Emily had only been living with the brothers for a fortnight, but she knew that it had been the right decision. It was a good feeling to go to sleep with no new bruises and to wake up and walk down the stairs to see five smiling faces. It had been a little awkward in the beginning, since the brothers had never really had any prolonged exposure to a woman. But within a few days, issues like showers and such had been resolved. And once a week Emily had to go out and get pizza for everyone. Emily still went to the gym everyday to train with Mr. Potter, who had figured out instantly that Emily had moved away from her father. And she still trained everyday back at the lair with the brothers--usually Raph--or Splinter.
But then they started to teach her how to use weapons. Then her daily lessons became terrifying, self-inflicted injury full, torturous times that could last up to five hours, depending on who was teaching her.
It started with Mikey.
"Alright, Em." He smiled, clapping his hands together. "Have you ever used a nunchaku before?"
Emily raised an eyebrow and stood up from the split she had been in on the floor. "When I was seventeen." She said warily, eyeing the nunchakus hanging on the wall to her left and tucked into Mikey's belt.
"Then it's time for a refresher course!" he cheered. He walked swiftly to the wall full of weapons and to his nunchakus, turned to look back at Emily, and then chose the pair he thought would suit her best and keep Raph from freaking out because of all the bruises most of the others would leave.
Emily took the weapon when it was handed to her, eyeing it with caution. It wasn't heavy, but it wasn't light, either. The ash surface had been lacquered and polished to perfection. It was obviously his practice weapon. The two handles were about twelve inches long and did not taper, unlike the nunchakus Emily had once used. Another difference was that instead of a metal cap with four chain links connecting the handles, there were holes in the top with approximately five inches of rope run through them. Taking one handle in her left hand, she gave it a careful spin.
And she hit herself in the elbow.
Cursing under her breath, she shook out her arm, feeling the impact reverberate through her bones.
Mikey laughed from his spot by the speakers. "Emily, zero. Nunchaku, one."
Emily was tempted to throw the weapon at him, but she reminded herself to stay calm. That was what Splinter had been teaching her. "Okay." She sighed, looking down at what might become her worst nightmare. "Let's get this over with."
For three hours, Mikey taught her the basics. There were the strikes, the blocks, the catches, and the crash course on how to not knock yourself out. But Mickey was not at all impressed with her progress. Most of the time, Emily would hit herself with the handle she wasn't holding. And if she didn't, she was going so slow that the nunchaku just fell into place with absolutely no power behind it. But he knew that this might as well have been the first time she had ever laid her hands on a nunchaku, so he was lenient. He also knew that with time, she would get better. And she had time. The brothers had agree to spend a week with Emily each.
By the time day seven came around for Mikey, he was proud to have Emily as a student. After getting over her fear of the weapon on her first day, she had gone out on a limb and found that it wasn't so bad. Day two she had learned flips and hand changes and some of the more advanced moves. Day three she learned to fight and disarm another person with the nunchaku. Day four had been the hardest for her, the introduction of a second nunchaku to be held in her right hand. And then the process had started all over again. Mikey considered day seven Emily's end of course exam. And she passed with flying colors until Mikey threw in the challenge that had been given to him.
"Figure eight with both hands, flip them both ways on both hands, low catch on both, and then basic drop catch." Mikey rambled, knowing Emily would understand the vocabulary. Just before Emily started, he held up his hand. "But," he drew it out, seeing the smile wipe clean off of Emily's face. "When you drop the second handles, the tops have to be perfectly even."
"What?" Emily exclaimed. "You can't be serious!" she was angry. She had made it through the entire test without doing a single thing wrong. And now she had been given an impossible task. Catching the nunchakus evenly was a once in a million chance, and Mikey expected her to do it right there and then.
Mikey shook his head, still smiling. "I had to do it, so you have to do it."
"You're no fun." Emily whined under her breath.
But Mikey heard her. "I'm tons of fun, and you know it."
"Whatever." Emily sighed.
She tried for over an hour. Spinning and flipping and catching and releasing. Every time she was off by a couple of inches. As time went on, the others came in and watched Emily try and fail to meet Mikey's last requirement. They knew he was being tough, for once, but they all knew he had to be tough. Even Emily knew that; not that she would admit it.
Raph was one of the last to come in. He knew that Mikey had planned to ask this of her, and he knew it would take Emily a while to get it. He still remembered how long it had taken Mikey to get it all those years ago. And that was after years of training. But Mikey expected Emily to be able to land the nunchakus perfectly after one week. Looking at Emily, he saw that she was tired, sore, and angry. Mikey better be a good runner if he wanted to make it out of the dojo when everything was said and done.
Coming up beside his little brother, Raph appraised Emily's technique. "How long she been tryin'?" he asked Mikey.
Mikey looked over at the clock by the door. "Hour and a half. She's gotten close a couple times, but she isn't quite there."
"Can she have help?" Raph asked, seeing that Emily was close to throwing something. And that wouldn't end well for Mikey or anyone else in the near vicinity. All Mikey did was shrug. So Raph took his opportunity when Emily took a break and shook out her arms. "Hey, Em." He called out to her as he crossed the mat. "Need a hand?"
"No." she snapped, her blue eyes flaring at him with an ice-cold glare.
Raph laughed once as he reached her. "Too bad, you're gettin' one." Emily sighed and resigned herself to her fate. "I watched Mikey do this twenty-two years ago, and I've watched you try a couple times. You're having the same problem he did. When you go to catch the second handle, your thumbs in the way and it rolls the second handle forward. And then you have to do it all over again. Now, what you need to do is when you catch it, move your thumb out of the way early. That way, when you drop it, you can slide it into place."
Emily looked from her nunchakus, to Raph, and back to the nunchakus. Blowing her bangs out of her face with a sigh, she glared at her weapons. "I'm so stupid to have not seen that." She whined, absentmindedly rubbing a bruise on her arm.
"Em, you're not stupid. This is all new to you." Raph sighed. "You've been working at this for a week. Mikey worked for two years."
Emily just shook her head. "Thanks, Raph." She sighed again, spun the nunchakus a couple of times and then got ready to try it with the adjustment.
To start, she did go straight into the flips; she just did the catch and release. But the nunchakus were landing in perfect alignment. Glancing up at Raph, and then to Mikey, she tried. She spun the nunchakus in a figure eight pattern four times, building speed and momentum. When the nunchakus crossed her body, she stopped the spin, letting the second handles roll over the backs of her hands. When the second handles reached her fingertips, she let go of the first handles and grabbed them. Restarting the spin, she did the same when her hands reached their respective sides after a few more spins. But after she caught the first handles again, she swung the nunchakus straight down, catching them under her arms. Then came the tricky part. Moving her thumbs out of the way, like Raph had told her to, she opened her arms and dropped the nunchakus into her waiting hands. As her thumbs closed over the second handles, she slid them into place directly over the first handles.
And they matched up perfectly.
"I did it, Mikey, I did it!" she cried in delight. Holding up her hands, still holding the nunchakus in a death-grip, to show him.
"She beat me." He exclaimed under his breath, but pushed his defeat aside to congratulate her. Running over to her, he stuck out his fist. "Cowabunga, dude!" he laughed.
Emily laughed along with them, hitting her fist lightly against his. "Here," she said, holding out the nunchakus. "You better take these before I hit something."
Mikey nodded, still laughing even though he knew that something would probably be him, and took the weapons back to their place on the wall. Then Raph came over to Emily. "Good job, Em." He smiled, mussing up her hair and utterly destroying her ponytail. "You even beat Mikey's time to get that move down. But don't worry, you won't actually ever use it." He assured her, grabbing her arm gently. "Come on, let's get you somethin' to eat."
Emily was still smiling from ear to ear. "I can't believe I did that." She looked up at Raph, her eyes dazed in excitement. "Thanks, Raph." She threw her arms around his waist, laughing at her accomplishment and at herself for how happy a simple accomplishment was making her.
Raph laughed along with her, rubbing the shoulder she hadn't bruised two days ago. "Hope you're not like this when you show Leo up. He might have a heart attack."
Looking up at him, Emily cocked her head to the side. "Who do I have next?"
"Don."
AN: We're back! Again!
I think is the fastest update we've ever had. Oh well, back to the chapter.
Again, we know this is short, but we're breaking up each weapons lesson into its own chapter.
Duh, duh, duh! Don's next! Have you noticed how we're having the guys start her out with blunt weapons first? If anyone can guess who's teaching Em after Raph, we'll try and grant any wish regarding this story or any of our other stories you may be reading.
Well, thanks for reading (and bearing with us this long/far)!
We'll try and update soon, considering these chapters are coming out like kudzu.
Sincerely,
C M + L W = idkaname
P.S: Hey, guys, this is C M. I know what L W told you in an earlier chapter, about the fights. So this is my revenge. He's upstairs getting soda right now, so I have to be quick. This chapter and the next three chapters will be straight out of my memory of me and my friends teaching L W to use various weapons. And the part where Em hit herself in the elbow and Mikey starts keeping score, actually happened. At the end of that one-hour class, the score was L W: 2, Nunchaku: 28. And he hasn't gotten any better in 5 1/2 years. Well, just passing on some info you might find funny.
C M