Note: References to 'A Dangerous Captive' appear in this chapter, and also a huge shout out to Tyroth Darkstorm for his help in this last section!
Chapter Forty-Three
Dragon Training
Back in New York, Arashi smirked as he listened in on his phone to Hanako.
"Tell me my Cherry, how are things in Chicago?" he asked in that sickly sweet voice.
Dr Arden stood nearby to listen, he frowned slightly as he tried to hear what Hanako was saying on the other side, and he watched Arashi lick his lips and smirk, obviously it was good news on her end.
"I see…" Arashi said "Ah, very good my Cherry, well keep it up, the more criminals we have on our side, the better."
There was silence apart from some chattering on the other end then Arashi smirked again.
"Thank you honey." He said, "Call again when you have more news, and results…atta girl, bye bye."
He then hung up and looked at Dr Arden with a triumphant smirk.
"What news my Lord?" Dr Arden asked.
"From what Hanako told me." Arashi said "Hanako has been told by Boss Kodama, that he has had many meetings and dealings foiled by some vigilantes."
Dr Arden's eyes widened.
"He said that?" he asked.
"Indeed!" Arashi said "From what Hanako told me, they look like people in animal costumes, although some claim they don't know whether they are human or beast."
Dr Arden's eyes narrowed as he thought of the turtles, Monalisa, Splinter, Pandora and Kemeko as well as the animal mutants they had fought in the past, not just the Dragon and his Gecko mate.
"You don't suppose we share a common enemy with our new business partner?" he asked.
"We just might." Arashi mused "But for now, there is no solid proof, and Hanako is still hard at work over there, both to bring more business and money, as well as a solid partnership with Boss Kodama, and should we have the same enemy in the turtles and their mutant allies, it would be better to have more allies to fight them."
"Agreed my Lord." Dr Arden nodded with a smirk, his disfigured scars wrinkling horribly and Arashi turned back to the capsule Chrell lay in.
"Pity our Master is not here to witness this." He said "A real shame. If only he knew what we have achieved whilst he is stuck in this limbo."
Back in Mutopia, Pandora was the dojo once again doing her training, despite the fact her mother, father, and Uncle Donatello were discharged, she was still angry at how they had nearly died by the Foots hand, and her father still was unable to talk.
She had also wanted to go topside again, yet she knew she had to be careful especially since both incidents she had been involved in had made the news.
She had so much anger in her, and she felt no amount of training could douse it.
Another thing that was upsetting Pandora was the fact Kemeko was gone, and she missed her younger cousin/honoured sister.
They had never been apart since they were children, and she felt she was missing a part of her since she had left.
She hadn't spoken about it to anyone, and she didn't want to, as she didn't want anyone prying on her business.
Growling and snarling with anger and concentration, Pandora swung Mr Swinger about flawlessly, as well as stabbed the air with her tail blade and slashed with her claws, all the while she imagined enemies around her, and she was dicing them with no mercy.
Yet the Hybrid hadn't noticed as she was training that Tyroth had arrived and was standing in the doorway studying her aggression.
He had been told earlier before he had spoken to Loki by Sonia and Freya that the hybrid would be in the Dojo as it seemed to be the only place apart from her room, she was spending time in.
He had noticed how angry she had been and how she was so focused, almost rivalling Leonardo or even himself.
Just then Pandora did a backflip and kicked Mr Swinger's ball end off her feet and it flew towards Tyroth, but the Dragon stealthily caught it before it hit his face.
"Careful." He said catching Pandora's attention "You almost lost something important."
Pandora almost jumped out of her skin, and she turned to see the large red dragon in the doorway of the Dojo holding the spiked ball.
"Uncle T!?" she exclaimed as she still held onto the chain.
"You're good with Mr Swinger, Pandora." Tyroth stated dropping the ball and Pandora swung it back to her.
"Really good, but don't forget to stay aware of your surroundings." The Dragon continued as he stepped through the door.
Pandora sighed.
"Right, sorry," she said wrapping up her chained weapon "I didn't realise you were there." She then paused as she looked at her uncle.
"Wait, how long have you been there?" she asked.
"Only a few minutes." Tyroth replied "Long enough to notice things."
Pandora raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?" she asked "What?"
Tyroth walked around the hybrid before going over to the crash mats.
"You're probably tired of people asking if you're okay, which you clearly aren't. You're angry, very angry, and with all right."
Pandora glared as she thought about how everyone had been bugging her with the same question.
"No shit Uncle T!" she snarled "I'm fucking sick of it!"
"No need to take that tone with me." Tyroth snapped sternly holding up a clawed finger and wagging it before the hybrid could rant on "I am one of few that can understand what you have gone through."
He sat down cross-legged on the mats and motioned for Pandora to sit opposite him.
Pandora, despite seething she knew better than to argue with or disobey Tyroth, so she too sat down opposite Tyroth and crossed her legs.
It was then Tyroth spoke again.
"Pandora." He said, "Have you ever been told of when I was captured by the Foot?"
Pandora thought for a moment.
Her parents, Uncles and Grandfather had told her many stories of their encounters with their enemies, and one story did stick out for her, and that was when Tyroth was captured and tortured by the Foot and how they had tried to acquire his power, yet they had left a lot of details out, mainly due to the fact Pandora had been too young to understand at the time.
"Yes" she nodded "but not in full detail." She added.
"Understandable." Tyroth said "It wasn't a good story to tell." His face fell and Pandora almost recognised the look in his eyes as he thinks back as she had seen a similar one in her own reflection.
Tyroth then went on.
"The things they did to me... when they weren't busy experimenting on me... drawing my blood... cutting me up... they tortured me... day after day with no rest... electric cattle-prods, whips, blades, and worst of all, Arden's serums... pain... fear... even truth serums..."
Pandora wrapped her arms around herself and shivered in fear as she remembered Dr Arden's torture on her, her mother and Donatello.
"Even to this day," Tyroth continued "Despite all the help and support, I still have nightmares where I am back in that horrid place... I doubt they will ever leave me... my will power has never been tested to that extreme before or since. Had I faltered just once, I might have told them where the lair and Mutopia were, and that thought alone was almost worse than anything else they inflicted on me..."
Pandora swallowed hard as she looked at Tyroth and she couldn't believe how broken he looked as he was remembering that terrible time.
"But Uncle T." she said "You're so strong, you never break! I've seen you!"
"I did break." Tyroth said sombrely as he shook his head.
Pandora blinked as she stared at her uncle.
"There were times... so many times..." Tyroth said "That I just wanted it all to end... for all the pain and torture to stop... it seemed so easy to do... a few words and they would stop..."
"I felt the same when they tortured me! But I said nothing! I refused!" Pandora agreed.
Tyroth nodded.
"I know... but even the strongest will has its limits... and as much as I want to say, want to believe, that I held on out of loyalty, or love, or sheer stubbornness... when I really think about it, there was only one thing that truly kept me going through all of that..."
"What was that?" Pandora asked.
"Anger... no, hate." Tyroth answered "Pure hatred towards those that hurt me... those that threatened to hurt those that I care about... Even as my will, my spirit, even my body, failed and weakened, my hatred only grew and grew... it sustained me, and ultimately, it freed me.
"Freed you?" Pandora asked.
"I still remember that night clearly, or at least parts of it... Sephie, your mother, father, and uncles, had all broken into the tower to save me, but they had been discovered. I heard how Arden spoke over the phone to my current torturers of how he would capture and torture them in front of me. Hearing that, even thinking of it, my friends, Sephie, having to endure what I have... That was the final push... and I... snapped..."
"Snapped." Pandora breathed.
"All my hatred..." Tyroth explained "It was as if it was a boiling ocean of fire... forming a massive tsunami that washed over me... all the pain, fatigue, everything was replaced by a rage so intense... I had never felt something like that before... suddenly, the mighty restraints they had placed on me, all the drugs they pumped my full of to keep me weak... they couldn't stop me any longer... In a blood red haze, I broke free, slaughtering everything and everyone that was in my way..."
"It was a primal rage, Pandora, the purest there is" Tyroth continued "and it is a powerful force that should never be underestimated."
"Like a volcano...Mount Vesuvius, before it buried Pompeii." Pandora theorised.
"Exactly, and like it, such a rage makes no difference between friend or foe." Tyroth said "We were lucky that night."
Pandora closed her eyes as she tried to remember what she had been told of what her uncle's form had been called.
"You were, from what mum, dad and my uncles told me."
"Yes... going berserk is no trivial matter..." Tyroth answered "Do you know where that word comes from? Berserk?" he asked.
Pandora shook her head.
"It's an old Scandinavian word. Back during the Viking age, there was a trial for the bravest, where they would set out alone to slay a fierce beast. Bears were the most prized animal, but wolves also worked."
Pandora blinked as she listened and soon thoughts ran through her head about the wolves and other predator animals she had seen in her dreams.
"After killing the beast, the warrior would skin it and turn the skin into a type of hood, a serk, that they would bear, hence berserk. But while wearing this skin, they believed that they could channel the inner strength and ferocity of the animal, allowing them to go into such a rage that they couldn't feel pain and could even keep fighting after being fatally wounded." Tyroth explained.
Pandora was silent as she listened.
"Over time, the word berserk became synonymous with that of raging warriors that would put even the most rabid animal to shame, rather than with its origin. But it's not hard to understand why. The effect was more prominent than the means, and rage truly can grant one greater strength than one might have thought possible."
Tyroth then eyed the young hybrid before him.
"You might even have noticed this yourself, Pandora."
Pandora looked at Tyroth, then at her hands then at the wooden posts including the one she had smashed a few days ago.
It had been replaced a couple of days ago, but she still remembered which one it had been.
"I've seen the damage you have left after some of your sessions, not to mention what you did to one of our walls." Tyroth said with a knowing frown.
Pandora blushed with guilt as she looked at the dragon.
"Sorry." She said in a quiet voice.
Tyroth nodded yet kept that frown on his face.
"It can be repaired. But keeping one's emotions bottled up is never a good idea, especially not anger, which is why I have come to a conclusion."
"What?" Pandora asked.
"I believe that you would benefit from some special training, something to help you channel your anger, but only if you want to. This is your choice, and yours alone."
The young Hybrid looked at Tyroth in question, and the dragon looked her in the eyes.
"Pandora, would you like to learn how to go berserk?"
Pandora's eyes widened as she heard that.
She couldn't believe that her uncle was offering her the chance to learn his powers and a light shone in her soul.
"You mean to say that you want to teach me your powers? or at least how to use anger and fury as a weapon?" she asked not sure if she was hearing him correctly.
Tyroth nodded.
"I do. It could come to serve you well in a pinch, but most importantly, I believe that it will allow you to fully vent most of, if not all, your anger and frustration."
"But before you decide," Tyroth said quickly before Pandora could respond.
"Consider this: While in a berserker rage, you may no longer be able to tell who your foe is and who is your friend, or even family. You become a double-edged sword that only wants to kill those around you. Finer tactics will be lost to you for the time. You should also be prepared for the price you pay."
Pandora went quiet as she took in what Tyroth spoke to her about.
"Still, I want to make sure. Once a rage ends, when the adrenaline finally leaves your system, you will crash. Physically, mentally, or emotionally, possibly several or all at once, you will feel empty, depleted, open and vulnerable. There have even been several cases in modern times of people that have gone berserk, only to end up deeply depressed afterwards.
I do not know how you will react, and it may be different each time.
If you are willing to pay this price, then I will teach you. But I urge you to think it over before you make your decision."
Pandora listened and she nodded taking in what her uncle told her and she felt a smirk form within as she thought of what she could do from what she was to learn from a powerful mutant like him.
"I am willing and ready to learn sensei..." she said getting onto her knees and looking Tyroth in the eyes with certainty and confidence.
A small smile formed on Tyroth's lips, and he stroked Pandora under her chin.
"Then I will teach you, young huntress." He said before bowing to the hybrid.
Pandora bowed low to the ground.
"Thank you, Dragon master." She replied.
So Hanako had reported in to Lord Arashi and Dr Arden who are pleased with the results and await to hera more.
Meanwhile Tyroth has seen Pandora training and has decided to teach her the ways of berserker hoping it will help with channeling her anger. But since he's still unaware of her activities topside, is this a good idea?
Keep tuning in to find out!
Again huge thanks to Tyroth Darkstorm for his help as well as the lore and history of the Berserker.