Very well, I, Zakashi Urame, will be the first to move," He suddenly disappeared and Don only managed just a second's time to do a dodge. The rest had followed his lead, two against Don and two against Lily.

As Lily was separated from Donatello, she called to him quickly, "Zakashi is the impatient one!" she blocked and attack, "Think of Raphael when he was still turtle," she swiped at one that was close to her, successfully punching him in the jaw.

"I'm sure Raphy was a bit worse," Don assured as Urame and some other one attacked at the same time. He blocked one of them and managed to kick the other before bringing the Bo down to hit him on the shoulder. The other one managed to block the Bo and tried to use it against him, but he was quicker and kicked his feet from under him. Zakashi didn't like what he was doing and tried to hit him but Don just blocked and hit with the Figure 8.

"Of course," Lily tried remembering her training with the Bo, and managed to take one down for about five seconds, "I'm just saying that's what Zaka's style is like," she grunted as she ducked and rolled out of the way of their sharp weapons. She saw them get together and POOF off, "Don…of course! Try not to let them touch. They can't faze individually!" she called as she bent just a bit and then launched herself into a back flip right when the two Elite appeared and sliced at the area she had been a moment before.

"Easier said than done!" Donatello told her as he had to dodge another attack. He tried his best to keep them separate, but that was proving to be difficult. It was as if Bria once trained them to learn how to stick together. Then he remembered that Matt and Rachel always stuck together. When they parted, they were a bit weaker. He never understood why Rachel insisted on attaching herself to someone, let it be Mikey, Raph, or Matt, but she always did. Now he was wondering if she was trying to help them. In her own way.

Now that he knew that Rachel and Matt and whoever stuck together for a reason, now he had to figure out the Elite's reason. Besides phazing, he knew that if he let them touch, they'd just get power from one another. He had to come up with an idea, a fast one, and so far his ideas weren't helping. They were moving to quickly. It was becoming harder to hit, and easier to dodge and block.

Lily muttered something on an exhale and ducked and rolled again. She tried something she'd done once during training…She rolled again, staying on her head, as she placed her Bo under her and she lifted herself up, palms-down, and spun herself around with the momentum. This made her able to do a really fast round-house kick, taking out both of her opponents, throwing one against the wall and the other skidding across the ground, separating them a fairly-good distance.

Jumping back up Lily used her Bo as leverage as she leaped toward Don and her foot connected with one of his foes as they phased in, about to injure him badly. She was able to send him flying. Putting her back against Donatello's shell, she said, "It's like they're draining us as we fight…We haven't even been fighting for five minutes and I'm wiped out…"

"And we can try to fall back, but I'm sure they'll just follow us," Don murmured, "We need to finish this quickly, but it doesn't look like that their even fighting with all their strength. Like their playing with us."

"I wouldn't doubt that," Lily sighed. She saw a POOF where she had been fighting before…

Everything happened so quickly.

The two she had been fighting against turned into smoke right there in front of her, and she only had enough time to either duck and have Don's shell take the impact…The other option - to save him from any possible injury - seemed to make the choice for her as she saw the other two swiftly gain their bearings and attack.

Take two birds down with one stone…

She couldn't do it…not get injured where he was left to take the strikes? Impossible. Lily swirled around and shoved the purple-clad out of the way.

She was able to avoid three out of four, using the advantage of her speed and agility, to dodge. However…the Foot with the Spear first swiped his weapon underneath her and while she was in the air still falling he pierced her side near her ribs… slicing between the lower two…

Narrowly missing her heart…

If it wasn't for the fact that she knew they didn't want the two of them dead, she would have thought she was. Lily screamed in agony and then the pain was just too much. She was passed out long before she hit the ground.

"LILY!" Don cried as he had to get back in the middle. The four ninjas were attacking at such a speed and rate that he couldn't keep up. He was already drained from fighting two. He had to protect her though. They were honorable enough not to attack when she was down, but if she started to show movement, they wouldn't hesitate to bring her down again and again until she couldn't move for a while or longer.

Precious blood that he needed was being split upon the ground. He wished that Rachel had Seen this attack, maybe he would have asked Leo or Raph to come. This was just too much. The ninjas were just attacking and attacking, his dodges and blocks were getting weaker, but the only thing that was keeping him up was the fact that Lily was on the ground. He knew that he was getting dizzy from the lack of blood, that he was losing energy from all this fighting. Usually this wouldn't a problem.

This would have never been a problem. Now, he realized what the experiment was. It was to see how powerful they had gotten. To see if Bria's training had made them stronger.

The Elite kept attacking, easily taking turns to slice at the turtle. They twirled and side-stepped his feeble attacks, making a strike wherever he was open. The one with the ax had gouged his shell. Zakashi had swiped at his legs and arms. Another had ripped at Donatello's plastron. The leader…the one who had spoken at the beginning of all of this and the one with the spear, was the only one watching and waiting…

Eventually Donatello's Bo was hacked in half by Zakashi, making a new gash across the turtle's chest.

Lily's ears twitched at the sound of wood breaking, and slowly opened her eyes. In the span of a breath, she saw Don's Bo slip from his seemingly lifeless hands, the leader poise his spear to strike, and the other three Elite stepped back respectfully.

In the next inhale, the lightning flashed and thunder cracked, blinding her sight and blocking her hearing from what came next, though she still felt Donatello's scream and pure agony.

When she was able to focus and see again, she saw that Don was shaking violently, but he had miraculously stayed standing. By what willpower? She wondered absently. What was keeping him upright?

Again another flash of lightning and thunder, but extra blinding and ear-splitting…

Lily managed to get up from the ground, and when she focused yet again she saw that the Elite had vanished, their work and orders finally complete. Don was shaking even worse now, if that was even possible. Attentively, she spoke in barely a whisper, "D-Donny-D-Don?"

That's what did it…the relief from hearing her voice was what made Donatello collapse.

If you wish to know what happens next, Book 3: Love Bites will be up shortly