Chapter 18

Three is a Crowd

Kate glared at her foe, the girl who had stolen the heart of Michelangelo as Shari, but who in reality had been Izo Ren, Arashi's niece, aiming to charm her way to the location of the lair, by pretending to be in love with Michelangelo.

Her whip was uncoiled and ready, her free hand was clawed and her fangs throbbed as she longed to inject her venom in Ren.

Likewise, the undercover Foot ninja held her razor-sharp katana in front of her, and her belt held her six kunai and dozens of shuriken, all of which she could throw at an instant and with deadly precision.

Meanwhile, Michelangelo lay on the ground behind Ren, paralysed from the Head-on-a-Stick gas Ren had sprayed him with, and could only watch through the tears as the two women was about to engage in a death battle.

Dashing towards each other, the two combatants were determined to make sure that only one of them lived through the night. Kate lashed out several times with her whip, but Ren saw the attacks coming and deftly avoided them all and quickly moved closer, slashing with her katana, forcing Kate to react quickly to not get hit. The viper moved to the side, avoiding the first slash, and ducked under the second, though she was too slow to get out of the way of the third attack, receiving a very shallow cut on her left upper arm.

Jumping backwards to get a little distance, Kate knew that Ren wasn't going to be an easy opponent, and the extensive ninja-training that she had was clearly an advantage over Kate's own combat-training, but as everyone knew, messing with a venomous snake is never a good idea.

Going on the offensive again, Kate attacked with her whip, forcing Ren to sidestep to avoid getting hit. But that put her in close quarters of Kate, who had moved towards Ren and now attacked anew, this time with kicks and slashes from her free hand, while the whip whirled around her as she spun around. Successfully parrying the viper's kicks, and just barely avoiding her clawed hand, Ren was ready to counter, but was taken by surprise when Kate's tail struck the ninja in her stomach.

Caught off guard, Ren was not able to react quick enough to Kate's next attack. The viper ended her spin with an underhand punch, using the bottom of the whip's handle to strike Ren's katana at the same spot, knocking it out of her hand and high into the air. As Kate's hand continued upwards, her whip followed, threatening to hit Ren from her waist and up.

Doing a series of back-flips in rapid succession, she managed to avoid the leather weapon. During the last back-flip, Ren pulled out several of her kunai and shuriken, throwing them all at Kate as soon as she landed and catching her katana again. Seeing the incoming projectiles, Kate had to react instantly to defend herself. Her whip cut through the air numerous times, each lash swatting a few of the metal projectiles out of the air, and within the blink of an eye, the kunai and shuriken lay on the ground.

Ren dashed towards Kate, slashing with her blade, cutting a few strains of hair as the viper ducked and rolled under the attack. As soon as Kate finished the roll, she tried a sweeping kick at Ren's feet, but the ninja simply jumped over the attack and threw two shuriken in retaliation, both of which hit Kate's right leg, despite her trying to evade them. However, as the metal stars struck her, Kate lashed out with her whip and succeeded to hit Ren mid-air. She cried out in pain as the leather gave her a nasty wound on her cheek, blood starting to slowly run down her face from the burning wound.

Placing her hand on her aching cheek and feeling the warm blood, Ren glared at the viper. Now it was personal. Furious over having her fair face scarred, she pulled out a kunai and wielded it in her left hand as she charged at Kate.

Slashing and stabbing, Ren forced Kate to go on the defensive, parrying and avoiding the ninja's attacks with little to spare, a few attacks cutting through her clothes in a few places. As Kate sidestepped a jab from the kunai, she countered with a quick kick to Ren's knee, upsetting her balance and making her unable to properly defend against Kate's follow up attack, with which she kicked the kunai out of Ren's hand.

But Ren recovered quickly, rolling to the side and back on her feet, slashing with her katana again, but not at Kate, or at least not directly. With the quick underhand slash, the tip of the katana struck the ground, throwing loose dirt in Kate's eyes, temporary blinding her. Even though she was part snake, for some reason she lacked the thin protective skin that snakes have over their eyes. While the viper frantically tried to quickly clean her eyes, Ren used the opportunity given by her dishonourable tactic to move in for the kill.

Getting behind Kate, Ren got her in a headlock and thrust the katana into the viper's back, causing her to scream in agony. Only Kate's squirming to try to break free saved her as the blade erupted from her stomach, missing any vital parts as it pierced her right side. Still, the wound was serious, and Kate was still stuck in Ren's grip.

"Seems your bark was worse than your bite!" Ren taunted.

"Y-you haven't… felt my bite yet..." Kate forced herself to say, overcoming the pain.

Baring her fangs, Kate sunk them into Ren's arm that held her, injecting her with venom. The sudden pain of both the bite and the snake venom caused Ren to loose her grip on the mutant, as well as her katana, and stumble backwards half a step.

Freed from the ninja's grasp, Kate choose to ignore the blade in her stomach and lunged at Ren, grabbing on to her head and biting her again, this time in the neck, pumping every last drop of venom into her. With her glands emptied, Kate pulled out her fangs and ended the battle by snapping Ren's neck with a quick twist, the ninja falling to the ground limp.

Breathing heavily, Kate spat on the fallen Ren, her saliva mixed with both traces of venom and the blood of Ren. Then her attention returned to the blade piercing her abdomen, but as she tried to pull it out, the pain was too great and she just didn't have any strength left.

With increasingly weak and wobbly steps, she made her way over to Michelangelo, and knelt by his side. Looking into his eyes, behind the tears, she could see the sadness and pain caused by his broken heart, the same as she had seen in her own many times before. But there was also fear and worry in his tear-filled eyes.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Me? What about you? You're stabbed!" Michelangelo said.

"I'll… I'll be alright… it just hurts a lot..." she said, but she felt how she was getting more light-headed. Sitting down and leaning against the wall, she reached for her shell-cell and activated the emergency signal. With the beacon active, she smiled and her eyes closed, her hand dropping the shell-cell.

"Kate...? Kate! KATE!"

The battle has ended, but is it a draw? With Michelangelo still paralyzed, what hope does Kate have if the others don't get there in time? Is it already too late?