Master Splinter led the young girl through the lair until reached a set of two screen doors. The two walked in. Kaylee stood in admiration of the dojo that she was in. Splinter stood a few feet in front of her and waited for her to take in the scene. The dojo was made up of concrete much like the rest of the lair. There were weapons racks lined up against the wall and a few bamboo mats on the ground; however, the stunning part was the large tree that stood to one side of the room. It was twice the size of the girl and held many scars from weapons beating against it during training and anger ventilation. Truly a sight to behold especially in the sewers of a concrete jungle.
"This is beautiful." Kaylee said in awe.
"I am glad that it pleases you." Splinter stated. "This space is free for your use at any time."
"Thank you, Splinter." Splinter smiled at the girl.
"In here. I would prefer you referred to me as Master Splinter or Sensei especially if I am going to train you."
"Train me?"
"Yes, child. Would that be wrong?"
"No. Not at all, but you are all giving me so much so quickly."
"You have shown nothing that should make us distrust you. Besides everything we are giving you is out of necessity for your safety and health. Nothing to drastic. Do you no not wish to train?"
"I would love to train with you and your sons and I am exceedingly grateful to all of you, but I do not wish to be a bother."
"As far as I am concerned, you're anything but a bother. You may wish to stretch before we begin. My sons will be along shortly."
"Okay." Kaylee agreed.
"I do not wish for you to overheat. Please take off your jacket."
"Yes, Master Splinter." Kaylee hesitantly removed her jacket, revealing her scars. One ring like scar on her left forearm, a scar that looked liked scratch marks on her right elbow, scars on her knuckles from punching, a slice across the upper half of her left arm, the new scar that lay on her cheek bone, but, out of all of these scars, the most predominant scar was the long gash that wrapped around from the top of her right shoulder to the beginning of the left half of her collar bone. All of her scars, though fading, still stood out wide and white against her tan skin. In Splinter's eyes, they were just scars almost all faded away with time, barely visible. In Kaylee's eyes, all of her scars were war scars from the war she had been fighting her entire life, clearly visible and made her look hideously deformed She waited for Splinter to look away in disgust, but he just continued to smile. She could not hide the sense of relief that she felt. She prayed for this luck with the turtles or for her t-shirt to magically grow and hide the scars. Kaylee did stretches that she knew and awaited the others arrival.
The turtles, after cleaning, had walked by the open door of Leo's room and still did not see the girl. They worried that she took off and thus sought out their Master who they knew would be in the dojo at this hour. The four brothers burst through the dojo doors and were over joyed to see that Splinter was not alone. Kaylee turned to them, stopping her stretches and stared at their faces which she expected them to be disgusted by her appearance or start asking questions, but all they did was walk in with smiles, even the dark Raph held a small smile on his face.
"Morning, dudette! Missed ya at breakfast!" Mikey exclaimed, walking over to Kaylee. The others soon followed. It was actually sort of intimidating as they made a large pack in front of her, but they didn't scare her. She felt oddly safe.
"Morning. Sorry. I just wasn't very hungry." Kaylee said, smiling sincerely. What was I so worried about? They are Mutant Ninja Turtles. What are a few scars? Stupid insecurities have got me worrying over nothing. Kaylee thought to herself.
"How did you sleep?" Don asked, but before she could answer Splinter spoke up after standing silently, watching as the miniture scene played out.
"There will be plenty of time for questions later, my sons, but, as you and our guest know, we have training this morning so I suggest we begin with a few basic katas. Please take your positions on the mats. Kaylee, please stand next to Michelangelo." Splinter spoke. The turtles were in order by age, starting with Leo on the left and ending with Mikey on the right. Kaylee scooted into her position. "Please follow along with my sons." Splinter said, addressing Kaylee. "First kata."
The turtles did the kata with smooth movements and Kaylee followed along. The first time through the kata, Kaylee messed up on the positioning of the hands and legs and the second time was not much better, but by the third time she was starting to get it. By the last time that the turtles did that certain kata, you could hardly tell that she had never worked on it before. Splinter shouted up to five different katas by the end of the portion of the training and each one had the same result. Kaylee would screw up a few times and, eventually, get it.
Soon enough the sparring began. It was no weapons so it was Raph against Leo and Mikey against Donnie and Kaylee was asked to sit and watch. Raph and Leo took the mats first. Splinter shouted for them to begin. They bowed to one another and then stated circling each other until Raph burst forward to give Leo the first blow which was aimed for his stomach. Leo dodged it and began to tease Raph. Leo expected that Raph would get riled up by the comments which he did. Leo swept his legs under Raph, but Raph jumped and went for a leaping kick aimed at Leo's head. Leo dodged the action and aimed a punch at Raph who was getting frustrated. The fight continued in a similar pattern with jabs, kicks, and insults thrown back and forth, but Leo eventually pinned Raph to the mat. Splinter called the match to an end from his kneeling position next to Kaylee, Donnie, and Mikey. Don and Mikey rose as Raph and Leo came and sat down, Raph letting a small growl emanate from his lips. Don and Mikey's fight ended with Mikey winning, after getting the upper hand while Donnie was thinking through his next move. Last, Leo and Mikey fought each other and Leo ended up winning that sparring match.
During all of those matches, Kaylee watched intently. She figured it would be worth her while to study the sparring opponents she hoped to face in the near future. Kaylee realized defining traits about the turtles: Raph was very passionate and stronng fighter, but, not only was he hot-tempered, he was also to focused on his body. Mikey was a wild guy and always a trick up his sleeve, but was easily distracted. Don was strategic and focused more on the mental part of fighting rather than the physical, but he thought too much. Leo fought in a balanced way and showed very little weakness. The only thing she noticed was anger to some of Raph's insults. Kaylee, also, thought about which one of them, if any, would actually fight her and not hold back just because of her gender or her being guest or any other crap like that.
"Sensei." Splinter and the four brothers looked towards the girl who was closest to the wise rat at the moment. "I would like a chance to try one match. Please." Splinter couldn't help, but smile at the eagerness in the girl's shimmering eyes. He nodded. "I would like to challenge Raphael." They all expected her to pick Don or Mikey or even Leo, but she was there to learn fighting skills and all they would do is hold back. She had no choice, but to choose the turtle that would actually go against her.
"Are you sure?" Splinter asked. Kaylee nodded in response. The eagerness and, now, sureness lingered in her eyes. "Very well. Both of you take your places on the mats."
Kaylee and Raph took to the mats. The entire mutant family seemed to be worried. They all knew that Raph lost his temper all to quickly and could cause serious damage if provoked. The two bowed to another as Splinter began the match. "Don't hold back." Kaylee said, grinning. They circled each other just as Leo and Raph had done earlier, but, this time, Kaylee threw the first punch aiming it at Raph's face. He jumped out of the way, but didn't counter-attack. He was terrified of hurting her. "Come on, Raphael. Don't be such a wuss." Kaylee said, tauntingly. The entire room was focused on the fight. The two were circling each other again and Raph was clenching and unclenching his hands in order to keep his anger in check, but it didn't take a genius to see that the taunts were working. She noticed how riled up he got at these comments and, though she hated saying them, she knew that was the best way to get an actual fight. "Raphael, don't be such a coward." That apparently was the right insult to get him to at least start fighting. Kaylee threw little insults throughout the fight just to keep it going. Raph aimed a perfect kick right at Kaylee's temple, but luckily she dodged it. They each through upper cuts, front jabs, haymackers, but no one used the legs until Kaylee swept hers under Raphael which seemed to catch him by surprise as he tumbled to the ground. She pinned Raph's arms, but Raph was stronger and he ended up grabbing her wrists and doing a flip that led to him being on top. That was when Splinter finished the match. The turtles, except Raphael, were shocked by the skill that was presented by this stranger, this girl.
Raph offered Kaylee his hand while getting off of her at the same time. She graciously took it and got up. She was a little taller than Raph, but not by much.
"Thank you, Raphael." Kaylee said, panting slightly.
"What for? And ya can call me Raph." He said.
"For not holding back. Thanks, Raph." Kaylee smirked.
"Ya don't have ta worry bout me holdin' back anymore. Ya almost got me." He said. Raph lifted up his fist and Kaylee gave him a light fist other three turtles got up to look at the girl. Don puzzled, Leo amazed, and Mikey shocked. This girl had almost beat their big tough brother. Splinter watched his sons react to the girl with an amused expression.
"Where in shell did you learn to fight like that?" Mikey said, his mouth hanging open slightly in shock. Raph rolled his eyes and pushed his brother's jaw up for him.
"Everywhere. I guess." Kaylee said, timidly. "I learned a lot from street thugs and stuff. I was a little self taught. I really don't exactly how I started. I just had a fighting instinct. I guess."
"Well whatever it was really awesome." Leo said, smiling.
"How did you do such a perfect sweep of the legs?" Don questioned.
"Like I said. Instinct." Kaylee responded.
"Awesome." Mikey said, now grinning from ear to ear or hole to hole.
"I think that is enough training for this morning, my students. You are excused." Splinter said. The four turtles and girl all went into an immediate line and bowed to their Sensei.
"Yeah, man. I'm starved." Mikey said, rubbing his stomach area for emphasis.
"Ya just ate breakfast two hours ago, pizza fer brains." Raph said with smirk.
"That is like twenty years in turtle time." Mikey whined. Raph rolled his eyes again, grabbed Mikey and affectionately noggied him as they walked out of the room. Followed by a lightly giggling Donatello. Leo and Kaylee followed suit, but at a much slower pace. Kaylee grabbing her leather jacket on the way out, but not putting it back on.
"Thanks, Leo." Kaylee said, quietly, to Leo who was walking next to her. Leo stopped at the kitchen door where his brothers had gone through and looked at her with a confused look. "For not telling them about last night." Kaylee looking at her shoes embarrassed. Leo finally caught on.
"Hey. It's no big deal, but I want to you know that you can come to me if something is upsetting you. You don't have to go through this alone. Okay?" Leo said, sympathetically.
"Alright. Deal." Kaylee said, looking at Leo and smiling.
"Good. Now come on. You have to be hungry by now." Leo said, pushing opening the door like someone would do for a princess and Kaylee laughed and walked through the door.