Chapter 16

Check-up

The mutants arrived back at the lair, with the meeting with Shari still fresh in mind, and they had a lot to think about now that their future seemed to include her as well.

"So, what do you think, dudes and dudettes? Wasn't she just totally awesome?" Michelangelo asked in a very happy tone with a wide smile on his face.

"She sure seemed like a nice person." Leonardo said.

"When can I bring her here? She'd just love to see our sweet lair."

"Actually, I don't think we should."

"What?! What is it this time, bro? You said that she was okay and all."

"She is, in fact it did seem to be something special about her, yet my gut tells me that something is not right. What I don't know, but I can't ignore it."

"You're not the only one, Leo." said Monalisa. "My gut also told me the same, and you turtles were a bit too accepting with how important it is that we keep hidden from our enemies."

"Now that you mention it, we were. I wonder why." said Donatello.

"What about you, Tyroth? Your senses are sharper than most of ours, did you sense anything out of the ordinary? Magic maybe?" Leonardo asked his dragon friend.

"No magic, but I can't say that I felt the same allure that you seemed to have. There was however something with her scent, underneath that perfume she wore. For some reason, it felt almost familiar, but no matter how hard I think, I can't place it. Maybe it's nothing."

"You guys can't be serious. You said you were okay with her, but now you're going back on that?" Michelangelo protested.

"We're not going back on anything, Mikey. I just want to be absolutely sure that we can trust Shari before letting her know where the lair is. Just let us check up on her background and such. If we don't find anything, she can come here. Okay?"

"Alright." Michelangelo sighed, not overly happy with his family's suspicions, but he understood it.

"I suppose I'll hit the computer and see what I can dig up then." said Donatello.

Ren walked into her apartment, having been able to contact her uncle about hiding weapons in the surroundings for her. It hadn't been easy, but she managed, now all she needed to do was to wait, as they would stealthily inform her of the locations. Several sets of kunai and shuriken as well as katana would be at her disposal.

'Now it's only a matter of time until we know where they are hiding, and the sooner I can drop this charade, the better. I just hope that Uncle Arashi and doctor Arden can come up with a way to deal with the dragon, otherwise he could jeopardise everything. I suppose we could wait until he and those whores of his leave, but who knows when that might be, and I'm not sure if I can keep this up for much longer.'

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair as she finally could relax a bit. During the entire meeting, she was incredibly nervous that she would be discovered, and the presence of the dragon didn't help. She also had a hard time taking her mind off the new mutant, she recognized some of her features, but still could not identify the species of reptile, and she didn't like having such unknowns in the game, knowing one's opponent is key to victory.

Still, she was confident that the Foot could handle one more mutant, as Kate didn't seem to be one of the more deadly mutants, unlike someone else.

'I wonder how to best deal with the dragon. At least Arden will settle for his corpse, the beast is far too dangerous to try and capture again. And from what we learned from his clones, he's not invincible, a slit throat or a blade in his heart, and he will die just like anything else, it will just take a lot more effort, with his healing ability and all.'

Looking out through a window, Ren could see the Foot Headquarters off in the distance. Arashi, her uncle, most likely sat in the throneroom at that moment, commanding the Foot in their master's absence. But one day, Shredder, their true leader, would be rescued from his frozen prison and take his place on the throne again, just like they all wanted. Ren hoped that, after locating the freaks' lair, she would be recognized by Oroku Saki himself once he returned. To be able to stand by her master's side as her uncle once had, that was her dream.

'He will be proud of my success, all of them will be. For I will succeed where they could not, and finally rid us of the freaks once and for all.' she mused, turning away from the window. But as she did, she got the feeling that she was being watched. She focused her senses and located where the perpetrator was, right outside the very window she had looked through just seconds earlier.

Her muscles tensed and she was ready to strike within a moment's notice. Visualising how her opponent moved outside, she could feel how the window was silently opened behind her. Then, quick as a flash, she turned around, opened the window completely, grabbed her foe and pulled him inside before he could react.

With her foe on the floor, she was just about to incapacitate him when she saw that it was in fact one of her fellow Foot ninja. Ren groaned in annoyance, quickly closing the window and the curtains.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, clearly angry.

"Nice to see you too..." the ninja said as he picked himself up from the floor. "Is that any way to treat a colleague?"

"Colleague my ass. You clearly haven't trained enough to even be considered that, not with how easily I both detected and defeated you. Now answer me, what are you doing here?" she half snarled, glaring at the ninja.

"I came to deliver a list of all the places where we've hid the weapons you requested." he responded, handing Ren a small metal tube with the list inside. "We made sure to do it as fast as possible, and all the stashes are well hidden."

"At least you're doing something right then." she said. "Now get the hell out of here, before you're spotted. I got enough on my mind right now, don't need any more from you."

"Just make sure you succeed, or hope that the freaks kill you. It doesn't matter if you're Arashi's niece or not, you won't be safe from his wrath if you fail." the ninja said as he slipped back out through the window and disappeared into the dark of the night.

Clutching the metal tube in her hand, Ren knew that the ninja was right, she wouldn't go free from any kind of punishment if she failed just because Arashi was her uncle, more likely the opposite, it would be even more severe. He wouldn't show any kind of mercy on his own flesh and blood, and he expected so much more from her as well.

"The stakes are high." she said, opening the tube and reading the list, memorising it.

Not much further until something major will happen, but what? What do you think?

Will they discover Ren's secret? Or will she learn where the lair is hidden?

Only I will tell, but not this chapter.