Episode 7: The Shadows Converge – Part 2

Ethan paced by the door of the bedroom. He couldn't even get himself to sit down and relax with every one else. Jess and Kaela were watching another episode of their favorite show, but today, it could hardly keep his attention. All he could think about was his failed meditation and the words that Master Hamato had spoken. Every time Ethan had glanced out the window into the backyard from his bedroom, he could see the shadowy figure of Master Hamato, still sitting under the large tree as night grew outside.

Jess turned to look over at Ethan, her form thrown across the bean-bag. "Stop pacing, your making me nervous!" she said. "What's the deal?"

"I dunno! It just feels like something is about to go down. I mean – all of this talk of growing shadows and stuff is starting to get in my head!" he admitted, scratching through the fur on his head with his fingers. "I need a drink or something." He retreated from the room, closing the bedroom door behind him. Jess and Kaela were exchanging looks with each other. They probably thought he was losing his mind. Maybe getting these feelings was a weird leader thing.

Crossing the quiet of the dojo, he walked into the tiny kitchen, that although old was always spotless. He turned on the tap and let the water drum against the metal, allowing time for the water to get cold before he put his glass underneath it. He was staring into space. His thoughts – or lack thereof – shattered as suddenly his phone in his pocket range. It scared him so much that he jumped and he pulled it out from his pocket.

UNKNOWN NUMBER

He stared at his phone suspiciously, as if it had just committed a crime and then pressed the green answer button on the touch screen and brought it up to his ear. "Hello?" he asked politely.

"Ethan! Ethan, is that you?" A frantic voice said.

It was a woman for sure, but Ethan couldn't recognize it. He tried to think of what to say, but nothing was coming out of his mouth. Finally, he managed to stutter out, "W-who is this?"

"It's Karai!"

"Ka-Karai?" Ethan's mind ran into every direction at the same time.

What in the—?

He said nothing, stunned silent as if her words had taken the breath out of him. "Listen," Her voice was hurried, panicked, "You were right – I was being controlled! I just got away from Shredder – but I know he's coming! I didn't know who to turn to – I – I could only think of you!"

Ethan leaned into the phone, "Where are you? We'll come find you!" It almost sounded like she was crying on the other end of the phone. Jess and Kaela had entered the kitchen and were looking at him with confused looks, clearly concerned from his obvious panic.

It sounded like Karai was trying to control her breathing on the other end of the line. "Karai?"

"I'm at the abandoned tennis courts by the Wolf Hotel." Ethan knew that area. The hotel had a large LED lit sign, the 'O' in "Wolf" had since gone dim.

"What's going on?" Kaela mouthed.

Ethan didn't even notice, his hand on the bar of the kitchen, his head leaned into the phone. "We'll come get you!" Ethan said. "Don't go anywhere!"

"Hurry, Ethan! I don't want to go back there . . ." Ethan knew that she was talking about Shredder's lair.

"We will." Ethan hung up the phone and turned to the others.

"What's going on?" Kaela said, now loudly.

"Was that your girlfriend?" Jess teased.

"It was Karai."

"Oh, so it was."

Ethan ignored Jess' snarky comment. "She's in trouble. She escaped from Shredder and she's alone, but they are hunting her down. We have to go help her."

"Wow, wow, wow." Jess said, "There is so many things wrong with that. Why would she leave dear old Dad?"

"Because," Ethan said, shoving past Kaela and Jess to grab his naginata, "Like I said, she was being controlled by Shredder somehow. She said that on the phone! But she got away and I was the only one that she could think of to call."

"And she got your number . . . how?" Jess asked.

Kaela was not being vocal, but it displayed on her face, she felt cautious about the situation as well. Ethan did have to admit that the sudden acquiring of his number was a little odd but he shrugged it off. All he could imagine was Karai, cornered at the old abandoned tennis courts by Shredder, Tigerclaw and that giant fly, Stockman. He strapped his naginata onto his back. "If you guys don't want to come, then I'll go alone." he said, making his way to the front door.

Jess and Kaela exchanged glances and then Kaela finally said, "Ethan, you know you can't go alone."

"Yeah, we'll come." Jess said. "But if this is a trap, then I am going to slap you upside the head."

Ethan smiled at them, "Thanks, guys. We better hurry." He slid open the door and the three vanished into the night. Ethan sprinted as hard as he could – his head still full of a jumble of worse case scenario's bashing into the sides of his skull, making his heart hurt every single time. Finally, in the distance, he could see the large letters that indicated that they had reached the Wolf Hotel. It was quieter here, the cars had become less frequent down below. As they jumped on the hotel roof, Ethan could hear the buzzing sound of the LED lights, like a thousand fire flies were flying inside the glowing letters. Just below them, several stories, Ethan could see the old tennis courts. The lights that surrounded that courtyard were lit, glaring down on the courts.

From this distance, Ethan couldn't see Karai anywhere. What if they already found her? He thought in desperate worry. "Let's go!" Ethan said quietly and the three jumped over the side of the building, sliding down it's banisters and the cold steel of fire escapes. Ethan would have smiled from how easily this was in his new body if he wasn't freaking out about Karai. Once they hit the ground, he sprinted for the four tennis courts, separated from each other by tall, rusty, black chain-link fences. The door to the nearest one was open.

Ethan nodded towards it and Kaela and Jess followed close behind him. He could see from their faces that they were still incredibly skeptical, and now, Ethan was starting to feel a little bit of that too. His stomach soured as they went through the gateway to find an empty tennis court. The ground was covered in old stains and the net had long since been removed. The fence towered and surrounded them from all sides.

"I knew that you would come Ethan, but I wasn't sure if you were going to bring your sisters."

Spinning around, Ethan saw Karai walking through the archway into the tennis courts. Her red make up that lined her eyes glared in the light. Her usual armor hugged her body and her hair looked like sunlight and shadow. Ethan knew the moment he looked at her that he had been very wrong. "Oh well," Karai said lightly, "The more the merrier, I guess."

"Oh, don't tell me." Kaela whined, bowing her head and shaking it disapprovingly.

"You are so gullible, Ethan. I'm flattered how readily to listen to every word I say." Karai inspected her fingers, as if there was something interesting on them and then looked up directly into his eyes. Ethan hated how much he loved when she did that.

SMACK!

"Ow!" Ethan cried, learning forward from the amount of force behind Jess' slap. Then, Ethan remembered that she had promised to do so if this was a trap – which it obviously was. Ethan glared back at Karai. "I trusted you." Ethan said, trying to keep his voice from trembling.

"That was your first mistake." Karai noted, "And very possibly your last one too." She had not yet taken out her weapon and Ethan eyed her apprehensively. She could draw it as quickly as a serpent could strike in the long grass of the wilderness. It only took one good promising swing and he would be gone. Karai seemed to have noticed that Ethan was watching her nervously, as she suddenly said, "Oh, don't worry, you won't be fighting me." She then placed her fingers on her lips and whistled.

"I better get to fight you!" Jess said, ignoring Karai's action. "I am going to beat the crap out of you for messing with my brother. And then I'm going to beat the crap out of him for being a total idiot!"

Ethan turned to glare at Jess. Kaela looked like she was trying to fight back a smile, while equally focusing on Karai. Suddenly her eyes grew incredibly wide and her mouth dropped. Ethan turned back to see what on earth could warrant such a reaction. Shoving themselves through the tiny entry gate to the tennis court were three very odd looking creatures. At first glance, Ethan thought they looked like Shredder – all of them. They had the same helmet, the same gauntlets, the same kind of spikes jutting from them. But one was enormously huge, with four arms. The other, talk and lanky with pincers for arms and the final, tiny and angry looking, with long fleshy whisker like tendrils coming form under it's mask.

They looked remarkably like a crab, a lobster and a shrimp.

"Like my Shredder mutants?" Karai asked as if she were asking about a new car she had just bought.

Jess eyed them up and down, "Not really, no."

Karai was backing away from them as the three mutants converged around her. "Consider this a little test to see if you three are really worth all of the effort and time we are putting in to killing you."

"Karai!" Ethan took a step forward, but was forced to stop as a wall of mutant shredders stood in his way, bearing down on him. Karai stepped out of the tennis court and closed the door, throwing a padlock onto it and snapping it shut with a click. "Why?"

Karai smiled, slowly putting her metal mask back over her mouth. "Sorry, Ethan. If it counts for anything, I hope you prove that you are worth the time."

"Ethan, I am only going to forgive you if we kill these things." Jess snapped. "You moron."

"Let it go, Jess." Kaela said in a sing-songy voice.

Feeling betrayed, angry and shamed, Ethan pulled out his naginata, spinning it between his fingers. Fine then, Karai. If you want to keep playing with my emotions, then I'll take it out on your stupid mutant friends. Ethan swung himself forward, and spun, launching himself from his hands and slammed his feet into the head of the tall, thin, lobster shredder. It squealed in anger as it slammed into the ground. It brought both of it's pincers up to slash at his legs but he had already jumped into the air, slamming his naginata's point into the chest of the mutant shredder and used the force of his move to slam his feet into it's face in a drill kick.

"I feel slightly less angry at you for that." Jess said in awe, smiling as she brushed her hair out of her face and trailing the green tails of her bandanna down her neck and launching forward, her kama's flashing out from their holsters. The huge, four armed crab shredder slammed his fists, ready to crush Jess into powder, but she slid out of somersaulted through the bowling ball sized fists and under his legs.

"I guess, I get shrimpy." Kaela sighed. The tiny shredder screamed, it's disgusting tentacle like tendrils thrashing through the air as it sprinted at her. Kaela jumped out of the way, flipping up on the fence and climbing up a ways to get good distance between them.

The lobster shredder didn't get back up and Ethan drew his blade from it's chest, black liquid covering the point. He kicked at the monsters head and he turned to help Jess who had just cut a deep, bleeding gash in the monster's hand. The spikes of it's gauntlets slammed into the ground of the tennis court, jagged cracks appearing in every direction from the blunt force. As soon as the monster slammed with a roar down on Jess again, Ethan blocked the force with his naginata, throwing himself back, landing on his butt.

Ethan blinked and Jess was gone. Turning to see where she had vanished to, he found her sprinting towards the door where Karai waited, a hand on her hip. "JESS!" Ethan shouted, but he didn't have a time to do much more before the crab shredder was trying to crush him again and he was forced to roll out of the way of another rib-cage crushing slam.

Kaela swung her dart down and it hit the mini shredder in the face and it hit the ground, giving her just enough time to launch off of the fence, the chains clanging behind her as she hit the ground. The little shredder turned on her just as she began to recover from the jolt. It jumped, screaming into the air and landed on her back. She felt the blades graze her, but he didn't get a chance to do more damage as she spun her ribbon and it wrapped around him and with a strong flick of her wrist, it slammed to the ground and went silent. She had knocked it out cold.

"Trying to get through the door?" Karai asked coolly as Jess slammed her kama's into the padlock. Jess let her blade hit the lock again and again, sparks flying off of the bronze metal, determination etched on her face.

Dodging four arms was harder than Ethan had imagined and he rolled out of the way of another attack, not even able to get onto his feet again. He nearly had to roll away again as he raised his arm to strike, his orange fist balled up above his head, but Kaela's ribbon wrapped around it holding it in place and Ethan took the moment to get up, his whiskers twitching in fear as he grabbed his naginata from the ground and, using his whole body, struck the crab between the armor of his chest and his arm. It roared again, shaking the ground with it's anger.

With a final slam, the padlock snapped away and the door swung open, but the wrong way. The moment Jess had managed to take it off, Karai had kicked as hard as she could and the door swung in, throwing Jess off her feet. Karai spun through the air and landed on Jess's stomach and she gasped in pain. "Where was it that Shredder managed to stab you?" Karai asked cockily, sliding her foot to Jess' arm where her wound was bandaged. Jess screamed in pain and kicked, throwing Karai off of her, but Karai still stood, poised, in front of their only chance of escape.

Kaela jumped into the air and landed directly on the monsters back. Drawing her hand in, the ribbon wrapped over and over again until only a short length remained and she threw her arm up and down, slamming the bolt into the monster's head over and over again, denting the helmet until it rang around the tennis court and the monster dizzied, his body lumbering about the tennis court. Ethan took another opportunity and slammed his blade into it's stomach and it groaned and fell to the ground, slamming so hard that Kaela fell, sliding against the court and Ethan had to use his weapon to steady himself.

Getting to her feet, Jess dodged another attack form Karai, but the force of a volley of kicks threw it back until she was stuck against the chain fence of the tennis court. "You aren't nearly as entertaining as your brother." Karai noted, spinning the blade from behind her.

"That's because I'm not a stupid male." Jess pointed out, gritting her teeth.

"Maybe." Karai turned to see Kaela and Ethan were just getting up. "Sayonara." She turned and sprinted back out form the tennis court, slamming the door shut behind her again with such force that it slowly opened again.

Ethan reached Jess first. "Jess, are you okay?" he asked.

"Your girlfriend kicked me in the stomach, slammed a door into my head and stomped on my already injured arm – do I look okay to you?"

"Sorry." Ethan muttered. "This was my fault."

Kaela patted Ethan on the shoulder. "You were just trying to do the right thing." Kaela said. Ethan went silent and lowered his head to the ground, his tail going limp, his ears pressing against the side of his head. He had failed again as leader. That seemed to be the only thing he was good for. Again, he hoped that Master Hamato would just let him resign when he got back home.

Jess seemed to have noticed and she cleared her throat nervously, putting her two kama's into their holsters. She patted Ethan on the shoulder as well. "Yeah, and besides, it was fun getting the chance to smash those dumb things." she motioned to the three mutants who lay still, sprawled across the tennis court.

Ethan knew they were trying to make him feel better, but he didn't want to talk about it anymore. "Let's go home." He said quietly and he slowly walked back out from the tennis court into the darkness and back for home.

STOP! STOP! STOP! Karai was screaming inside herself, but it vanished as the familiar flame from her mind spread through her body, quieting any rebellion. Even memories of Leo were starting to fade from her mind, but every time she saw Ethan and his sisters, she wanted to reach out for help again. To quit being who she had once been before she knew the truth – before she knew that Shredder had lied to her about being her father her whole life.

Those thoughts turned to ash as she moved through the shadows, quietly, following the three teenagers. They were moving much slower – it was clear that she had done emotional damage to Ethan again. She wanted to find joy in it, but the rebellious spirit inside her clawed those spiteful emotions away, trying to put empathy in them instead.

Her mind was a war zone.

She hid behind a large, green dumpster, watching the shadow of Ethan, Jess and Kaela as they walked through alleyways, occasionally climbing up to the roof and then back down the alleyways. Karai followed until finally, she noticed that they had opened a sliding door. The traditional Japanese door stuck out like a sore thumb against the old New York brick. A green 'Cowabunga' was painted on the corner, making it easy to remember. When the door shut and the three had disappeared inside, she jumped down, landing as quiet as a cat.

As she slowly walked forward, she leaned in carefully to the window. Inside, the place looked just as traditional as the door. Tatami mats covered the living room – they even had a genkan from what she could see. And a man was emerging from another door that clearly led to a backyard. He had on a white gi, his face covered in wrinkles, his head bald. Somehow she knew that she was looking at Master Hamato Yuta – the only remaining living Hamato, save for Splinter – her fathe—the thought evaporated as if it had been dew on the grass of her mind.

The three were bowing to him. She could see Ethan, his raccoon like tail was still slack, his whiskers on the side of his face were drooping. She almost felt bad for him and then she turned away, nervous that Hamato Yuta would see her. She would have to return quickly and tell Shredder that he had been right in assuming that they were being trained by his old master and adoptive father.

Her body strained, trying to fight instead to fling open the door, fall to her knees in the genkan and tell them what Shredder was planning, but she felt pain sear her mind, the brain worm thrashing against her, and she turned and vanished again into the darkness, running for Shredder's lair.