Chapter Thirty-Four
Night Stalk
A few hours later, it was the start of the following evening and Pandora was awake early again.
She was dressed in her black cargo pants and black hoodie as well as carried her weapons.
After her mission the other night, she couldn't wait to see what other crime she could stop, as well as see if there was any criminal, she could take out her anger on.
But she also knew she had to be very careful, especially after the incident was reported by Hugh and now everyone believed Diablo had returned.
But she used that fact in her favour, if the Mutopians believed Diablo had returned, they at least didn't suspect her so if they still believed it was Diablo, she was safe from suspicion.
Once again Pandora used her ninja skills to dodge Hacker's cameras then started to go through the outside caverns to get to the sewers to lead to the surface.
She soon made it outside from the same manhole and leapt onto the rooftops so she could scan the city.
She looked around the city and took in how as the sun was setting that the lights from the buildings were coming on.
It wasn't too dissimilar to New York and Pandora sighed as she missed home.
She had started to wonder when she and her family would return home and hoped along with them that their lair hadn't been discovered by the Foot.
Knowing Donatello, he would have gone to great lengths to make sure the lair was never found despite the Foot's searches down there.
After a few minutes, Pandora decided to head West in the city, making a mental note of where and when to return.
"I do hope I find some action tonight," she thought as she broke into a run and began to leap over the gaps of the buildings.
Each time she did, she felt a sense of freedom and excitement.
"I really should do this more often!" she thought as she did a forward flip over another gap "But I still need to be very careful! And make sure no-one finds out about my activities. "
About almost half an hour had passed before Pandora decided to stop and rest on another rooftop.
She was feeling disappointed that she hadn't found any action and wondered whether to head back to Mutopia.
"Man, I hate quiet nights!" she grumbled, and she thought back to the nights she and her father would have together in New York, especially when she had first started out in the field as a trainee ninja.
Flashback
Three years ago….
Up on a rooftop in New York, Raphael stood before Pandora who was standing up straight and to attention, all decked out in her official outfit, a red crop top that showed her toned stomach, a black biker vest with metal stud decoration, and black jeans with red and orange tiger stripes along with knee high black combat boots.
"So, my Little, well not so Little Geisha." Raphael chuckled "You ready for your first topside patrol?"
"You betcha dad!" Pandora grinned "I've been waiting for this!"
"That you have kiddo!" Raphael smirked "Well, after all your begging and pleading, as well as proving to me, your mother, uncles, grandfather, even your Uncle Tyroth that you have what it takes, you're finally ready to join in with the grown-ups!"
"Sweet!" Pandora cheered.
"But remember!" Raphael's voice lowered and Pandora knew that voice well, it was one where there was no time for jokes, quips, or sarcasm, that she had to listen.
Mostly the tone Raphael was using often came from her Uncle Leonardo or Tyroth or her grandfather.
"When you're up here we must stick to the shadows, do not let the humans see us, and stay on the ball! Stay close to me, you listen to me and if I give you and order, you obey? Right?" Raphael asked narrowing his eyes.
Pandora bowed respectively.
"Yes dad!" she said fervently.
"Good." Raphael said, "Now we've established that, you ready to rock?"
"Oh yeah!" Pandora cheered "Let's go kick some butt!"
Raphael chuckled then turned to face the next building.
"Then let's go!" he said before leaping over the gap.
"Right behind you!" Pandora shouted as she chased after her dad.
End Flashback
Pandora felt tears in her eyes as she remembered that night, she had been so happy to be finally given the chance to go and fight bad guys topside, and on that very night, she and Raphael had managed to stop a couple of Purple Dragon gangsters selling drugs to some young kids.
They had confronted the dealers before the kids got a chance to take the drugs and after a scuffle, where she had put Mr Swinger to good use on them, they had subdued the dealers and left them for the police to find.
It had been such a rush for her that night and Raphael had even taken a photo for the album on his shell-cell to commemorate Pandora's first successful topside patrol.
She had been so proud that night and for weeks she couldn't stop boasting about it.
Pandora wiped her eyes as she thought about her father's condition.
"Oh dad!" she thought "I would honestly give anything just to hear you speak again! To say you love me, that you're proud of me, hell I'd even kill to hear you scold me, or say you're disappointed in me." She took a breath as she tried to stop the tears.
"If I could steal someone's vocal cords and get James and Dahlia to perform the surgery to replace your damaged ones, I'd do it!"
She glared as she thought of Hanako and looked at her clawed hands.
'You're still on my hit list Hanako!" she snarled as she moved her fingers and imagined them gutting and finally killing Izo Arashi's whore.
"You silenced my father, and soon, I will silence you! When I return to New York, I will hunt you down….and kill you! And it won't be a pretty sight once I get my claws in you!"
As the hybrid continued to sit there fantasising over killing Hanako, her ninja ears picked up a sound and it was one she knew very well.
She stood up and ran to the side of the building where she saw a young woman being pinned to the wall by a man.
The hybrid glared as she observed yet what surprised her was that this wasn't your average thug robbing a vulnerable woman, this man was well dressed in a black suit with a well done haircut and moustache and the woman he was threatening had long strawberry blonde hair and wearing a skimpy black designer dress that was low cut and had an open back with sheet tights and high heels.
"Martin! Please stop!" the woman pleaded.
"Did you enjoy it? The way he was looking at you?" the man spat.
"No! I didn't even know he was looking at me!"
"Shut up!" the man growled "You little bitch! You think you can humiliate me? Look at you! You look like a common tart!"
"But you told me to wear this dress!" the woman protested.
"No, I didn't!" the man snarled "You wanted to look like that Laura! Don't lie to me!"
As she listened, Pandora's felt anger rise in her chest.
"A domestic situation." She thought "A man thinks he has the right to overpower his wife?" she flexed her claws and making sure her cowl was over her mouth and her hoodie was secure, she leapt off the roof and down into the alleyway.
"Hey! You leave her alone!" she barked, and the man looked over his shoulder at her and the woman looked equally shocked.
"What the hell?" the man questioned as he stared at Pandora but didn't let go of the woman.
"Let her go Martin!" Pandora snarled.
Martin glowered.
"What gives you the right to interfere on a conversation between me and my wife?" he shouted.
"When I see someone behaving like a bully, I have every right!" Pandora snapped "And Just because you're her boyfriend doesn't give you the right to treat her that why!"
"She's my wife!" Martin corrected "She belongs to me!"
"No, she doesn't!" Pandora countered as she stepped closer to Martin then looked at the woman.
"She has the right to be free and do what she wishes with or without your approval!" she said.
"Go Laura!" she said, "Get out of here!"
Laura stared at Pandora, still bewildered that a hooded stranger had stepped in to help.
"Go!" Pandora shouted and Laura jumped slightly before pulling herself free from Martin and running away.
"NO!" Martin shouted before trying to reach for Laura, but Pandora got in front of him.
"No way am I letting you go after her!" she said, "She's well rid of you!"
"Get out of my way!" Martin yelled as he tried to get around the hybrid, but Pandora kept blocking his path.
Laura looked at Martin then ran off around the corner to which the man glared at Pandora and grabbed her hoodie before shoving her to the side to chase after his wife, but Pandora grabbed his ankle making him trip then then pounced on him.
Martin yelled as he hit the ground then turned around to see Pandora crawling over then sitting on his stomach and pinning his legs down with her legs and grabbing his arms rendering him helpless.
"Get off me!" he shouted as he struggled in her grip, "Get off me bitch!"
Pandora glared.
"No way asshole!" she spat "I don't take orders from a misogynistic prick like you! I'm gonna teach you a lesson in manners and how to respect women!"
Martin stared at Pandora in shock as she let go of his left arm, then screamed as he felt Pandora grab his crotch with her claws.
"Arrrggghhh! Fuck!"
"What's the matter?" Pandora mocked "Feeling scared? Because a woman is making you feel fear? Just like you were doing to your wife just now?"
She squeezed his crotch again with her claws making him scream in pain then she uncurled her bladed tail from under her hoodie waving it in front of Martin making his eyes widen.
"What the Fuck?" he cried then he screamed in agony as Pandora drove her tail blade next to his head and sliced his ear off!
It was then Pandora got off him and ripped her tail blade out of the ground.
Martin stared up at her in horror as he tried to back away from her.
"Run away, little boy!" Pandora hissed "I'll give you a five second head start!"
It was then she held up her fingers and began to count.
"One…Two…three…"
As Pandora counted, Martin stood up and holding his hand up to where his severed ear used to be, he ran out of the alleyway.
"Four…Five!" Pandora finished counted and started to run after him, as she did, she saw him turn around the corner and she chased him up the street.
Martin looked back and saw the hooded and cowled hybrid chasing after him and he screamed in fear.
"No! No! Go away!" he shouted then ran into the road, as he did, a large van was driving up and it beeped its horn as it attempted to stop! But it was too late!
The van ploughed into Martin and the man was thrown backwards, thrown like a ragdoll across the road until he lay there on the concrete lifeless.
A few screams were heard along with the beeping of vehicle horns, yet Pandora stood and stared at Martin's corpse as he lay there.
She didn't feel sorry for him, in her opinion he deserved his fate, very much like that gun man in the store the other night, she hadn't been able to kill him, but he was facing punishment for what he had done.
Pandora wondered where Laura had run off to, but she then heard a scream and saw her running over to her now deceased husband in shock.
"Oh my God! Martin?" she dropped to her knees and studied his body, a few other people running over to investigate as well as call the police and paramedics.
It was then Pandora decided she had stayed long enough, and she turned back to disappear into an alleyway before making her way back to Mutopia.
"Once again, I've succeeded in saving someone!" she thought "Laura won't have to worry about that bastard anymore! The less men like him in this world, the better!"
Pandora has snuck out again to hunt, and this time, she caused the death of an abusive husband!
For those who don't know the names I gave the couple, Laura and Martin are the same names from characters in the film 'Sleeping with the Enemy' Starring Julia Roberts which is one of my favouraite films.