Chapter 21

Revenge

Tyroth and Jennifer mad their way through the alleys and across the rooftops, and finally, they reached their target. Flying them both to the Foot headquarters, Tyroth entered through one of the windows he had broken.

"I wanted to ask you this earlier, Jennie, but I didn't want to worry Mom and Dad any more than necessary. Are you prepared to kill?" Tyroth asked.

"I've already killed, when they… tested me. I know that it wasn't really me, but I still remember it clearly, and after all they have done, I really want to kill those responsible and any who stands in our way."

"Just make sure you remember what we agreed on, and stay close by."

"I will. Now, if I recall correctly, I think the throne-room is this way."

"My memory say roughly the same. Let's hurry, the others may not have much time."

The siblings rushed through the hallways, making their way to the floor where the throne-room was. Passing a corner, however, they ran into a patrol of ninja.

"There are the intruders!" one ninja shouted when he saw the siblings.

"Shit! It's the dragon!" another yelled.

"We need reinforcements! I'll go and get some!" yelled a third as he hightailed it away from the upcoming fight.

"Stand your ground! They mustn't reach lord Arashi!" the first ninja commanded.

"Great, more fools that will waste our time." Tyroth complained. "Ready for this, Jen-Jen?"

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, Ray-Ray." she said, drawing her blades. "Let's waste these assholes!"

The two charged at the ninja, who responded by throwing kunai and shuriken at them, but these were deflected and avoided without leaving as much as scratch on the siblings.

Tyroth easily cut down a couple of ninja, neither their swords nor their bodies offering any resistance for the sharp blade the dragon wielded.

Jennifer moved swiftly, cutting off the hand of one ninja and stabbing him in the chest, then continued to the next ninja. He swung his katana at her, but she jumped over it and drove both her blades into the man's chest, knocking him on his back with her momentum. Jumping back on her feet, Jennifer quickly engaged another ninja, parrying his attack.

Looking at his sister, Tyroth saw that she grimaced a little each time she took a life, she was clearly having problems accepting what she did, but still didn't let that stop her. Tyroth remembered feeling the same when he was still new at the vigilante business, he still felt that way but he had learned that it couldn't be avoided.

As he cut down a few more ninja, he saw even more ninja approaching, evidently the ninja that ran had returned with reinforcements. Tyroth snarled and positioned himself between Jennifer and the approaching enemy, while she dealt with the last of the initial patrol. When Jennifer saw the new threat, she quickly finished off the last few ninja and was about to join her brother, but Tyroth stopped her.

"Stay back, sis! I'm gonna clear the way!" he said as fire and mana started to build up in his mouth. A few seconds later, he launched a fireball at the advancing ninja. The first few ninja managed to sidestep the fiery projectile, but they weren't spared it's burning fury when it hit those behind and exploded, flooding part of the hallway with fire.

A dozen or so ninja perished immediately, while most were knocked out, by either the explosion or when they were blasted into the walls, and were left burning to death. Those that were still conscious tried to put out their burning uniforms, only to be cut down when Tyroth and Jennifer hurried past them.

Meanwhile, Arashi and Arden had joined their soldiers in the fight against the mutants, Arashi with his katana and Arden with his syringe-fingers and a pair of tanto in reserve. The mutants were holding their own against the Foot ninja, but they were heavily outnumbered, and the threat of Arden's serums wasn't helping.

Arashi was currently fighting against both Leonardo and Splinter, while Arden had zeroed in on Monalisa, trying to inject her with his foul serums, but she kept him at bay with her warfans and graceful movements.

"You can't evade me forever, slut! I will bring you down, and this time you won't fool me!" Arden half yelled at Monalisa.

"Don't count on it, you sick quack! Once we're done with you, we'll help Tyroth, if he isn't on his way here right now. Then you will really be screwed!" Monalisa responded and caught Arden's syringes in the gaps of her fan.

"The dragon won't be able to help you, our champion will see to that. And even if he would be victorious, in the end, he will loose!"

"What the shell is that supposed to mean?"

Suddenly, an explosion was heard not so far away, causing everyone to stop fighting.

"What was that?!" Arashi asked.

"Sounds like that champion of yours is toast!" Sephie said triumphantly. But to the mutants' surprise, neither Arashi or Arden seemed upset by that, in fact, they actually smirked evilly.

"Then we are one step closer to bringing down the dragon," said Arden. "now that he has dealt the crippling blow to himself."

"You must have lost it, Tyroth must have won from the sound of it. How would that be crippling to him?" said Monalisa.

"Of course you wouldn't understand, you freaks. You can not even imagine the nature of our champion and her origin." Arden taunted.

"Her? What do you- Oh no! You wouldn't!" said, looking sick as he caught on to what Arden talked about.

"That's right, Donatello. Our champion is none other than the dragon's own sister! And he just killed her!"

The mutants' moral dropped drastically when they heard what Arden said, and Donatello's reaction to the doctor's claim strengthened it. They couldn't believe it, and poor Sephie took it the worst, having known Jennifer for several years before the assassination attempt. She fell to her knees, thinking about what her lover would do if he knew what he had done. How could anyone do such a thing?

The ninja that Sephie had fought earlier tried to take advantage of her lack of focus, but he stopped dead in his tracks when the doors were shattered. Standing in the doorway was Tyroth, and he was not in a good mood.

"Arden! We got some unfinished business!" he said.

Sephie and the other mutants looked at Tyroth with sad eyes, it didn't seem like he knew about his sister. How would they tell him?

"So, you have defeated our champion, and now you are here for your sister, I take it." Arden said with a smirk, knowing that he was holding all the cards. "Well, I'm sorry to say this, but you just missed her."

"Oh, you don't have to worry, I caught with to him." said Jennifer, as she stepped out from behind her brother, keeping her right side towards everyone.

"What?! How is this possible?!" Arden exclaimed, while Arashi gave him an angry glare.

"I'm not your puppet any more! My mind and body area mine again, and you will pay for what you've put us all through!" she said, turning around so that all could clearly see the scales covering the left side of her face. The seven mutants were shocked beyond words when they saw what Arden had done to her, it was bad enough that he had brainwashed her into fighting her own brother, but this was truly monstrous.

Jennifer looked to Tyroth, who gave her a quick nod, then they both charged at the still surprised ninja and attacked them. Tyroth went for the bulk of the enemy's forces, using his fire to force them to scatter, even Arashi and Arden had to disengage the mutants to avoid the flames.

Meanwhile, Jennifer had rushed the ninja next to Sephie and cut him down with ease. Sheathing one of her blades, she extended a hand to help the gecko back on her feet.

"Jennie… your… your face..."

"Yeah, I know. Listen, can we deal with that later, there's enough going on here right now. I'm sure I'll have an emotional meltdown later."

"Yeah… okay… right."

With Tyroth and Jennifer joining the battle, the odds shifted in the mutants' favour, and while what had happened to Jennifer was disturbing, the moral was rising and the mutants fought fiercely against the ninja with renewed determination.

As the battle waged on, and many ninja fell, Arden set his sight on the dragon, he was the prize after all. Keeping at a distance, he prepared his syringe launcher, loading it with the strong sedatives he had used against Tyroth before. Taking aim, he fired a volley of darts at Tyroth's back, followed by several more volleys. All the darts struck their target, but to Arden's surprise, the only thing they seemed to do was catching the dragon's attention, who turned around and glared at the doctor.

This wasn't the first time the dragon had resisted Arden's serums, but unlike the previous times, he wasn't in a berserker rage, nor was he glowing red. There was only one possibility, the dragon's immune-system had adapted and now it would require a far greater dose, or even stronger sedatives, to bring him down.

Arden quickly tried to change the load-out in his launcher, as Tyroth was heading his way, but the dragon wasn't the only one. Jennifer was already close to the doctor and she just barely missed him with attack, as he saw her in the corner of his eye and avoided it. He continued to dodge her attacks and countered with his own, using both the syringes and a tanto.

Jennifer found that Arden truly was a slippery bastard and surprisingly agile, and since it was he who made her what she was, he knew her inside and out, making him her most dangerous foe. But she was no pushover herself, something Arden learned when he received a large cut on his right cheek. Furious for the wound on what remained of his face, Arden was however forced to withdraw as both Raphael and Monalisa joined Jennifer against him. A group of fresh ninja engaged the mutants so Arden could tend to his wound, he would not have any more scars on his face.

Meanwhile, when Tyroth was moving towards Arden, Arashi intercepted him and managed to knock Tyroth's sword out of his hands with his own katana, leaving the dragon unarmed but still dangerous. But even if the dragon was very powerful, he wasn't invincible, and would still be of use to the Foot if he was dead, not to mention a lot safer. With that in mind, Arashi quickly aimed a slash at the dragon's neck, hoping to decapitate Tyroth before he could react.

The blade travelled towards Tyroth's neck in the blink of an eye, and Arashi was certain that victory was within his grasp. His sword stopped with a clang and Arashi was shocked when he saw what he had hit. Tyroth had blocked the attack with his hand, which was completely covered in red mana, and the mana around the fingers formed foot long claws, almost blade-like.

Snarling, Tyroth pushed back on Arashi's sword, forcing the leader of the Foot backwards.

"You fiends took me down once before, but never again! You have no idea of how powerful I've become since our last encounter!" Tyroth growled, coating his other hand in mana and forming the same blade-like claws and slashed at Arashi with them. Arashi tried to block the attack with the katana, but the red claws cut through it with ease and left Arashi with five long gashes across his chest.

"Master!" a ninja called out when he heard Arashi cry out in pain. Several ninja rushed to his aid, engaging the dragon while their master retreated. However, the ninja didn't last long, every slash from Tyroth's claws was enough to cut a man to pieces, all the ninja did was annoy him, and that was not a good idea.

After everything that had happened, Tyroth had had enough. They had kidnapped his family, tortured them, brainwashed his sister into a weapon, disfigured her with their vile experiments. With that in his mind, Tyroth's entire body got covered with mana, making it look like he was on fire, and the flames grew stronger and larger, soon only Tyroth's silhouette could be seen within the mana. The mana continued to grow and lifted Tyroth into the air, taking the form of a six metres tall Tyroth, with the real dragon centred in the torso. He roared loudly and anyone who hadn't seen his transformation was made aware of his power, and everyone was terrified of it.

Sephie, Monalisa and the turtles knew what it was, as they had seen it before, back when Tyroth tore the ancient war machine to pieces in Skyrim. It was one of his most destructive abilities, nicknamed the Dragon Aura.

Splinter and Jennifer were awestruck, they had been told of this power but never witnessed it, and this wasn't even as large as they had been told that it could be.

With another roar, the mighty mana dragon swatted aside a few ninja like flies, and the rest dropped their weapons and ran for their lives as the mutant went berserk, crushing anything in his path. Normally, Arashi would have punished such cowardly behaviour, but faced with such power, he agreed with warriors and ordered an evacuation of the building. With Arden's help, they made it to one of the many hidden doors. Looking back at the dragon, they saw him kill several ninja unfortunate enough not to get away, the last one getting crushed by an overhead punch that went through the floor as well, sending cracks in every direction.

"He's going to bring down the entire place on top of us if he doesn't stop! He needs to calm down!" said Donatello.

"And we need to get out of here!" said Michelangelo.

Sephie ran up to her lover, but still kept a safe distance while shouting to him, hoping to reach him.

"Hun, that's enough! We're safe now and the Foot is fleeing! You don't have to continue any more, please calm down!"

At first it didn't seem like he heard her, but he did stop his rampage and looked across the room, seeing no sign of Arashi or Arden. The mana started to dissipate and shrink until Tyroth stood on the floor again, looking awfully tired.

"Are you okay, love?" Sephie asked, worried about her mate. She knew that his outrages took a lot out of him, not to mention the magic he used while enraged.

"...yeah, I think so… sorry about that, I lost control..."

"It's okay, no-one was injured." she said hugging Tyroth closely. "Well, none of us anyway."

"Did anyone see where Arden went?" Jennifer asked.

"Not a clue. Arashi is also gone." said Leonardo.

"They must have escaped during the commotion." said Splinter.

"Then we have to find them! We can't let them get away with what they've done!" said Jennifer.

"It's no idea, they could be anywhere by now, a safehouse, escape tunnels, helicopter or who knows what." said Donatello.

"So we're just gonna give up?"

"No-one's giving up, sis. Believe me, I want to make them pay as much as you do, but we got more important things to deal with right now." said Tyroth. "We'll get them one day, but now we are leaving."

"But-"

"We're leaving, Jennie, and that's final."

"...okay..." Jennifer sighed. She had made a promise, and she would keep it.

"We'll just make a few quick stops and retrieve your stuff, and a gadget of mine, then we'll head for the rendezvous and take the Battleshell back to the lair." said Donatello as they all left the throne-room.

The battle has been won, even though Arashi and Arden managed to escape, but they'll think twice about going after Tyroth or his family again after seeing the dragon's new powers. (Obtained in my other story. Mutants Misplaced)

But now comes the time when they have to deal with the aftermath of all these events, and that's not an easy time.