"Good luck, Em." Mr. Potter told her as he patted her shoulder.

Emily nodded as she made her way out of the locker room to the ring in the middle of the gym. She nimbly climbed through the ropes onto the mat, the product of years of fighting in the same place. As Emily took her spot in the red corner, she saw the woman who was to be her opponent. She was tall, almost as tall as Mikey, with obvious muscles on her arms and legs that could be seen underneath her tight black uniform with a red dragon foot print on the front. Emily also saw that the other woman was sizing her up; and apparently she had been deemed an insufficient challenge. Because she smiled and began to bounce her weight and throw practice punches. Most of her punches were to where Emily's head would be. That was the reason Emily found being shorter than her competition an advantage, she could get her head low and out of range of fighters who usually went for the head.

Emily looked up at the skylight above her head and saw four green heads with varying colored bandanas and one head covered in a hockey mask that she assumed was Casey. She nodded at the one in red, and he nodded back. She looked back down to her opponent, meeting her steel grey eyes with her sharp blue ones. "It's payback time." She whispered under her breath.

Emily didn't throw practice punches, she didn't bounce around; she just kept her hard and angry stare fixed on her opponents eyes. And her scare tactic was working. The other woman refused to meet her eyes.

To the other woman, Josie Aneko, Emily's small, still, and taught frame was beginning to become daunting. She had watched the tapes of Emily's fights in preparation for this. She had seen how hard and fast the small woman could hit. But she knew that she was superior; she was Foot. And even if she lost, which she knew she wouldn't, Emily would just end up dead like her friend did five years ago.

The referee came into the ring and motioned for the two women to shake hands. Emily stuck out her right glove, but it was never met. The referee continued and listed the rules quickly before retreating to his corner.

The bell sounded.

As soon as the metallic ring hit her ears, Emily was off. She hook-kicked Josie in the head, sending her stumbling back from the sheer force. As soon as she landed, Emily ran after her and started relentlessly punching and kneeing Josie. Not letting off, even when she was getting hit. After a couple shots, Emily got in a hard right liver shot. Josie went down on one knee, using the position to try and grapple Emily's legs. But as she rushed in, Emily brought her foot up into her solar plexus, knocking Josie flat onto her back with no air left in her lungs. Before the referee could get to her, she kicked up and got back onto her feet. Emily quickly glanced at the clock.

Four minutes left.

Emily decided to put some more advanced, decidedly ninjitsu moves into play. She crescent-kicked Josie across the face, spun around, and threw another jump crescent-kick with a fake in front of it to confuse her. Josie was on the ground and struggling to get up. The side of her face was bloodied from Emily's feet-gear cutting her cheek and forehead. She tried to punch Emily in the gut, but she side stepped to the inside and hooked her across the face; sending her to the mat again. Before Josie could stand back up, Emily looked back at the clock.

Two minutes left.

As soon as Josie was back on her feet, Emily relentlessly pounded her again. She took some head shots and liver shots in return, but she kept going. Her sides didn't hurt as bad as they would on most fighters after this much of a beating because of the layers of muscle that made up the entirety of her stomach and abdomen. After a succession of head punches and knees to the gut, Josie was back on the ground. Since it didn't look like she was getting up, the referee started counting. When he got to eight, Josie stood back up; but her stance was barely holding and she kept having to shake her head to focus.

"This is for Austin." Emily growled at her before she launched the finishing move. It was the same move that Austin had used to knock out his opponent. She threw the hardest round kick she could muster to Josie's jaw.

She hit the mat.

And she stayed down.

The referee came out of the corner and held up Emily's glove. "And the winner is, Emily 'Lightning Strike' Fredricks!" he shouted to the crowd.

Emily looked up to the skylight, now seeing only one green head; Raph. He was smiling at her and nodding his head in approval. She smiled and nodded back. She didn't shout her usual "that was for Austin," following Raph's orders not to provoke the Foot. When she left the ring after many photos and questions, she saw out of the corner of her eye that Josie was still out cold in the corner of the gym. And most of the Foot members there were glaring at her. As soon as she made it to the locker room, she turned to Mr. Potter. "Thanks for everything, Mr. Potter." She told him as she hugged him around the neck with all the strength she had left in her sore and tired arms.

"You're welcome, Em." He smiled at her.

"Coach, do you mind if I spend some time alone? You know, cool down, think about things, recollect." She asked him, quickly glancing at the window where she knew Raph would come in. "I can leave when I'm ready to go, I still have the key."

Mr. Potter took off Emily's head-gear and patted her sweat drenched head. "Sure kid. Just stay safe tonight. Promise?"

"Promise." Emily told him as she dropped onto the bench.

As soon as Mr. Potter left the room, Raph opened the window and leapt inside. "You actually pulled that off in less than one round. We're all proud of you. Now, let's get you out of your gear and go meet up with the others."

Emily nodded wordlessly and stuck out her hands for Raph to pull off the Velcro on her gloves. After that she made quick work of shoving her stuff into her locker, grabbing her bag on clothes, and changing in the bathroom. Before Raph helped her out of the window, she pulled on her trusty sweater and grabbed a small backpack and slung it over her shoulders.

"What's that for?" Raph asked, nudging the bag.

Emily shrugged and climbed the fire escape that led to the roof. "Sometimes Mr. Potter has me stay the night here with his family after fights, so I always had a bag with some changes of clothes in my locker. And you told me that you guys aren't going to let me go home tonight."

Raph chuckled and followed behind her to the roof. "Right you are."

Emily landed lightly on the roof, Raph a few seconds behind her. He grabbed her arm gently and pulled her along beside him. The crossed the connected roof of the small neighborhood before they came to a gap across the alley. "Can you make it across, or do we have to go down?" Raph asked her, not joking at all.

Emily leaned over the side of the wall to look down at the five foot expanse that dropped down a good twenty feet. "I can make it." She told him. She took five steps back and ran at the wall, using it as a stepping block, she launched herself across the gap with a dive roll; landing relatively gracefully on the other roof.

Raph nodded at her style and duplicated it, joining her on the other roof. He once again gently grabbed her arm and led her across more connected roofs until he stopped. "The others should be around here somewhere." He told Emily as he walked to a shed on the roof and leaned against it.

Emily followed him and leaned against the wall beside him. "Thanks for everything, Raph." She smiled up at him.

"You're welcome." He smiled slightly down at her and gave her a sideways hug around her shoulders.

Then the other four figures joined them on the roof. Leo was the first to approach the two, who had immediately separated. "We saw some Foot a little over a block back; we need to get Emily into the sewers as fast as possible."

Emily nodded and followed Leo back to the others, Raph behind her. The others were silent, standing in different levels of impatience. Casey patted her shoulder before he jumped down silently onto the fire escape below. The others followed behind him and walked to the middle of the alley where there was an open manhole waiting for them. Raph was the last to go down, and he shut the manhole behind him.

The six were plunged into darkness. And Emily didn't know her way around the sewers like the others did. So she walked around with her arms out in front of her like some zombie movie and tried to listen for the other's footsteps. But there were none. "Raph…" she called into the darkness. She could only hope that he would answer. "Raph!" she shouted this time. She heard the faintest of footsteps behind and turned towards them. "Raph?" she spoke in a normal voice this time.

"Right here." He told her as he grabbed her outstretched hands. Her five fingers fit amazingly well around his three. "Sorry 'bout that. We forgot that you don't have a flashlight."

"Where's yours?" Emily asked him, having not seen a beam of light before he reached out to her.

He began to pull her towards where she could see a few distant beams of light. "Case has it." He told her. That's when Emily realized that she had gone the completely wrong direction down the sewer tunnel.

Soon the two were caught up with the others, who were moving swiftly and silently through the sewers to get back to the lair; which is where they had a surprise waiting for Emily. After five minutes of traveling, they reached the spray painted door. They knocked on it, and it was quickly opened by
April, who was smiling ear to ear when she saw Emily.

"Guys, get in here fast, they have the show running." She told them excitedly as she grabbed Casey's hand and dragged him into the living room.

On the television, a local news channel, the one April used to work for, was doing a story on the victory. They had even had a camera there that Emily hadn't noticed. April sat Emily down on the couch and Splinter and Raph sat on either side of her. A reporter in a modern and classy suit with a logo pinned to it was standing next to a breathless and smiling Emily.

'Ms. Fredricks, this is your ninetieth consecutive victory in the ring, is it not?'

'Yes, yes it is.'

'Is there anything you contribute your past wins to, and this one tonight; which was your fastest knock out ever at less than one round.'

'My coach, Mr. Potter; he's been with me since the beginning. A dear friend of mine who died five years ago today; he's the one that got me into this whole sport. And a few new friends who are really out there; they helped me prepare for tonight and lots more. And I'll take this chance to say something, because they'll probably never see this, I can't thank you guys enough.'

Emily didn't see the rest of the interview because Mikey picked her up off the couch and spun her around. "It was us you were talking about!" he cried happily. "And you won! You made kicking her butt look easy."

"Was it us you were talking about?" Don asked after his little brother put Emily down.

Emily nodded and smiled at each and every one of the people around her. "Yeah, it was you guys. And I meant it about not being able to thank you enough."

Splinter stood from the couch and walked slowly to stand in front of Emily. "We have something for you, child. It was Casey and Raphael's idea." He added with a light smirk.

"Dad!" Raph whined when Splinter spilled the beans on whose idea it had been.

Casey had disappeared into the hallway and had just come back with a box in his hand. He handed it to Emily and then went to stand beside April, wrapping his hand around her waist. Emily eyed the two suspiciously before she opened the box. Inside, wrapped in newspaper, was a piece of green cloth. Pulling out the cloth, she saw that it was a bandana like the ones the brothers wore. "What's this for?" she asked them.

"You said that the only way you knew how to fight the bad guys was in the ring." Raph told her taking the bandana from her hands and walking behind her. He began to methodically tie a knot in the back, the same knot he had tied for years. "It's 'bout time we changed that."

We're back!

Just a little thing we forgot to put on for chapter 2. Madeline Thorold is a character in our Justice League story, "There's Someone for Everyone." So go read that if you want to find out who the heck we were talking about. But warning, it has some spoilers for this story.

Well: the fight is over, Emily won, the Foot hasn't killed her yet, and the guys want her to join the team. So what will happen next?????

Questions, comments, concerns? Just shoot us a review and we'll send a reply back so that we don't leave you hanging.

Sincerely,

C M + L W = idkaname

P.S: This is L W. While C M is out of the room, I am covertly attaching this little tidbit of information that some of our readers might find interesting. All the fights that have happened so far in the story have happened to us in real life. The fight against the Foot in chapter 1 was a fight that C M got into at her home school (but she wasn't the one who got choked out), the rounds between Emily and the brothers were random matches between the two of us (including the cheap shot), and the fight in this chapter was C M's USA title fight back in November.

Just thought you might find that interesting.