*If you aren't familiar with "towel ninjas"...well, this doesn't make any sense. ) You can find it on youtube: just look up Dairy Queen dueling. I don't own any, unfortunately, or Dairy Queen.
Raphael had watched Greg slowly unravel as the man waited to hear from Sayuri again. He'd even offered to work off some steam with him in the dojo, but the man clearly wasn't in the mood.
Raphael had taken to secretly studying Brandon as a distraction from Greg's harried pacing. The TV was on in the background, and his friend seemed to be staring right through it from his perch on the couch. The bronze-haired man's posture was less rigid than Raphael had become accustomed to, even if he was still clutching his right arm to his chest, as if he feared someone would reinjure it.
Brandon resembled little more than a shadow of his former self at first glance, but there had been small indications of life on his part that were slightly encouraging. Even as Raphael watched the man, he was surprised to see the faintest hint of a smirk appear on Brandon's face.
"Heh, towel ninjas," the man murmured, glancing at Raphael. "That's what you guys need."
"Lemme just send somebody up to Dairy Queen to rustle up a couple of them," Raphael returned, surprised to realize that Brandon had been paying attention to the commercial.
"You know, for all those times when you'll be dueling with your future self," Brandon added.
"Exactly. 'Course I don't plan on getting my shell kicked by him." The turtle grinned.
"You don't think your future self could take you?"
"Maybe, but it'd be the battle of the century."
"Yeah, well…maybe my future self will be able to wipe the floor with you," Brandon suggested.
Raphael cocked his head as he chuckled. Okay, I'll take it, he thought gratefully. "That's a challenge, Bran. You find a way to get him here, and I guarantee a spar on the spot to settle this."
"As long as we each get our own towel ninjas."
"Oh, you're gonna need more of them than I will, Man."
"Sure, to clean up after I beat you."
The red-masked turtle shook his head, repressing the urge to clap his friend on the back. "Are you getting hungry at all?"
Brandon shook his head. "No, but Kari's gonna force it down my throat anyway. Should I waste the energy fighting it?"
Raphael shot him another smile. "You know your sister; she'll eventually get her way. She always does."
Brandon turned to look over his shoulder. "I don't see Greg. Did he disappear on us completely?"
Raphael looked around, and didn't see the sandy-haired man either. "I'll go hunting for him. You just hang out here in case the searching takes longer than the finding."
"That doesn't make any sense!" Brandon called after him.
It doesn't need to, as long as you keep sounding a little like your old self, Raphael thought in return. He looked down the hall, and made a bee-line for the Lounge when he noticed that the door was ajar. The turtle arrived in time to hear Greg swearing, followed by the sound of a terrific crash.
Raphael flew into the room to find the man standing over the coffee table that was lying on its side, breathing rapidly as if he'd been sprinting. "Whoa, easy, Heff," he said cautiously. "If you need to attack something, you're in the wrong room to do it."
The man flopped down on the couch as Leo stuck his head inside the room.
"Is everything okay in here?" Leonardo asked.
"No, no, it's not," Greg replied with a huff. "You're not going to believe this!"
"Things became a lot easier to accept when you're a mutant turtle, Heff," Raphael told him.
"This isn't a joke!" Greg thundered. "The bastard pulled it off! Not only did the Akiudo manage to break Takashi out, but they made it look like he's dead, and some vigilante citizen was responsible for it!"
Raphael could only stare at Greg for a couple of seconds after the bombshell. "Wait…what?
"They pulled off something huge," the man said more quietly. "They went the whole nine yards to set up this 'event', and frame someone else for taking Takashi down, all inside the Prefectural Police Headquarters in Naha!"
"How can they make Takashi look like he's dead?" Leo demanded. "Don't they need a body for that?"
Greg shook his head. "The police are still investigating, but they're running under the assumption that the complete set-up they discovered is responsible for blowing up an elevator that Takashi was inside of."
"Then Takashi is dead?" Raphael asked hopefully.
"No, you don't get it!" Greg looked like he was about to go through the ceiling. "Sayuri was there! She saw what actually happened. The Akiudo came into the Station disguised as riot police, cornered their transport team in the elevator, and cut the power to the building before pulling guns on them! They took Takashi, made Sayuri come with them, and killed everyone else on board!"
"Hold it, they have Sayuri?" Leonardo's voice changed entirely.
"No," Greg said more calmly. "That's the one good thing to come out of this. She was rescued by some paramedics who demanded that the 'riot police' hand her over to them."
"What?" Now Leonardo sounded completely confused too.
"Let me start over from the beginning, and I'll get it all out."
Silence persisted in the living area for a good three minutes before anyone could bring themselves to speak. Raphael stared at the rug angrily, as frustration pulsed through every nerve in his body. He'd always preferred using his fists or his beloved sai when dealing with an enemy in the past, but now he wished he had access to a weapon of mass destruction.
Every swear word that he'd ever heard had already come to mind, and it was all he could do not to utter them out loud in front of the women. I'd give anything to take those suckers out, even if I had to go down with them, he seethed. I think it'd be worth it.
"So, what is Sayuri's next move?" Leonardo's question sounded logical, but once glance at him told Raphael that his older brother was barely keeping a lid on his anger.
"She left the hospital and she's on her way to pick up Hisui and Shunshi," Greg answered.
"But where will she go?" Mike pressed. "None of them are safe with the Akiudo out there!"
"I don't think Takashi is all that concerned with Sayuri," Greg said honestly. "She believes that he only incited her over the phone to tempt her to join the transport team, where he could get another crack at her. But Sayuri isn't the reason that he wanted to break out of Prison. She has a feeling that he's got bigger fish to fry, and that finding you guys is probably at the top of the list." Greg grimaced with the admission.
"Let 'im come," Raphael said darkly. "Let them all come. We kicked their tails before, and we'll do it again! If we don't have to commute, so much the better."
The blue-masked turtle shook his head. "I have a bad feeling about this. There's something else going on here. He told Sayuri that he has no interest in slaves over the phone. If that's really the case, then what is he up to? What's his next move?"
"It sounds like you're his next move," Brandon said bluntly. "Daichi came here for a reason. We know that Takashi wants to return to the United States. What else do we need to hear?"
"You don't honestly think he went through all of this just to get to us, do you?" Leonardo asked. "He has to have another angle here, some other purpose in his mind." The oldest turtle's brow furrowed in contemplation. "I used to believe that he was driven mainly by money. The slave trade certainly provided him with ample funds, but I don't think it was the sum of his existence.
"He tried talking to me when I was his captive, and it sounded like he was a lot more obsessed with power than he is money. I believe that the 'business' was nothing but a means to an end; a by-product to obtain the funds he needed for his ventures."
"That might have been the case, Leo, but we took the Akiudo apart! They don't have a source for funds anymore!" Raphael pointed out.
"Raph, the Police have no idea how much money Takashi had, or where it was stashed," Greg said. "If he had contact with the outside, then he could have easily given them instructions concerning the money that was set aside for whatever their true purpose is."
Raphael growled in annoyance. "You guys are talking about them having some other purpose, like we're supposed to care about what it is. I say it doesn't matter. He's coming to the US anyhow, and we're gonna take him down, end of story."
"But how does he intend to find you?" Karina spoke up suddenly.
The question created a sinking feeling in the red-masked turtle's gut.
"He might try to use one of you, the same way that Daichi took Bran," Raphael fumed, one hand gripping the pommel of a sai. "What are we gonna do, Fearless?"
Leonardo looked uncertain. "I don't know. Everyone could come underground as far as I'm concerned, but something tells me they won't go along with it. Not only do people have to work, but we can't entirely avoid the surface forever!"
"Then what are we supposed to do, Leo?" Raphael repeated louder.
"I just said I don't know," Leonardo said through clenched teeth. "The first step is warning everyone else. After that…it's up to them what they want to do. We can't take everyone captive against their will."
The shell we can't, Raphael thought inwardly. We're not gonna end up with another Brandon on our hands, not if I have anything to say about it.
"We have some advantage going into this, you realize," Calley said.
"What advantage?" Mike wanted to know.
"Daichi was the contact point with the Akiudo in Okinawa, wasn't he?" the blond woman said. "And he's dead. Their informant said that Daichi acted independently. So that means…"
"It means they don't know that we know that they're coming," Leonardo filled in. "That's a great point, Calley. We have to make good use of the information that we have. We know for certain that Takashi is on the loose, and Yukiko is alive. Sayuri seeing her removes any of the doubt left over her death, I'm sorry to say."
"Don't be sorry, Fearless. I'm gonna finish that chick properly this time," Raphael inserted.
"We ought to be grateful that Sayuri was saved, and didn't end up as their prisoner." Leonardo looked at Greg. "You never told me where she's going next."
"She's coming here, Leo, where else? I've never heard Sayuri sound like this. She's going out of her mind with the truth, and the cops don't believe her. Her sanity is subject to question because of her past trauma involving the gang," Greg said.
"That's bull," Raphael said. "I can't imagine how ticked she's gotta be with those dumb cops."
"They think they're doing their job, but none of them know the Akiudo like we do," Greg said helplessly.
"That's for sure," Mike murmured. "Not too many cops have been under their lock and key. If it wasn't for me, Takashi wouldn't even care about the Shitenno so much. I never shoulda played along with him. It only made things worse!"
"You were trying to protect us," Jenna said softly. "And we appreciated it. I'm going to excuse myself to talk to Donny, if it's all the same to everyone else. He deserves to know what's going on too."
No one objected as the raven-haired woman rose to her feet.
Rebecca patted a sleeping Nate on the shell as she wrapped her other arm protectively around him. "One thing seems certain," she said aloud, and Raphael noticed the entire room look toward the curly-haired woman. "It has to end here. There isn't another option. Takashi has demonstrated that the law isn't capable of dealing with him effectively. If he's going to be stopped, if whatever plan he has is going to be thwarted, it's up to you guys."
"No pressure." Mike sighed.