Episode 13: The Hour of Darkness – Part 1

"No! MY LOVE!"

The Narcissist King was running over waves of water like some sort of Greek God, shirt off showing overly muscly abs. "You were the only one to ever love me for more than just my beautifully perfect face!"

His enemy suddenly burst from the water, eight spider like eyes and a body with four disgustingly spindly arms. "Silly Narcissist! You can never have her – no you can't! Never! For I have taken her brain and controlled it! Ha Ha Ha!"

Blasting from the water in a long black dress, Sakura appeared, her eyes like swirly portals, her mouth hanging open slightly. "I will destroy your beauty, Narcissist." Sakura breathed.

"No!" Narcissist King cried, "I would rather you die! BEHOLD THE BEAUTY OF MY FACE!" A beam of light blasted Sakura and she disintegrated into powder with a final, overly dramatic shriek.

The lair in the sewers exploded with much needed laughter. After all that Jess, Kaela and Ethan had gone through, it was a delight to watch the cartoon and forget about their lives for at least a half-hour. Ethan could tell that it was especially freeing for Kaela. She had to go to school entirely alone now while Ethan and Jess searched the sewers for the turtles. Ethan was almost positive they had looked at every inch of the New York underbelly. Still they found nobody.

Jess wiped away tears from her snow white fur and sighed, still calming chuckles that tried to get out. "Oh, wow." She said. "I think Narcissist King just blew up Sakura with his good looks." This brought another fit of giggles from the three as the episode credits rolled, showing dramatic poses of the characters along with Japanese characters.

Ethan was almost tempted to ask Kaela to read those – but knew that it was probably too soon to ask something like that. Kaela still seemed a little upset about Ethan's rash decision. All Ethan was upset about was not knowing where Karai was. In their search of the sewers, she hadn't turned up either. The room went back into silence as Kaela turned off the television set. Their mind was also caught up in other things – namely what Jess had overheard from Tigerclaw. Within a day or two, Shredder would be doing something to take over the city, but without knowing what, Ethan had no idea how they were going to do anything about it.

At least not until now. "Hey, Jess." Ethan said as she got up to stretch, throwing her white furry, arms into the air and giving a yawn that showed her sharp teeth.

"Hm?"

"If I wanted us to go pay a visit to Mako tonight, would you be able to find him?"

Jess nodded, "Yeah. If he wasn't at his usual spot, I'm sure I could text him and he would tell me exactly where he is."

"You've gotten that serious huh?" Ethan teased.

"Not serious enough to kiss him." Jess retorted and Ethan blushed furiously.

Kaela perked up at the conversation and then grabbed Ethan's shoulders and shook him happily, his head rebounding backward and forward at her force. "Brilliant Ethan!" She shouted joyfully and then she turned to Jess who watched her with confusion. "You can use your feminine foxy charm on him and he can be a double agent and tell us what Shredder is planning!" she explained.

Jess raised her eyebrows. (Or whatever it was that Fox's had.) "Clarifying question: you want me to seduce Mako into spying for us?" she asked skeptically.

"Seducing sounds gross. Just ask him with big googly eyes!" Kaela corrected.

Ethan snorted. "I don't even think Mako would buy it if Jess suddenly acted sugary sweet – but that was the idea that I was going for." He looked up at Jess, trying to use a little pit of his own red panda cuteness that Kaela couldn't stop talking about sometimes to convince his sister to do it. "Please, Jess?" Kaela begged.

Ethan joined Kaela, getting on his knees and clasping his hands together, knowing that invoking the right of leader was going to earn him few points with Jess. "Only you can do this super important mission."

"Fine, fine." Jess said, exasperated.

"Don't pretend that you aren't excited to see him again." Kaela chided with a smile, "I know you too well Jess." She sighed and looked at her nails with an air of fake arrogance. Jess gave her a pouty face.

The rest of the day included a lot of waiting around until finally darkness fell. If there was one thing that annoyed Ethan more than anything else, it was that he couldn't go up out in the sunlight very often anymore. He couldn't remember the last time he walked around New York in the day. When at last moonlight appeared, Jess ushered them out of the sewers and up into an alleyway not far from the deserted tennis courts. Ethan felt a pang in his heart as he looked at the empty courts.

Kaela patted his head, his ears flattening and he stared at her grimly. She chuckled, "Are you just remembering the fond moments of almost getting murdered by Karai?" she asked. After she said it she nudged his shoulder. "I was just kidding, Ethan."

"I know, I know. Lead the way, Jess."

That seemed to have perked Jess' mood up and she smiled and began running, climbing her way up the side of the wall of a nearby building and Ethan followed suit. "No fair!" Kaela hissed. "Why can't I be a mutant." Ethan didn't want to hear those words from her mouth, but felt now wasn't the time to have that in depth conversation of why she was wrong. So instead, he ignored it.

They reached the top of the building quickly and then Jess motioned for them to follow and they leaned into their ninja run and began sprinting across and over buildings, landing lightly and rolling on occasion to lighten the larger jumps over the fissures between buildings, as if they were hopping on stones over a giant pond of lights and noise.

The streets began to empty and become more quiet as they progressed down the road into clearly more slum-like areas of New York. Here, very few people walked and many of the lampposts had been broken or the bulbs shattered, plunging the three teenagers into darkness. Finally, Jess stopped and held her finger to her mouth to be quiet. Ethan looked down over the side of the building to see a street with bright LED lights in reds, yellows, and purple.

Several people were wandering around, burly, with tattoos and piercings across their face. "This is Purple Dragon territory." Kaela mouthed to Jess, a frown on her face. Jess nodded and then without explaining, moved from the building and slowly they made their way down together and slipped into a nearby alleyway by a restaurant.

Jess motioned them to a big round window where glowing, dull, yellow light filtered through dirty glass into the alley. She smiled and then nodded to the others before whispering, "He's in there." she pointed.

"Do we have to wait for him to come out?" Ethan asked.

Jess shook her head and then rapped on the glass with her white knuckles. She then ducked out of the way. Ethan and Kaela both gave her questioning looks. "He saw me. He was at a table near the window. He'll come." she explained.

Ethan nodded into the darkness, "Let's go a little deeper into the alley." he said. "I don't want us to be seen anywhere in here. We'll have a fight on our hands for sure." The three slunk a little further into the alleyway until the darkness cloaked them, just as a shadow rounded the corner. In the colorful lights of the streets and near a burned out warehouse, Mako appeared, purple tips and all. He was wearing a long sleeved leather jacket today with studs on the shoulders. He paused at the entrance of the alleyway when he saw that there was more than just one shadow. "Whose there?" he asked, trepidation in his voice.

Kaela came out of the shadows further with Jess. Mako looked relieved at that and then Ethan appeared and he stared at him suspiciously and then back at Jess. "Who are you? Jess' boyfriend?" he sounded ready to start a fight with Ethan.

He snorted. "I'm her brother – Ethan, remember?"

"Wow." Again, Mako looked relieved. "I didn't know you were – y'know – messed up too. No offense."

"Some taken." Ethan replied.

Mako then turned to Kaela, as if he was avoiding Jess' gaze. "So, what are you guys doing here?This isn't necessarily the safest place for you to be – that Shredder dude has everyone out looking for you three."

"We know." Kaela said, folding her arms across her chest. "We have a very specific task that we need your help with."

Mako waited silently as if expecting Kaela to say something. The alleyway went awkwardly silent and then Kaela piped up, her voice a little less confident than it had been before, "Jess. Tell him about it." She retreated a few steps back into the shadows behind Jess

The arctic fox sighed, shoulders slouching and stepped forward, the blackness vanishing from her white fur as she walked further into the yellow glow. She didn't say anything at first and Jess and Mako stood awkwardly, look at anything but each other. The Purple Dragon shifted his feet uncertainly beneath him.

Ethan had never seen him so insecure. As the silence pressed on, Ethan had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing. "Look," Jess finally managed to get out weakly, "We know Shredder is going to do something . . . well, something bad. We don't know what and therefore he don't know how to stop him."

"Mhm."

Jess continued, "But, you could find out for us." She paused and then quickly added, "Please?"

"Sounds like fun." Mako said.

"Really?" Jess' ears perked up and Mako laughed.

"That's pretty cute." he said, winking at her as if Ethan and Kaela weren't there. Again, Ethan almost exploded into a fit of laughter. "Yeah, I'm sick of everything Shredder's doing. When I joined the Purple Dragon's it was great! Ever since he's been involved, it's been crap. I'd be more than happy to give you guys the excuse to pummel him."

"Agreed." Ethan said darkly from the shadows. Even the thought of Shredder brought memories of when the blades had pierced through Master Hamato. He felt the rage begin to boil in his blood but knew he had to keep himself calm. "Will you help us then?" he asked.

Mako nodded, "I told you I would. I'll figure out what is going on and send Jess a text." he smiled back at her. His old self was coming back. "On one condition." he added.

Jess folded her arms across her chest. "Oh?" she asked. "What do you want Mako?" Ethan couldn't tell if Jess was just trying to be mean, or if she really meant to sound so sassy.

"Even though your a fox, I want another date. And this time, I promise not to bring in any arch-nemesis or anything." He grinned, flashing his white teeth.

"It's a deal!" Kaela quickly said.

"What?" Jess snapped.

"We just traded a date for the chance to defeat Shredder once and for all and stop him from taking over the city, I'd say that's pretty awesome of a deal." Kaela continued with a smile and she patted Jess on the head, making Mako chuckle again.

He then turned, moving his hand through his hair casually and then nodded to the restaurant. "I'll get started right away. You three better scram. I'll text you when I figure out what's going on." he then vanished around the corner and back into the light.

Ethan, Jess, and Kaela exchanged looks. "Excellent." Ethan said with a smile. "For once, we may get an upper hand on Shredder. He shouldn't expect us and then when the time is right, we'll take it down for what he did."

The other two gave sharp, solemn nods and then the three burst off into the night to go back home, Jess trying to convince them the whole way that she wasn't happy about the date with Mako. For some odd reason, Ethan had the feeling that she was really trying to convince herself.

Mako stepped back into the restaurant, dousing himself in ugly yellow light. His two buddies were still waiting at the table. "Where were you?" The larger one asked. He had once had black hair, but it had been died platinum blonde. He was tall, broad shouldered and had a tattoo of serpent that wrapped around his neck and up around to the back of his ear.

"With my girl, Trent." he said, sitting back down at the table. It was really only half a lie.

The second friend, Kenta burst into fits of cackling laughter. He was thin, Asian, with a fohawk of jet black hair and a pierced ear that had a long dangling wicked chain that looked like a glimmering dinosaur talon on the end. "You don't have one, Mako." He said, his voice whiny as he wiped away fake tears. "That girl you brought last time totally dumped you."

"Whatever." Mako snapped back. He then turned to them and lowered his voice, looking around at the other Purple Dragon's to make sure that they weren't paying attention to them or listening too closely. "Listen, guys, I need your help."

"If it's about that girl – forget it." Kenta said with a smile leaning his chair back on its hind legs and putting his long, thin arms behind his head, eyes closed.

"It's not about that." Mako said quickly, making his voice quieter and leaning into the table as the sounds of cooking came from the back, steam issuing from under the crack of the kitchen door. "I need to know about about the Foot is gonna try next. They said we were gonna do something soon and I just need to figure it out and tell –."

The door slammed open and Mako jumped, shutting up immediately like he had just been caught at school hitting a freshman. Standing in the doorway was Hun – who Mako had honestly expected – but the person standing next to him, he was not planning on seeing in this part of town ever.

Herma, from his school with horn-rimmed glasses, purple highlights in her hair and the usual plaid skirt that she always wore were unmistakable. She smiled smugly at the group and re positioned her glasses on her nose. The entire restaurant had gone entirely silent and everyone's eyes were on their leader and the new girl.

Hun walked through the crowd of people until he was at the head near the bar where even the barman had gone totally silent, frozen halfway through cleaning a large glass mug. Herma followed him and didn't even look at Mako even though he was the only one from their high school there. Once Hun had reached the front, he turned, hands behind his back, his chest puffed out and his sun glasses glazed in light. "Purple Dragons." he said authoritatively, as if to silence them, but nobody was speaking. "Tonight, we help Master Shredder take the city." he said.

His heart leaping, Mako turned to look at his two friends, Trent and Kenta. They looked back at him worriedly. They obviously knew that this was exactly what he was about to talk to them about. Mako's stomach twisted with a nervousness he wasn't used to. But equally, he was eager – Jess was going to love him for this. And doing it this fast was probably going to earn him points too. Hun continued, "We are going to drive to Shredder's lair right now and together we will go to the New York grid and destroy it." Hun smiled smugly, "With the city in pitch darkness, we can gain control over the grid and it will prove lucrative to us." The crowd began to

Mako's eyes went from Hun to Herma who was standing resolute, shorter than Hun, but she didn't say a word, but watched silently. Trent turned to the other two and whispered, "Is that girl with the Purple Dragons? I haven't seen her before."

Mako shook his head. "She's from my school. A mega nerd. Not really Purple Dragon material if you ask me."

"Well," Kenta said, "Apparently she is. Otherwise she wouldn't be standing next to Big Boss."

"Purple Dragons, follow me." Hun then snapped his fingers as if he were training a crowd of dogs instead of the rough crew in front of him. Mako quickly stood up and followed behind Hun and Herma. The others around him pushed at each other, some laughing, others looked excited as they attached a pair of brass knuckles or flipped out a switch blade. As soon as they were out in the cool, night air, Mako grabbed Trent and Kenta by their shirt sleeves and dragged them into the alleyway that just a few moments ago he was standing in talking to Jess and her siblings.

I can't believe my luck! This is awesome!

Mako turned to make sure the crowd was moving.

"Dude, what are you playing at?" Kenta hissed, his rat like face glaring at him.

Trent looked nervously in the direction of the crowd and then inched into the darkness a bit more. "What is this all about?" He asked, his low voice going even lower as he spoke lowly, his eyes shifting nervously towards the window nearby where the yellow light was glowing.

"I'm getting us out of this crap-deal with Shredder." Mako whispered as he pulled out his phone and looked up Jess' number. "He's a total creep – he messed up one of my friends."

"Seriously? This is about that girl!" Kenta snapped. "Forget it! I'm not doin' this!" he grabbed Trent's arm next to him. "C'mon, let's get back to the crowd before Hun knows were gone."

Mako jumped in front of them and held his hands out. "Guys! We've been friends ever since I joined the Purple Dragons! Don't bail on me here." he looked at the two older guys who stared back down at him angrily, but finally, Kenta sighed and turned to Trent.

Trent shrugged. "Hurry." He said. "Call that girl and let's get back to the crowd."

Good Enough.

Mako dialed Jess' number and put the phone to his face, glancing back at the crowd that had tapered off and were going down the dark streets, vanishing into the night, the noise of their feet and chatter slowly disappearing. "Mako, please tell me you called for a reason." Jess' voice appeared on the other end of the receiver.

Mako grinned even though she couldn't see it. "I've got news for your girlie." he said. "I've already got the information you need."

"Seriously?" Jess didn't sound convinced.

"It's happening tonight. They are going to go bust up the New York grid and turn out all the lights in New York." he said. It was silent on the other end of the line for several minutes and Kenta gave Mako a dirty look.

"What?" Jess sounded like she was convinced now – although unhappy to be so.

"Yeah!" Mako said. "We are going to Shredder's place right now! That's what is going down, so if you want to do something, then I would go to the grid right now."

"Got it." Jess replied.

"Good luck, Jess. Stay safe."

She hung up.

"Can we go to Shredder's lair now?" Trent asked, his eyes still darting to the window and back.

"Well, well, well."

A new voice entered the alleyway and Mako felt his heart crush in between his ribs from fear. Kenta and Trent's eyes widened and Mako whirled around to see Hun and Herma were standing at the alleyway, Hun's arms folded across his chest. "Look what we've got here." He smiled and the yellow light flashed across his sunglasses.