A/N: For those of you who are so patiently and awesomely waiting for me to update No Love is Greater, here is something I hope you might enjoy!
So, I was writing this scene for Chapter 39, and all the while I was thinking, 'This is far too funny/silly for this story,' but I kinda didn't want to get rid of it completely. So instead, I decided to finish it off as a 'Behind the Scenes' or 'Deleted Scene' for the story rather than actually putting it in. That way, not only will the tone not be too drastically changed, but we can also make the story move along much faster! It's a win win! XD
And with that, I give you this!
And a quick FWI: I don't hate Timothy. In fact, I want to see him again, as a human, because I felt so bad for him. However, I cannot deny that he was a freaking idiot fir getting himself mutated the way he did.
I OWN NOTHING!
Enjoy!
(This takes place INSTANTLY after the last sentence in Chapter 38 of No Love is Greater).
"You. Have got. To be kidding," Karai breathed as she stared at the newcomer standing in the doorway.
It was a boy, no older than Leonardo it seemed, who was very round in the face – and even more so in the stomach – and was already dressed in the largest set of Foot robes they had…along with a green mask, with a vibrant red bandana tied over his eyes, which were wide and sparkling with delight as he looked around the dojo like a child in a candy shop.
The two mutants and the kunoichi blinked hard, not quite believing what they saw before them. This kid was the new recruit that she'd had been ordered by Shredder to train? This kid had actually made it into the Foot Clan? He looked like he'd never lifted a weight or exercised even once in his life, let alone held a sword or any kind of weapon! And to make matters worse, as he continued to stumble about the room, touching nearly everything in sight and clearly not noticing that he was being watched, he just kept talking.
"Oh wow, look at this! Is this a real ninja sword stuck in the wall?! Wicked! Oooh, look at that, an actual Chris Bradford poster from the 80's! I thought those things were trashed after the T.V show totally bombed – oh my gosh, Shuriken!"
As they continued to stare at him, Karai's left eye twitched once, before she whipped her head around to glare at Leonardo, scowling deeply. "'It can't be that bad', huh?" she snarled at him under her breath. Tearing his eyes away from the bumbling kid, Leo met his sister's heated gaze and raised his hands surrender, shaking his head with an innocent shrug of his shoulders. Tiger Claw could do no more than slap a hand over his eyes and sigh.
It was only then that the kid turned around, finally taking notice of the three of them at the other side of the room, and his grin seemed to tear his face in two as he dropped the shuriken and approached them. "Hi there! I'm the new guy!" he greeted with a wave. "The boss sent me in here to look for –"
He stopped mid-sentence, his grin vanishing as he stared at Leonardo, eyes widened to saucers.
Leonardo, looking very uncomfortable the longer the kid continued to look him up and down as though he were some sort of specimen, took a wary step back from the human, his eyes darting from him to Tiger Claw. "…um…can I help you?" the terrapin muttered.
The boy blinked once. And it was as if a bomb had detonated in his brain as he lunged at the turtle.
"DUDE!" he cried, scaring the shell off Leo once more as the boy reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him roughly back and forth, and grinning wider than ever. "You're one of the turtles! I didn't know there were more of you guys! Are you, like, their cousin? Or their long lost brother or something?! This is so awesome! You're a ninja too, right?"
Whilst Leo was being repeatedly shaken like a doll in the boy's unrelenting and surprisingly firm grip, Karai and Tiger Claw shared a look of bafflement, their brows raised high.
This kid knew about the other turtles as well? Well, it certainly explained why he hadn't freaked out or started screaming in fear about the fact that there were mutants lurking about the lair. But even so, was the world truly so small?
Perhaps that was why Shredder had decided to recruit him; he was a means to get to Hamato Yoshi's disciples once the kid spilled out all their secrets, such as their fighting styles, their greatest weaknesses. Or better yet, the location of their hideout.
Either that, or the Foot Clan was just so desperate for more members that they'd simply grabbed any idiot off the street and offered them the job, and said person just happened to know about the Hamato turtles. At the moment, Karai was pretty sure that the latter was far more likely.
Finally, Leo managed to lift up a hand and plant it on the boy's face, roughly shoving him away from him as he growled in annoyance. "Who I am or who you think I'm related to is none of your concern. And if you know what's good for you, you won't touch me again," he snapped with a deep frown, folding his arms over his chest and narrowing his eyes at the new recruit that had so crudely invaded his personal space. If it weren't for the fact that the kid was new, and the one Karai had been assigned by her father to train, Leo wouldn't have minded beating the daylights out of him in the slightest.
The boy blinked again, before shrugging his large shoulders and letting out a short laugh. "Right, sorry about that," he said, rubbing the back of his neck shyly. "I was actually looking for, um…someone called Kira, I think? She's supposed to be training me, or something."
Karai rolled her eyes to the highest of heavens, sighing heavily, before stepping in front of Leonardo, grabbing the kid's full attention as he turned to face her instead. "My name is Karai, you fool. Get it memorized, or I'll kick your ass to the ground," she snapped, poking him hard between the eyes with her good finger.
The kid stumbled backwards, blinking rapidly and rubbing the spot she'd poked with his hand. Then the boy nodded, still wearing that bright, ridiculous smile. "Right! Got it!" he chimed.
Retracting her hand, Karai folded her arms, becoming more and more irritated by the boy's chipper attitude with every passing second. "Alright, listen up kid. I've had the 'pleasure' of being assigned as your personal trainer until further notice," she droned sarcastically. "But before we get started, know this…"
With a heated glimmer in her eyes, she took a threatening step towards him, prodding him hard in the chest. "I am not your friend. I will not go easy on you just because you're new. You will not waste my time by asking me stupid questions, and if you lay so much as a hand on Leonardo again, so help me, I will break your fingers. Wakarimashita?"
The boy said nothing, simply staring at her with the blankest of expression she'd ever seen.
Karai's frown deepened. "Do you understand?"
The boy nodded, giving her a thumbs up. "Yep! Got everything, except for that last part, sorry; I don't speak Spanish."
Spanish?!
As the girl and the pair of mutants gawked at him, eyes wide – seriously, he couldn't be that dense, could he? – Karai's eye twitched a second time. And upon noticing her shoulders trembling with rage, Leo was absolutely certain she was mere seconds away from outright murdering the ignorant boy…and a very sick part of him kind of hoped that she did, before he quickly buried the feeling.
However, she instead closed her eyes and took in a deep, deep, breath through her nose and released it as a controlled sigh. When she opened her eyes again, though they were burning with anger, she managed to shrug one shoulder. "…okay then," she said through clenched teeth, her voice oddly nonchalant.
Blinking hard, the turtle and the tiger standing behind her shared a look. They'd never seen Karai not retaliate with violence before. That was certainly a massive improvement. Still, a part of Leonardo almost wished that she'd at least punch him in the face just once; the boy hadn't been here for ten minutes, and already he was a thorn in their sides.
If the boy really did know the other turtles, it was probably no wonder he'd gravitated towards the Foot Clan instead; though Leo was aware of how kind-hearted his younger brothers really were – despite what he'd believed for twelve years – even they had their limits, and had probably kicked the boy out after five seconds.
Unfortunately, Karai didn't have that luxury. Until the boy was trained well enough to go out into the field without her aid, she was stuck with him.
"Alright, let's get this over with," Karai said, walking towards the center of the dojo and motioning him to follow her with a sharp jerk of her head, which he did so after glancing back at the mutants one last time. Her shoulders squared, she turned to face him, her fists planted on her hips. "Okay, first thing's first, for the sake of not calling you 'kid' all the time, what do I call you?" she asked.
The boy grinned once more, before striking what was supposed to be a dramatic heroic pose, his chest puffed out proudly and his hands on his hips. "They call me…The Pulverizer!" he declared.
Silence.
Leo blinked, hard, before sharing yet another side glance with his father, who wore a similar baffled expression.
"…your name is Pulverizer?" Tiger Claw probed slowly, raising a brow at the boy. "Are you serious?"
"Yep! That's me! The Pulverizer!" he chimed with a sure smile that told him he really was serious. "Fighting crime and kicking butt, wherever it may hide, wherever it may roam, wherever help is –"
"Stop talking, right now," Karai snapped, lifting her good hand to rub at her throbbing temples before heaving another irritated sigh. If this wasn't going to give her the most outrageous migraine of her life, she wasn't sure what would.
And worse still, during all the commotion that had ensued prior to the awkward introduction, they'd gained an audience; several Foot Soldiers had entered the dojo for their last training session of the evening, but instead they'd decided to gather around the side-lines nearby Leonardo and Tiger Claw to watch the show. As if simply being in the kid's presence hadn't been embarrassing enough.
Well, the sooner they wrapped up this session, the sooner she'd be able to finally get some rest. Aside from when Leo had treated her wounds a few hours earlier, Karai hadn't relaxed since she'd limped home after her failed mission to capture April O'Neil, and now her body was begging for a break, her pounding head calling out to her bed with longing.
Dropping her hand to her side again, she regarded the boy with a stern glare, ignoring the watchful eyes of her brother, her sensei, and the other soldiers. "Okay…Pulverizer," she began with a roll of her eyes, "Show me what you've got. Prove to me that you truly have what it takes to wear the emblem of the Foot Clan."
At that, Pulverizer's grin suddenly vanished, turning into a determined frown as he cracked his neck from side to side, rolling his shoulders readily as he turned and faced his mentor. He then acquired a fighting stance, and Karai blinked in mild surprise. The stance was near perfect, aside from his arm being a touch too high and his legs a little too close together. Not only that, but the goofiness and downright stupidity he'd displayed beforehand had disappeared entirely, as if it had never been there at all.
She slid a glance over at Leonardo and Tiger Claw, who watched from the side-lines, and received a shrug from them both. They were just as baffled as she was, it seemed.
Perhaps the foolery and the unbearable naivety the boy had shown was nothing more than a façade. Perhaps there was more to this new recruit of theirs than he'd so far led them to believe. If that was the case, then he could very well be as skilled as Michelangelo…
Well, that was just a theory, of course. There was no way of truly knowing until they saw him in action.
With a slight smirk tilting her crimson lips, Karai assumed her own defensive position. "Impressive stance, 'Pulveriser'," she said, with only a fraction of her usual disdain as she regarded her opponent. "But remember what I said; I'm not going to go easy on you."
Pulverizer grinned, though this time it was smug. "No need to worry about that," he said. "I'm ready to go whenever you are."
From where he'd taken a seat on the benches, Leo's eyes widened further in a mixture of mild surprise and slight admiration as he watched the scene unfold before him. He exchanged a look with the nearest Foot Soldier, who shrugged, clearly just as aghast as the rest of them despite the black mask obscuring his features, before they turned back to the center of the dojo.
'Either this kid has a death wish,' Leo thought, 'or he's got some serious guts. Either way, this should be interesting.'
With a loud cry that nearly shook the walls of the dojo, the Pulverizer charged for Karai, his fists clenched tight and poised to strike at her face. Narrowing her eyes, Karai brought up her arms to deflect his attack –
"HYAH! Take that! You like that?! Well have some of this! And a little bit of this! Punch punch, WA!"
With their mouths hanging comically agape and their eyes widened to saucers, Leonardo, Tiger Claw, and the entire audience of soldiers just stared.
The Pulverizer was throwing a flurry of clumsy kicks and half-hearted punches at Karai, yelling ridiculous quips all the while…and worse still, not one of his so-called 'attacks' even touched the kunoichi, who had become frozen in her defensive position as she stared at him. If not for the fact that none of them could take their eyes off the boy as he continued to flounder about like fish out of water, her expression would have made them laugh.
Leo had been expecting many things from this boy. But this had most certainly not been one of them.
"So," Pulverizer said, having ceased his barrage, and was clearly out of breath even as he planted his hands on his hips once more. "How'd you like them apples?"
As silence descended upon the room, all eyes darted to Karai, who still hadn't moved from her stance. Her eye twitched – the third time that day – before her lips thinned into a very tight line, both amber eyes narrowed darkly. Pulverizer seemed to not have noticed the sudden dip in temperature, but their spectators did, and all of them – even Tiger Claw, inwardly – shivered with dread.
"He's freaking toast," whispered the soldier standing beside Leo. Without averting his gaze from his sister, Leo wordlessly nodded his head, as did several other soldiers.
Then, the murderous spark that Leo had come to loath lit up within her eye, before she grinned.
"Oh, that was fine," she said. "But how do you like this?!"
Though he really had no real reason to do so, Tiger Claw quickly covered Leonardo's eyes with both paws seconds before the sounds of Karai's fists beating the living daylights out of the poor unfortunate fool echoed from the dojo, followed closely by all the Foot Soldiers wincing in sympathy or slapping their hands over their mouths to stifle their laughter. However, his father's efforts to shield Leo from bearing witness to Karai's frustration were in vain as he cringed; he could just as easily picture it.
When it was all over, Tiger Claw lifted his paws, and Leo winced through clenched teeth at the sight of the poor kid lying on his back, his face already bruised, and a look in his eyes that made Leo wonder if he were seeing stars. Karai, on the other hand, appeared as though she'd barely broken a sweat, with her hands on her hips and her conceited smirk stretching across her face as she gazed down at her fallen pupil.
"Well? How was your first training session, Pulverizer?" the kunoichi simpered, almost reveling in the chorus of soft snickers that floated about the room.
Pulverizer coughed. "Swell."
"Good. Because there's more where that came from tomorrow…that is, if you're still up for it."
Lifting his head from off the floor, Pulverizer grinned once again, though it looked odd with his left cheek already starting to swell. "You kiddin'? Can't wait!" he cheered, lifting a shaking hand and punching the sky with glee, before he flopped back down to the ground with a soft grunt.
Closing his eyes, Leonardo shook his head and sighed heavily, his shoulders drooping. He had to admit, even though he was outrageously annoying, far too naïve for his own good, and clearly had no idea what he'd gotten himself into, the boy had spirit and cheerful determination. It was admirable, even after he'd had his ass royally kicked to the mats before he could blink, and it almost reminded him of Michelangelo. However, at the rate he was going, with no experience, no strength or skill in ninjitsu whatsoever –
"Kono baka no tsumori wa shinimasu!" one Foot Soldier called, earning a chorus of laughter from his comrades, a smirk from Karai, and a low growl of irritation from Tiger Claw. And though he did nothing but shake his head a second time, Leo was very much inclined to agree.
This idiot's gonna die.
A/N: Well, you're not wrong, Leo XD
I hope you guys liked that, and more drabbles (and hopefully chapters XD) are on the way!