Kara glanced back at her bed piled high with clothes, a single sweat drop sliding down her forehead, "How did it get this bad?" She closed her eyes to recall a certain memory, her cheeks growing warm in the process.
"Now, if you keep your stance wide, like this," Donnie stood behind her helping her with her defense form, "Then it'll be a lot easier to block attacks and you won't be making unnecessary movements that'll drain your stamina, got it?" He asks, leaning his head close to her shoulder to look at her.
"Yeah, I think I got it." She gripped her staff while he moved in front of her, bringing out his own. "Now I'm going to attack you and I want you to block like I showed you."
"You got this, Kara." Raph gave her a thumbs up, he and his brothers watching her train with Donnie, Mikey letting out a loud cheer.
"I still say the sword is a much more cooler weapon. If you want to change your choice of weapon I'm always here." Leo leaned against Raph, smirking at her with a wink which made her roll her eyes with a smile before turning her attention on Donnie, now focused, her tongue sticking out to show her concentration and when he moved to strike she raised her staff blocking one, two, three, four attacks. Her eyes were wide in awe at not only learning from someone who knows what they're doing but actually being pretty good at it too.
"Good! Now it's time to block while moving. Here I come." He advanced on her while attacking forcing her to move backwards while blocking. She started to get nervous wanting to look behind her to make sure she wouldn't bump into anything but he wasn't giving her much time to think; the nervousness causing her to stumble backwards. Donnie noticed this but he was already mid swing to where he couldn't stop himself and instead tried to move so he wouldn't hit her but to his surprise she raised one end of her staff, blocking the attack and shoved their staff down, bringing both of them face to face mere inches from each other. They stared into each other's eyes for a second too long, Kara's face getting hot til Donnie shot up, clutching his staff close to his body but before he could say anything though Mikey got in between them, throwing his hands up excitedly.
"Kara that was so cool! I thought for sure you were going to fall and hurt yourself but you sure surprised me with that last block."
"Oh, uh, thanks. I don't know how I did it..I didn't have time to think so I just..I dunno..let my body take over."
"It's called instinct." Splinter walked up to them with a rolled up newspaper in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. "It takes many years for someone to harness their instinct to where they're practically unstoppable in battle. One such person you probably know is Lou Jitsu."
"That famous martial artist movie star? That can't be real; all stunt doubles and fancy effects." Kara blinked in surprise when all of them gasped at her as if she had spoken blasphemy; which to them she did.
"Lou Jistu does his own stunts!" Mikey protested.
"He's the greatest in all the world; the whole universe! What you just said is down right disrespectful." Raph added in, crossing his arms.
"An insult to the craft!" Leo joined.
Kara groaned, placing her hand to her forehead, her mind trailing off the topic at hand.
After taking her home and saying their goodbyes one by one the brothers left her on the roof of her apartment but when Donnie went to leave she grabbed his arm to stop him. "Um Donatello..before you..go..I was wondering..I know you like sciency stuff and all that and..a coworker gave me these tickets for doing her job..and I have an extra ticket to the Museum of Science and Nature if..you..would..like to go...as well...with me.." Kara couldn't look him in the face, her own feeling as though the rays of the setting sun were directly pointed at her. When it was too quiet for comfort she lifted her head some to look at him only to blink in surprise at his reaction; pure awe and disbelief.
"You. Want to go to a place of learning..with me? A place that doesn't have standard cool stuff that others might find boring..with me?"
Her embarrassment was turning into confusing, the only thing she could do was nod.
He suddenly brought her close in a hug. "Of course! I would love to!" Kara blushed at the sudden contact but she couldn't hide her happiness, smiling excitedly. "To finally go somewhere for knowledge without complaining the whole way! I'm so ecstatic!" Hearing his excitement was for something other than spending time with her had dulled the emotion on her face, her smile gone, that when he moved to look at her and saw his excitement change to confusion she quickly closed her eyes and smiled at him "Well..that's great. I'll see you at seven tomorrow then, that ok?" She stepped away and held his ticket out for him.
When he took it she ignored their slight hand contact and the warm touch she felt and turned around to head inside, keeping her head high and trying act normal despite the disappointment; unaware that he could feel the shift in the air.
She looked at herself in the mirror; wearing a layered, dark red spaghetti strap tank top that flared out like a skirt on the rim, white short shorts, and dark brown ankle boots. She spun around to look herself over and sighed, rubbing her arm. "This isn't me..why am I trying so hard..and why do I want to?" She groaned again and threw the shirt off while going to her closet and went to grab her every day outfit but stopped and went for a different outfit.
"My inventions were meant to do good; not evil!" Donnie shouted dramatically, the blinking light illuminating his lab every few seconds.
"What have you done to my body? My perfect body!?" Leo screamed.
Once the blinking had stopped standing before them was..them; trapped in a rock hard substance in the shape of a ball, Donnie and Mikey in the back with one of their legs sticking out, and Leo and Raph in the front with one of their arms.
"Why did you do this, Raph?" Mikey asked in a not so good mood.
"You know, even for you, this feels like a poorly thought through idea." Donnie remarks til he notices the time and his eyes widen nervously.
Leo looked at themselves in the mirror, sadness in his eyes. "Is this what it feels like to have a dad bod?"
"Calm down. This is gonna be awesome. Being stuck together is gonna force us to work together!" He pumped his arm excitedly, "As a team." He lightly punched Leo's arm only for them to lose their balance for a moment.
"This is a team building exercise?" Leo questions in disbelief.
"How are we gonna get unglued?" Donnie shouts, giving Raph the side eye since he can't turn his head to look at him.
"Relax, I'm sure you have a formula to get us unstuck, Donnie." Raph states calmly.
"Actually, I do not have a formula, my FAB spray is still in beta."
"FAB?" Leo questions.
"F. A. B. Foam Agent Bonding; it's state of the art. Could change the entire-"
-"Usually when Donnie is in speech mode I could just run away but now ah-hahahaha-I'm stuck." Leo's eyes grew big and panicked at the mere thought of having to listen to one of Donnie's many long speeches til they heard a noise inside the shell.
"What is that?" Raph lifts his eyes to look up at his brothers.
"It's my phone. Someone is trying to call me." Donnie bit his lip nervously recognizing the ringtone.
"Who? April?" Mikey asks.
"No, it's not April. I have a date tonight, or at least, HAD a date because now that we look like this I can't go!" Donnie turned his head away to scoff before lowering his head. "And I can't tell her because my phone is on my body and I don't have access to that either." Before he or his brothers could say anything on that topic an alarm on his computer warned them of a crime in progress. "That's it! I can message her through my computer."
"Yes! A Mission! It's go time!" Raph pointed at the computer but when everyone tried to move on their own it got them nowhere. "Stop! We need to work as a team to get to Donnie's computer. Mikey, step." When Mikey managed to get his leg to stand up then it was Donnie's turn. "There we go. Teamwork." They moved in front of the computer, stumbling for a moment before Raph pushed a button only for the password block to pop up, Donnie getting nervous.
"Donnie, what's your password?"
"I- am not telling you that just let me enter it."
"How? You don't have any hands."
"Tryyyy I love my family."
That didn't work.
"Tryyy I love my brothers."
Incorrect password.
Before Mikey could come up with more guesses, Donnie intervened. "Stop! It's not that it's..Bootyyyshaker9000; Capital B and three ys in booty." This response got a chuckle from his brothers. "What? You know I love to dance. Not gonna apologize for that."
"Someone is breaking into the Museum of Art and Framing."
"Ooooh~ Art thieves."
"Classeh~"
"Let's move!"
"Wait! You have to message Kara and let her know I have to cancel our date."
"You're going on a date with Kara? How cute!" Mikey beamed excitedly.
"Who knew you had the cajones to ask her out." Leo smirked at him.
"It was she..who..actually asked. Anyways, we're getting off topic here! Just let her know we have to reschedule another day. I don't want her to see me like this."
Raph pulled up her contact and blinked when he saw sparkle and heart emojis around her name. "Now, that's cute." He opened their messages, he and Leo letting her know they were about to catch some bad guys at the Museum of Art and Framing.
She responded back.
"Oh, that's not too far from the Museum of Science and Nature, I'll meet you there."
"No, wait, tell her not to!" Donnie moving around frantically made them all lose their balance and fall backwards on to the floor.
"We don't have time to argue let's just go before they steal anything valuable." Raph said, pushing them up with his arm. "To the Turtle Tank!"
Kara was sitting on the front steps humming to herself while scrolling through her phone waiting for Donatello and his brothers. Already counting one suspicious thing; the front entrance was completely gone so there's that. She blinked when she felt a gush of wind pass her and then a crash. Figuring that was them she put her phone away in her messenger bag and stood up only for them to roll in front of her, blinking continuously to see them stuck together in a ball with their heads poking out as well as a single limb from each of them. She blew raspberries before letting out a laugh, holding her sides in pain. "Are you guys trying out Halloween costume ideas? No, wait, wait, you wanted to see what it would be like in each other's bodies? No, wait, I got a better one; you're staring in the play Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark...AND YOU'RE THE BOULDER!" She bent over, laughing louder, feeling tears prickling in her eyes
They jumped to their feet were about to comment on her remarks when they did a double take to see Kara before them wearing a beige baggy shirt, dark grey overall shorts with a brown belt that had her keys attached to her hip, black, see through stockings, and three inched heeled sandals. Once she calmed down she saw them openly staring at her and sighed to calm herself down, "Yeah, I know, I know, this isn't very missiony," She bent her index and middle fingers showing emphasis on the word missiony, the silver bracelets on her wrists jingling from the movement, "But I didn't have time to change. I promise I won't get in the way, I'm use to running in these types of shoes." She smiled while tapping her heel on the ground and crossed her arms only for her smile to lower when they continued saying nothing but stare at her. "Gu-"
"-Oh my gosh, girl, you look gorgeous!" Mikey interrupted, eyes sparkling in excitement.
"Digging the look." Leo smirked while placing his hand to his chin.
"You look nice, Kara. I'm sorry we had to interrupt your date with Donnie but you can probably see why." Raph chuckled, embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head.
Kara blushed at their comments, hunching her shoulders shyly but couldn't help the smile that came to her face. She glanced over at Donnie to see he hadn't said anything but continued to stare, his mouth agape and eyes wide in awe. She sighed and turned around, remembering why he wanted to go in the first place. "It's ok, it wasn't really a date anyways, a coworker gave me the tickets and I didn't want them to go to waste; Donatello seemed like the obvious choice to ask." She walked up the stairs while bringing out her staff and placed it over her shoulder.
"Donnie, why didn't you say anything?" Mikey asked, looking at him.
"Yeah, it's obvious she wanted you to compliment her outfit. She did get dressed up for your date, after all."
"I wanted to but my mind went completely blank and you heard her yourself..it's not really a date.."
"Are you kidding? No one would dress up like that for nothing." Raph commented, "She looks like she put a lot of thought in her outfit."
"Yeah, did you see how happy she looked when we complimented her? She looked so cute." Mikey smiled happily at the thought of seeing Kara happy.
Donnie lowered his gaze remembering in perfect detail her outfit and not only how beautiful she looked but how adorable her smile was, as if it was her first time getting complimented. "Ok, I'll tell her."
"Are you guys coming? I'm not sure I'm advanced enough to handle art thieves alone." She called out from the top of the steps, waving her arm to grab their attention. Watching them take wide steps towards her then practically throw themselves into the museum, she had to cover her mouth to keep herself from giggling too loud. Following after them she could see the destroyed statues. "Everyone, keep your eyes open. Let me know if you see anything suspicious."
She walked beside them, turning her head here and there on look out when she saw something dash past her vision on her left side.
"I saw something move over on the left." She and Leo said, pointing.
"I saw something move over on the right." Mikey pointed with his leg.
"No, this way." Mikey and Leo said in unison.
"Great plan, Raph, now instead of being able to investigate two leads we are stuck together." Donnie remarked, throwing his leg up for emphasis.
"Shh. No, this is what teamwork is; We-put-aside-our-individual-goals-to-do-what's-best-for-the-team."
"Why do you sound like you're reading?"
Kara leaned over them, standing next to Donnie and Raph, to see Raphael had indeed written down what he was saying. She covered her mouth, snickering softly, "How about this, I go investigate on the left while you all go right? If I come across anything I can't handle I'll just run, how about that?"
When she took a step backwards and around them to Leo and Mikey's side Donnie caught a whiff of her perfume and closed his eyes taking in the Apple Blossom Freesia.
"Are you sure you don't need one of us to go with you?" Raph asked but when all he got were deadpanned expressions from everyone he realized his mistake. "Oh. Right. Yeah, ok."
"You got this, girl." Mikey smiled at her making her smile back and give a thumbs up.
Stepping into the canvas part of the museum she began to look at all the art, "Who says I can't multitask?" She heard a noise and clenched her staff, remembering why she was here, and followed the sound to see some silver creatures eating at left overs. Tilting her head to the side she stared at them for the longest time thinking they were pretty cute. She took a cautious step towards them but a noise behind her caused them to jerk their heads up in her direction. "Calm down, it's ok, I'm not gonna hurt you." She bent down to her knees and pulled out a package of cookies, opening them. "You guys hungry?" She broke one in half and held out the two pieces for them.
They sniffed the air curiously, slowly crawling towards her sniffing the cookies before taking the halves and eating them. When they finished eating she reached her hand out to one of them, it sniffing her hand, before nuzzling it's head on it. She smiled brightly when the other one rubbed against her leg and pulled the first one close, petting it's head. "I always wanted a pet and you guys are too cute, were you the ones making a mess of the place?" She suddenly heard loud banging that caused the creatures to scatter. "Wait, hold on, I have to capture you!" She followed them to the Occult section where she saw a buff, fancy dressed hippo trying to break open a statue. "Ok, I stand corrected, are YOU the one who caused all this destruction in the museum?" She shouted, grabbing his attention, pointing at him dramatically."
"My word, I would never harm precious collections of art, who do you take me for? And who are you?"
She crossed her arms, eyes trailing behind him at his metal rings that were sawing through the statue. "My name is unimportant, what matters is that I have to stop you. Orstallyoutilrealhelparrives." She brought out her staff and took a stance.
"Alright, my dear, if a fight is what you're looking for," He waved his arms, the metal rings flying around him, "Then a fight is what you'll get." He threw his arms out, the metal rings flying towards her, she brought up her staff, blocking one, two, three but not having dealt with multiple attacks she was getting hurt, the metal rings slicing at her legs and body. She rolled out of the way of another one, hiding behind a statue, panting heavily.
"With the power of the first witch I'll be able to resurrect Doug and I'm not letting you stand in my way."
She let out a yell when the rings found her and ran out of hiding, blocking and dodging to the best of her ability. With her focus on the metal rings she couldn't hear the, "Mesmaroooo~", til she suddenly couldn't think at all, her mind going blank and her body going still.
"Now, that you're under my control I want you to stop whoever tries to get in my way." Hypno smirked when she lifted her head, her eyes blank, nodding to him while bringing her staff close to her, and turning towards the door. He turned his back to her, his metal rings going back to cutting open the coffin. "Now, where was I? Oh yes! With the power of the first witch I'll be able to resurrect Doug and then together we can-"
"-Ok, Hypno," The turtles rolled in, making Hypno deadpan from being interrupted, "Time to send you back to- I mean, time to make you..uhm.."
"Wait, wait, wait, I got it; turn me." Donnie and Mikey moved so Leo was facing Hypno, placing his hand to his chin. "Hypno, time to send you back-"
"Assistant, deal with these intruders!"
"Assistant?" The guys looked confused til Kara ran at them, slamming her staff into Leo's face, knocking them onto their butts.
"What the? Kara?" They didn't have time to react for she was above them in the air with her staff raised and ready to strike. With a yell they rolled out of the way just as her staff made contact with the ground.
"Kara, what are you doing?" Raph asked, blinking when she wouldn't respond. She stood up straight they could see her eyes were different.
"She must be under Hypno's control." Donnie said just as she charged at them again, swinging her staff to attack them.
"Guys, what do we do? I don't want to hurt her." Mikey whined in worry while he and Donnie did their best to avoid getting hit noticing that she was injured already.
"This would be a lot easier if we could use our weapons." Leo said as he and Raph caught her staff in their hands, struggling to keep it from getting to them but were soon able to overpower her, throwing her across the room, making contact with a statue and dropping to the ground.
"Raph! Leo! Control your strength!" Donnie yelled.
"I'm sorry! I'm trying!"
"It's not like she gave us a lot of options." Leo narrowed his eyes only to lift them in worry watching her shaking body force itself up.
"Mesmeroooo~!"
Leo turned his attention to Hypno, panic on his face, "He's gonna hypnotize me. Turn!"
"Ahhh! Turn!"
"Turn!"
"Turn me!"
Raph ended up getting hypnotized, spirals in his eyes and drool dangling from the side of his mouth.
"Now that you're under my control how about you leave this place and-"
"We're not under your control." Leo said only for Raph to mutter, "Yes, Master..", but when he tried to move nothing happened.
"Donnie and Mikey he can't hypnotize us. Let's get him."
When Donnie and Mikey charged at him Kara used her staff and vaulted towards them and sent a kick at their shell, knocking them off balance and having them roll away. She stood protectively in front of Hypno making him laugh and place his hand on her shoulder, "Excellent work, my assistant, now finish them off."
"Looks like we're gonna have to do this the hard way.." Leo muttered. "Ok, guys, roll out." The began rolling towards her, she running at them, and when she tried to stop them she was no match for their speed and was sent flying past Hypno, the guys now running at him.
"Uh..that's a little too close! Stop right there!"
"I'm sorry, what? I can't hear you." Leo gave them some momentum using Raph's arms to strike at Hypno, sending him crashing into a wall, this freeing Raph and Kara from his spell.
Raph shook his head, looking around, confused. "What happened?"
"We stopped him." Leo smiled at him.
"Ahh, like the perfect team."
"NO! No more-"
"-Ugh, what happened? Why does it feel like I got tossed around like a ragdoll?" Kara walked up to them, rubbing her head, hissing in pain. She looked down at her outfit to see her stockings and shirt had tears in it as well as bleeding from the cuts. "Ooo, that's starting to sting.."
"Hey, are you ok?" Raph asked, them running towards her.
"I'll be fine, nothing serious, I hope. What about you guys?" She noticed Leo's cheek was starting to swell and grew worried. "Geez, what happened to you? Are you ok?" She went to reach up to touch it but he grabbed her hand instead.
"We're fine but you should probably go home, this next set of villains is dangerous."
"And miss out on seeing you guys in action? Psh, fat chance, I'll stay out of the way and watch your back if things get out of hand. Now, come on!" She ran off ahead of them ignoring the stinging pain only to stop and turn around. "I have no idea where they are so if you could uh.."
"Oh, right, let's go guys." Raph said, all of them heading to where the foot guys were.
"One set of bad guys left." Raph pointed at them.
"Will this nightmare never end."
"Hold that thought, Leo." Kara pulled out her phone and took a quick selfie with the guys. "Now this moment will always be remembered."
"This is really gonna hurt che." The buff, bald guy said while putting on a gauntlet that started glowing, making his arm even more buff. He then pointed it at them, the gauntlet glowing brighter, sending an electric charge at them, hitting the guys square in the shell and sending them flying into the wall, breaking their shell and setting them all free.
"Guys! Are you ok?" Kara ran towards them while they celebrated being free only to let out a startled yell when the buff guy continued to send attacks at them, eventually hitting Raph. "Raph! I'll buy you guys some time!" She shouted, vaulting over a glass display and charging at them. The buff guy aimed at her but she dodged his attacks, getting closer to him. When she was within arms length she raised her staff only to blink when his fist was right in her face. She immediately ducked down by doing the splits just as he used the energy attack. Feeling the heat behind her she raised her staff and jabbed it right where the sun doesn't shine between his legs, making him bend his knees inward and fall down on them, letting out a whimper. She swung herself to her feet and smirked at him, "Not so tough now, are ya?" She glanced behind her to see the four of them back together and smiled before moving out of the way, "I'll leave the rest to you guys!" She gave Leo a high five just before walking out of the museum and dropped on to the step, letting out a heavy sigh. She put away her staff and began to rub at her sore arms, "Looks like I need to do more than just my usual exercises."
When they finally defeated their foes and walked out separate Kara stood to her feet and smiled at them. "I take it we won?"
"Not only that we've really become the perfect team." Raph smiled while bringing his brothers close to him.
"How about we go to my place and celebrate. As well as patch up? Mainly for me." She rubbed the back of her head, laughing embarrassed.
Back at her place, pizza ordered and delivered, Donnie was helping Kara with her wounds, she having changed to her night clothes. Donnie glanced at his brothers to see them distracted by the TV and pizza, Leo holding a pack of frozen veggies that Kara gave him to lower the swelling on his cheek, and smirked to himself before looking back at Kara. "About tonight, I'm sorry we couldn't go on our..thing..but you looked really nice tonight, beautiful in fact. I wish things didn't end up like they did, I wish we could of spent some time together; one on one."
"You do?" She asked in surprise. "But it seemed you were more focused on just going there to learn something new; as if you weren't interested in going with me at all.." She rubbed her bandaged arm, blushing nervously.
"What? No, no, that's not it at all." He accidentally tightened the bandage wrap on her leg making her flinch. "Oh, sorry, sorry. Yes, I admit, going somewhere to learn with someone willingly was a nice thought but that makes it more special if it were with you." Donnie lowered his gaze only to blink when her shadow was getting bigger and looked up in time to feel her kiss his forehead. "Once you finish how about we go to the roof? Just you and me?" She smiled at him, her eyes filled with glee and bliss.
He stared at her in awe, his cheeks tinted a dark color, nodding his head frantically and finishing patching her up. He raced outside to the roof, with her behind him, laughing at his enthusiasm. They sat on the couch, Donnie talking non stop but she didn't mind; getting comfortable and listening quietly, laughing at his funny comments or jokes, adding to the conversation when necessary unaware his brothers were listening in, quietly rooting for him.
Eventually she fell asleep with a smile on her face, making quiet "mhmms" despite being asleep. Donnie moved over to her, reaching his hand out and gently stroked her cheek, a soft smile on his face, before leaning down, his face mere inches from hers. He was hesitant, just staring at her til he decide to plant a small kiss on her cheek and picked her up, taking her inside, holding her close to him.