Chapter 6

Chapter Song: Hate to Feel - Alice in Chains & The Jailers - Voices of Light

Miranda had a pretty busy week.

Apart from young delinquents coming in bearing Wutang symbols on their arms in her day job, Miranda was pretty busy at night too. The USB drive Charles Hughes had slipped to Miranda back in the restaurant was full of codes words meant to indicate locations and instructions for the Killer Bees. Miranda, along with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, began an active nightly campaign, sabotaging the Wutang Clan's weapon chains or disrupting their robbery plans.

But it seemed no matter what Miranda was doing, it only seemed to strengthen the Wutang's resolve. Before, Miranda would always run across Foot Clan soldiers trying to kidnap children, once the Wutang Clan had made their presence known to New York, the kidnapping rate took a severe drop, before the week was even through, Foot Clan had all but ceased to exist. That didn't sound so bad, but that's only if you didn't see the bodies of Foot Clan ninjas that were always being wheeled into the morgue daily. One night, right after Miranda had burned down a supply chain with the boys, she run down an alleyway and tripped over the bodies of Foot Ninjas, all of them were horribly mutilated. What disturbed Miranda the most was after she had removed their masks, all the Ninjas lying dead in that alleyway were all girls she knew back during her training under The Shredder, the frozen look of horror and shock on all their faces, none of them had stood a chance.

She probably would have lost her cool right there in that alleyway if Raphael hadn't followed her. His shoulder was comforting for her to cry on. She was thankful he was so understanding. If only his master could be as understanding.

Not long after this, Miranda learned the Foot Clan had finally pulled out and went into hiding. They couldn't contend with the power of the Wutang Clan and left, leaving only Miranda and the boys to stand in the way of the Wutang Clan.

Sadly, Splinter didn't exactly agree with this.

"But Master Splinter-" Michelangelo complained.

"No and my decision is final! I trained you to defend yourselves against other members of the Foot Clan, the Wutang Clan are far more dangerous than any adversary you've ever faced, you are not prepared for them." Splinter said sternly. Miranda stood in the background as her friends sat on their knees for their master.

"Master, please listen to reason, we can't let Miranda go out alone to fight them off." Raphael protested to his master, looking back to her for a moment.

"Then she should follow the example of the Foot Clan and pull away. This is not your fight my sons." Splinter lectured, looking up to Miranda, frustration in his eyes, "Nor yours either."

"Excuse me?!" Miranda said, staring down Splinter. He was getting aggressive on her again for her ties to the Foot Clan, she just had to keep her cool.

"If you insist you are no longer Foot Clan, then why should you continue to defend your brothers and sisters of the Foot."

"I don't fight th' Wutang for th' Foot Clan, I do it t' protect New York City an' help keep kids off the streets." Miranda responded.

"Oh, so now you're a champion for the children? Is that your excuse for all the bloodshed you have on your hands?!" Splinter lectured to her, Miranda was starting to lose it as she stood her ground.

"It's a hell of a lot better'n sittin' in th' sewers hidin' while th' Wutang Clan continues to kill Foot Clan ninjas and police officers that get in their way." Miranda responded.

"Miranda please-" Leonardo tried to interrupt to stop this arguing.

"So then this is retribution for you? Do you have any second thoughts about the people you murder?!" Splinter rose his voice.

"All th' goddamn time! I choose whether t' kill someone if they're worthy of it!" Miranda rose her voice as well.

"You're just like Oroku Saki, you mistake revenge and vigilantism for justice!" Splinter argued.

"NEVER COMPARE ME T' THAT MONSTER!" Miranda finally shouted, pulling out her sword, the Turtles all flinched in shock, Raphael and Leonardo were the only ones to pull out their blades ready to defend Splinter. At this quick moment, everyone froze in place, Splinter hadn't even moved at all, but he stared at Miranda with a sort of "You were saying?" look. Miranda looked at Raphael, his eyes were pleading with Miranda not to do this. Miranda sheathed her blade, the other Turtles followed, but Miranda wasn't done.

"You know, I use t' think that Shredder had you wrong…but it looks like he was right, yer nothin' but a cowardly, selfish, senile, old…old…" Miranda struggled for words, "RAT! A common vermin that prefers t' run an' hide than stay an' fight back like a hero!" The turtles had gasped, Splinter was unmoved by her words as Miranda turned around in a huff as she stormed out of the training room Splinter was lecturing his students. They all turned and looked back at Splinter as he looked to the ground for a moment before he turned around and sat not he ground and began to meditate.

"M-Master?" Raphael finally said, he needed to talk to Miranda.

"If any of you try to sneak out, I will be forced to raise my hand to punish you…" he finally said as he crossed his legs to begin meditating. "You are all excused…but all of you will stay in the lair until I say otherwise…" he closed his eyes and began to enter his inner peace, Raphael was the first to leave as he went after Miranda.

Miranda was nearing the ladder heading to a secret garage she parked her motorbike in, she was fuming angry. How dare Splinter accuse her of being anything like Shredder? He had no idea of the horrors she was forced to impose by his cruel training. She did felt really glad to finally talk back to Splinter for being such a prick to her, but she also felt some guilt for saying such a mean thing.

He was just concerned for the safety for his sons, they were his life. But the boys were now Miranda's life as well and she just wished Splinter could see that.

"Miranda!" she heard a voice call back, Raphael ran up to her as she was about to put a hand on the ladder.

"Raph…please, don't." Miranda said.

"Look, Master Splinter can be a little tough and free-minded, but he didn't mean to upset you-" Raphael began to say before Miranda turned to face him.

"How can you defend what he said t' me?! He was calling me a lil' Shredder! Does he have ANY idea how much that…that 'man' has ruined my life?!" Miranda began to shout in anger at Raphael.

"Miranda, he- he just doesn't know you how I do." Raphael said, trying to sound like he was on her side. Miranda just rolled her eyes as she placed a hand and a foot on the ladder before looking back at him.

"Charles wanted t' meet wit' us t' tell us where the Wutang headquarters is bein' held, ya comin' 'r not?" Miranda said in a huff.

"I…I can't, Master Splinter has forbade me to leave the lair…" Raphael said, personally, eh wanted nothing more but a night alone with Miranda to fight alongside her. Miranda rolled her eyes in frustration.

"Wonderful, yer only excuse is that yer grounded while I have'ta go meet Charles t' find th' Wutang Clan's HQ; best excuse any gal could get." Miranda said sarcastically as she began up the ladder. For some reason Raphael couldn't explain, his rising frustration from her insult led him to talk back at her.

"Oh sure, you're one to talk about excuses." This caused Miranda to stop climbing as she looked back at Raphael.

"What's that supposed t' mean?" Miranda responded.

"Oh I dunno, what excuse would a girl need to go off and meet some rich billionaire in the middle of the night when he buys you lunch." Raphael said with a hint of aggression in his tone, Miranda slide down the ladder back to the ground level to face him.

"What th' hell are you implyin'?" Miranda said.

"I don't know if you really want to hear my theories on you and this rich slimeball!" Raphael argued.

"Oh God, you think me an' Charles are-? Oh God, no!" Miranda said in disgust. "Christ, I'd rather kiss a trout from th' market than his disgusting face!"

"Well, for all I know, you would have some experience with that!" Raphael said, anger in his voice was rising.

"And since when do you give a damn about my romantic life?!" Miranda yelled angrily, deep down, she was trying to tell herself to stop and apologize to him, but her mind was so angry, it was like her mouth was running on it's own.

"How should I know?! Maybe I don't give a damn about your sex life or you!"

"Fine! Then I don't give a damn about you or yer goddamn family!" Miranda shouted.

"If you really don't give a damn, then get the fuck out of my goddamn home!" Raphael yelled. Miranda and him stared dagger eyes at each other, both breathing heavily through their noses before she finally turned and climbed up the ladder, and made it to top before she slammed the grate close. The moment she slammed it closed and stormed over to her motorbike, she began to slow down before she came to a complete stop just a foot from her motorbike. A sense of realization pouring through her mind, she slid to her knees and cried into her left hand with her right hand holding onto the wall.

"Oh God…what have I said?" Miranda said. How could she have said any of that to him? What had gone through her mind to say any of that? She felt as though she had blown a hole right through her own chest. Did those things really come from her mouth?

As she weeped above the surface, down below it in the tunnel, Raphael had laid his back against the wall as he slid down to his rump, pulling the mask off his face, rubbing his eyes with his hand.

How could he have said any of those things?

"Raph…you fucking idiot…" he said under his breath. "you loved that girl and you just told her to go fuck herself…" he dropped the mask as he leaned his head down and the hand on his eyes moved to the back of his head, joined with the other other hand, his head reeling from that fight. Both his hands landed on the ground in anger as he gave a loud yell of anger for breaking his own heart, unaware that Miranda was suffering as well above ground.

Miranda wiped her tears as she fixed her jacket before sliding onto her motorbike and putting life into it before she drove off, the air blowing through her hair, but tears still ran down the sides of Miranda's face as she drove down the streets, her heart feeling so hollow and cold from her own doing…

Miranda climbed the fire escape to the top of a condemned building Mr. Hughes had described in an e-mail to her. Her eyes were red from the crying on the way over, she knew that going in distracted or emotional conflicted was a bad idea, but she needed something to distract her from her fight with Raphael. She reached the top and was surprised to see someone else was there.

"Ah, Miranda, you're late." this stranger said.

"Who are you? Where's Mr. Hughes?" Miranda said.

"He was caught up in a meeting so he sent me. My name is Wesley, I'm Mr. Hughes private bodyguard, I was the one who spied on your meeting a week ago with a sniper rifle aimed at you." Wesley said matter-of-factly.

"Huh, ya got good eyes." Miranda said, slowly walking up to him as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and held them up to her calmly, "don't mind if I do." Miranda said, accepting one and putting it between her lips as she lit it up and deeply inhaled before blowing smoke to the side. "So, how did Mr. Hughes buy you?"

"I was being held in a Chinese prison for nearly 10 years before Mr. Hughes bought my freedom and he employed me to handle his dirty work." Wesley said calmly. Miranda looked at him as she inhaled the cigarette again, considering the night she was having, she needed this cigarette badly.

"Huh…looks like yer boss has a good eye fer talent." Miranda said, she started to feel her lack fo sleep coming over her, she willed herself to stay awake.

"Well, I got good eyes for beautiful women." Wesley said, Miranda rolled her eyes.

"Please, I've had a rough night, I'm in no mood fer flirtin' jus' tell me where I can find The Wutang Clan's headquarters." Miranda said in a low tone as she inhaled the remainder of the cigarette.

"Of course. Their headquarters change all the time, but their main base of operations is someplace called 'The 36 Chambers,' here, this file should tell you all you need to know." Wesley said handing a manilla folder to Miranda, Miranda took it from him.

"Thanks." She turned around and began to flip throughout his rather thin folder, flicking the cigarette to the side, she looked through it to find nothing but a few sheets of paper that said "surprise" on it. "Is this some kind of a joke?"

"No, but you'll probably won't be laughing too soon." Wesley said as Miranda felt the pangs of drowsiness again as she found she couldn't fight it. She dropped the folder and all the dummy papers as she began to feel disoriented. She tried to eke herself standing but she felt as though her body was getting heavier and heavier, she stumbled around for a bit, placing a hand on her head as she groaned.

"Wha- What did you do t' me?" Miranda slurred as she fell to her knees close to the cigarette butt she had flicked to the side as she grabbed it in her fingers and examined it closely despite her vision starting to blur. "son of'a bitch…you drugged me?!"

"You know, smoking is bad for you." Wesley said darkly as Miranda's dizziness began to worsen, her vision blurred as she saw several Killer Bees leaping onto the roof as Wesley walked over to her, he grabbed her hair and held her up to his face. "Fuck Mr. Hughes, Wutang forever." He then landed a solid blow to her face as she fell over on her back and her vision slipped into blackness as the drugs took effect.

Miranda eventually felt her mind finally waking up as she slowly began to open her eyes, giving a soft groan as her vision slowly returned as she rose her head. She was sitting down, she could tell that much, the blurriness in her vision subsided as she looked at her location. She was inside some small room that was no bigger than a bedroom, though without a bed, the walls had some sort of red painted flocks of birds that seemed to try and fly around the room, in the dead center was a large yellow bird, the symbol of the Wutang Clan. Miranda then looked to her left and saw a man looting through her things, looking at her jacket and her sword.

She tried to get up and get her weapon back but she felt her hands being restricted as she looked back and realized her hands had been handcuffed to the chair, she then realized her feet had also been handcuffed to the chair legs. She tried to do the reasonable thing and lift the chair, but it refused to budge, eventually her escape attempts caught the attention of the man looking over her stuff as he turned his attention to her.

"Ah ha…you're finally awake…" he said, he stepped into the light as Miranda felt horror shoot through her nerves as she immediately recognized this man from the photographs of the Wutang Charles had shown her.

"O-Old Dirty Bastard…" Miranda growled softly as he grinned, showing his disgusting teeth.

"So you have heard of me…good…" The Old Dirty Bastard said, he moved closer to Miranda, his stench was horrid, Miranda could have gagged as he smelled her neck. "Mmm…I love your smell…the smell of virgin flesh…" He moved back as he licked his lips. "I can remedy that…oh yes…" his hand grabbed the sides of her cheeks, Miranda kept trying to force her head away to avoid even looking at him.

"No…NO!" Miranda shouted as he forced his tongue into her mouth. Oh God it was disgusting and slimy. She was ready to barf, but she wasn't going to let handcuffs stop her. She groaned in disgust before she bit down on the intruder's tongue, making him let go of her head as he yelled out in pain.

"NNNNHHH!" The Old Dirty Bastard screamed as he tried to pull his tongue out but Miranda bit down harder, drawing blood, she was trying to take the whole damn thing. He punched her in the stomach which eventually forced her to let go as he backed off and babied his tongue. Miranda just stared dagger eyes at him as she spat out his foul taste and blood from her mouth.

"Do ya EVEN brush yer goddamn teeth at all?" Miranda said, spitting out more of his foul taste.

"ou…ou bet meh pounge?" The Old Dirty Bastard said with his tongue out of his mouth, he looked at her in shock, clearly, nobody had ever tried that whe he forced himself upon them. Anger grew in his eyes as he drew a knife and held it up to her neck, "ah'll peesh ou bish!"

"Osirus!" A voice called from behind as the Old Dirty Bastard stopped, standing in the doorway stood a figure with a long dark robe, the Wutang bird all across his chest arid of the robe, though the wings spread to the sides and the tips reached to the bottom of his robe.

"Mastah Rissa…thee bit mah pongee…" The Old Dirty Bastard said while his injured tongue hung out. Rizza entered the room, followed by three young people, said people looking as though they were barely 14, bearing the Wutang symbol recently tattooed on their chests and quite recently from the look of it. Rizza just waved his hand for the Old Dirty Bastard to leave as he indeed did so, looking back at Miranda with a hateful look before leaving, Miranda stared up at this mystery man. He slowly turned to the table and picked up a clean towel and a bottle of sake as he returned to Miranda, bending down his knees as he looked Miranda in the eye. Miranda looked over this man's features, he wasn't as old as Miranda had expected, a few grey hairs here and there on the sides of his beard which clearly was well-kept, his eyes were light green, but even looking into his eyes, Miranda felt a strong urge to stop fighting and follow this man like he was a god. She bit her own tongue to fight back this urge as she continued to stare with hate at this man as he rose the towel to her mouth, Miranda leaned her head back away from him.

"I know Osirus' mouth was not the best to endure…this will clear his foulness from your mouth…" he said with allure and courtesy, for an asian man, his English was very good, too good. Miranda continued to stare at him, not trusting to put anything in her mouth. He seemed to know this as he took the container and drank from one side of the bottle. "See? It isn't poisoned. It is nothing more than sake." Miranda kept staring at this man but she eventually opened her mouth as Rizza slowly poured the alcohol into her mouth as she swished the burning alcohol in her mouth, her tongue appreciated this taste rather than that disgusting slime of The Old Dirty Bastard's tongue. She leaned her head to the side and spat the liquid out, Rizza took the towel and slowly wiped her mouth, like a grandfather calmly wiping the mouth of a child.

"There…his foulness is gone, yes?" He said softly as he gave something of a smile that felt unnatural to look at.

"If yer gonna kill me, ya better do it now." Miranda said bitterly.

"Kill you, dear child? Goodness no, you are much to valuable to just kill." Rizza said softly, but with power and weight in his words. It felt as though his words were trying to work their way into her head to get her to trust him.

"I get that a'lot an' usually my response t' them is th' same." Miranda said.

"Well, we aren't like the others. We have a more honorable intention to our methods." Rizza said calmly, standing up as he slowly walked back to the table to lay the towel on it.

"Ya call rape an' pillage of an entire country 'honorable?'" Miranda stated, keeping her eyes on Rizza for anything he was trying to grab something.

"This world is full of anger, greed, lies, hatred, and unnatural children who are born with diseases that destroy their abilities to think. The medical world comes up with all these names for these diseases or 'disorders;' 'schizophrenia,' 'autism,' 'down syndrome,' 'OCD,' all these diseases that hinder the mind and destroy order. The position of your country and in ours was to 'help' these people. But do you know what that does? It wastes valuable resources that could be used to provide for the people who are forced to sleep in the dirt and have rain and snow fall on them while the diseased ones live in privilege."

"That's bullshit! Disorders aren't diseases!" Miranda began to say before the Rizza cut her off.

"Then how else would you call the other horrible diseases of mankind? Lust? Greed? Wrath? Are you to tell me they are all disorders that we cannot cure?" Rizza turned back to her as he walked to the other side calmly while talking.

"Ya can't compare mankind's sins t' people with developmental disabilities!" Miranda said angrily, she wished she had the strength to break out of these handcuffs so she could get her hands around Rizza's neck. She had worked with many people who had developmental disorders and while many of them had to be taken away to institutes, leaving their children in foster care, she found more of these developmental people were just fine if they were give proper help from their peers to help them understand right from wrong.

"You don't quite see it do you? These 'disorders' are the punishments God placed upon the world for it's sins. But, that is where my men and the Killer Bees will change that…" he walked back over to Miranda, bent down and put his hands on the sides of her arms as he stared at her with those haunting eyes. "You are the most promising warrior I have ever had the pleasure to hear such tales from the Killer Bees. Join me, with our combined strength, we can take control of the country's financial heart and begin our cleansing. We will reform the world and all of mankind's sins will be eradicated forever." Miranda looked at his face for a good long while before she finally spat at his face.

"I'd rather go t' hell than kill innocent people who can't help that they are th' way they are!" Miranda said darkly and angrily. Rizza sighed as wiped her spit off his face and stood up.

"Then you have chosen your end…" Rizza turned around as the youths began to speak up excitedly.

"Master Rizza! What are you going to do to her?!" One youth said.

"I have a suggestion master! We can tie her to a bedpost, with her ass cheeks spread out and shit, right? And we'll put a hanger on a stove and let it sit there for 30 minutes and then just stick that shit in! Sssss!" The second youth excitedly suggested, making the other two youths laugh while the Rizza stood there, his hands together as he listened to these two ramble to one another.

"Oh wait, wait, I'll fuckin, lay her boobs on a dresser and then I'll ram them with a spiked baseball bat! BLAOW!" the third youth said, behind them stood Master Gizza, he too was laughing at these pathetic suggestions.

"I'll fuckin' pull her tongue out and stab it with a rusty screwdriver!"

"I'll hang her over the side of a building by just her nipples master!"

"I'll fuckin just sew her asshole close and keep feeing her and feeding her and feeding her and-"

"Boys." Rizza finally spoke up to get them to stop as Gizza entered the room to face Rizza.

"What do you want us to do with her, brother?" Gizza said calmly. Rizza looked back at Miranda who continued to stare at him with hatred in her eyes, she wasn't going to change her mind obviously. Rizza said something to Gizza that Miranda couldn't quite hear before he eventually left the room, Gizza just smiled darkly as he walked over to the table and picked up her sword, pulling it out of it's sheath as he walked over to Miranda, inspecting the sword.

"Hmm, this is a fine sword…I'll be proud to claim it as my own…" Gizza said with a grin as the last thing Miranda saw was Gizza use the handle of her own sword to knock her out.

Eventually, Miranda awoke in darkness, she leaned her head up only to ram her head against something solid, she leaned her head back as she groaned as she tried to put a hand to her head but se found that she was taking her other hand with her. Her wrists felt the familiar cold metal of handcuffs on her wrists, she eventually recovered from the pain as she realized she couldn't see anything, it was pitch black. She tried to move her legs but found she had limited mobility, she couldn't really bend her legs without hitting the low ceiling. She placed her hands on this ceiling and felt wood as she heard a bit of creaking.

"No…they didn't…" Miranda said to herself trying to tell herself this was just a dream, but the pain she was feeling in her head from hitting this ceiling and the smell of earth was confirming the worst, "Oh God...they did..."

Miranda had been buried alive.