A day had passed since the Kraang attacked Heart and things had returned to normal with the exception of certain guests.
Needless to say, Splinter was surprised that he and his children could walk through the palace and streets without a problem, since, to the people, they were creatures not unlike dragons, plus they were the ones who saved the kingdom from the invaders, according to Chief Benja.
At that moment, in a training room, stood Splinter in the center with Raya and Namaari on either side of him, both with their weapons at the ready.
"Can someone remind me how we got into this?" asked Tong.
"Oh, Raya and Namaari wanted to test their skills on Master Splinter." said April.
"Ha. If they couldn't beat us, they won't be able to beat him." said Raph.
"True, but it can be very instructive." said Leo.
"Oh, this is going to be fun." said Boun with a smile of excitement.
"Luckily, I brought snacks this time." said Casey bringing out a couple of bowls full of sweets, but soon after, Noi emerged from one bowl while the ongis emerged from the other as they were eating the snacks.
"Eh… I think I'll pass on eating them." said Donnie as April chuckled.
Raya and Namaari stood still, eyes focused on the mutant rat, waiting for it to make a move.
"Well, anytime, ladies." said Splinter calmly, yielding the first move to them.
Raya was the first to dart towards him and when she reached him, she tried to hit him with her sword, but Splinter managed to dodge all the attacks with ease.
It was then that Namaari decided to join in and tried to hit him with their swords, but Splinter was able to dodge the two girls' attacks before parrying an attack from both of them with his bare hands before pushing them back a bit.
Before they could react, Splinter punched Raya in the stomach and kicked Namaari in the chest, causing them to double over as they held the damaged part with a groan of pain.
In spite of this, they rose up again and went on the attack.
Again, Splinter was able to dodge all the attacks of the two girls at an abnormal speed.
At that moment, Raya decided to change strategy and transformed her sword into a whip with which she tried to hit him, but Splinter jumped to avoid the whip, which Namaari took advantage of to try to hit him in the air, but Splinter managed to position himself in such a way that Namaari passed him by before landing on the ground.
Raya started lashing out from a distance while Namaari attacked directly with his swords, but Splinter was still able to dodge both attacks.
Seeing that it was to no avail, Raya turned her whip back into a sword and charged towards him, but then, Splinter simply stepped aside and used his foot to trip her, causing her to fall on top of Namaari, both of them falling to the ground in the process.
They both shook their heads before looking at each other for a while and when they realized the position they were in, they blushed slightly before quickly standing up and looking away from each other.
April apparently noticed what happened and chuckled.
"What's so funny?" asked Casey in confusion.
"Oh, nothing." said April making her friend even more confused.
"Heh. I guess that was to be expected." said Raya.
"So much so." commented Raph.
"I understand where they got their skills from." said Namaari.
"Don't take credit away from yourselves, ladies. You have demonstrated excellent skill and teamwork. No doubt your parents taught you well. You still have much to learn and improve upon, but I know you can do it." said Splinter.
"Thank you, Master Splinter." said Raya as she and Namaari bowed slightly in respect.
"Hey, where's your sister?" asked Boun realizing that the kunoichi wasn't with them.
"Oh, she said she wanted to do some training on her own." said Leo.
"Now that you mention it, she hasn't been with us much. Is there something wrong with her?" asked Raya.
"Not much, she's just not used to meeting so many new people." said Donnie.
"Don't worry. Just give her a little space and she'll eventually open up to all of you." said Splinter.
"Well, if you say so, then fine." said Namaari with a shrug.
Despite this, both she and Raya couldn't help but feel that there was something more to her than she appeared, but they couldn't tell what it was.
They wanted to ask, but felt it was too personal a subject to talk about, so they decided to leave it alone and wait for the right time to do so.
Elsewhere, Karai was standing like a statue while breathing deeply.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes and quickly pulled out her katana before going through the motions, as if attacking the air.
To finish, she leapt into the air as she spun around for a side kick before landing perfectly.
"Impressive."
At that, Karai turned around quickly, only to find Sisu very close to her, something that startled her as she tried to slash at her with her katana, but Sisu quickly moved out of the way.
"Hey, watch out for that thing." said Sisu raising her hands in surrender.
"Well, then don't scare a ninja like that." said Karai.
"Yeah, I learned that the hard way. I still hurt from that punch Raph gave me." said Sisu rubbing the side of his face.
"Ha. That's just the way he is. So what do you want?" asked Karai.
"Oh, I was just coming to give you this." said Sisu before showing a gift package with bow.
"A gift?" asked Karai with an arched eyebrow.
"Yes, a welcome to Kumandra gift." began Sisu handing the package to the kunoichi. "Go on, open it."
Karai was still a bit confused by that, but decided to comply with her request and opened the package and upon taking out its contents, it revealed to be a small statue of a dragon similar to her.
"Well, what do you think?" asked Sisu excitedly.
"It's… pretty." said Karai.
"Don't you like it?" asked Sisu.
"Oh, no. It's not that. I like it it's just… I just didn't expect it." began Karai putting the statue away in the package. "I'll leave it to my room. Thank you for it, Sisu." said Karai before leaving.
Sisu was a little worried about the kunoichi's reaction.
"Maybe I should have given her something else?" asked Sisu crossing her arms.
"I don't think that's the problem." began Mikey arriving on the scene. "It's just that she's not used to these things."
"You know? I thought that since she's your sister, she'd be a little more… like you." said Sisu.
"Well, the thing is, she didn't have what you call a fairytale childhood." said Mikey.
"Why? What happened to her?" asked Sisu curiously.
"I'm sorry, but it's a personal matter. She would have to be the one to tell it and it would be when she felt ready to do so." said Mikey.
Sisu could understand that, but she still wanted to know what was wrong with the kunoichi.
In fact, she reminded her a bit of Raya when she first met her, unable to trust others.
Soon after, Karai left the room she had been assigned after leaving the gift Sisu gave her there.
Despite somewhat liking Sisu's gesture towards her, she felt that she didn't deserve it, not only because of her background, but also because of her condition.
"Are you okay?"
Karai turned her head to the side to see Leo approaching her.
"Yeah, I just left a gift that Sisu gave me." said Karai.
"Heh. She gave us a gift too soon after we met." said Leo with a smile.
"It's a bit naive of you to give gifts to anyone you just met." said Karai.
"Maybe, but deep down, she means well. You could be good friends if you spent more time with her, just like with the others." said Leo.
"I know, but still, it's only been a few days since that and I still don't feel ready. Besides, I can guess that you haven't told them about me or him." said Karai.
"Miwa is right." began Splinter arriving on the scene. "Apparently you haven't told them everything about us."
"I know, Master Splinter, but, quite simply, we didn't want to scare them or overwhelm them by telling them about him and what he did. We wanted to keep you out of all that." said Leo.
"I understand your intentions, Leonardo, but we are all friends now and trust is an important thing with each other. Lack of information can go a long way to affecting that trust." said Splinter.
"Besides, the Kraang have attacked and considering who they are allied with, it's only a matter of time before he or any of his people suddenly show up." said Karai.
Leo had to admit they were right.
At first it was simple due to the fact that they didn't believe the Kraang or they would make it to that world, but now that the Kraang had attacked, it could only mean that, at some point, they would attack and most likely, their new friends would be angry with them for keeping them out of that information, which could spell trouble for the friendship they had all formed.
"You are right. It's time we told them all." said Leo.
After that, Leo, Karai and Splinter met with the rest of the NY group to explain their decision, to which they all nodded in agreement.
At that moment, they all found themselves gathered in a room where an important talk was to take place.
"So, what have you all gathered us all here for?" asked Raya.
"Well, you know about the various bad guys we've faced, right?" asked Mikey.
"Yeah, like the Purple Dragons, that plant mutant, the lizard with advanced weaponry, the squirrelanoids…" began Sisu.
"Yeah, but we hadn't told you about the Kraang until they launched that assault on Heart." said Donnie.
"If you think we're angry about that, it's not true. Surely you had your reasons." said Namaari.
"Yes and the reason was that we didn't expect them to show up." said Raph.
"Well, they did, you told us about them and we made them run away, so it's okay." said Boun.
"Did you gather us together to apologize for that?" asked Tong.
"Yes and something else too. Turns out there's an enemy we didn't tell you about." said Leo.
"Really? Why didn't you tell us about it?" asked Sisu.
"Because, unlike those villains we told you about, they are a very serious problem." said April.
"How serious?" asked Namaari.
"As serious as those Druun you told us about." said Casey.
That made Kumandra's group nervous.
"S-Seriously?" asked Raya nervously.
"Yes. Like the Kraang, we didn't tell you about them because we thought they could never find this world." said Leo.
"But since the Kraang have, it's very likely that they will too." said Karai.
"So we decided to tell you about it to show that we trust you." said Leo.
"Well, we appreciate the gesture, but who are those guys?" asked Raya.
The NY group looked at each other and nodded in a sign that it was time to reveal all.
"Their name is…" began Leo about to reveal the big truth.
BOOM
But then, a loud explosion was heard, shaking the palace slightly.
"What was that?" asked Namaari.
They all ran to the nearest window to check the situation and saw smoke coming out of the side of the palace, but that wasn't the worst of it, as the NY group's eyes widened in horror when they saw foot-bots scaling the mountain and the palace walls.
"Oh, no." said Leo.
"They're already here." said Karai.
"I was afraid this would come to pass." said Splinter.
"Who are they?" asked Raya.
"They are the Foot." said Leo.
"The Foot?" asked Boun.
"Were those the guys you were going to tell us about?" asked Tong.
"Yeah and it looks like they decided to attack sooner than we thought." said Casey.
"This is bad, dudes. Really bad." said Mikey.
"We'll save the explanation for later. What should we do?" asked Raya earnestly.
"They're foot-bots. Like the Kraang, they're just metal beings, so there's no need to hold back or anything like that." said Donnie.
"But unlike them, they're skilled fighters like a real ninja," said April.
"Not to mention they can adapt to their opponent's moves." said Raph.
"Raya, go warn your father and inform him of what we said. The rest of us, we'll split up and defend this place." said Splinter receiving a nod from everyone.
"No time to waste, let's get going!" said Leo as they all set off.
Meanwhile, at the top of the mountain stood Rahzar and Fishface.
"Agh. Couldn't these people have invented elevators? Climbing this was hard enough." said Fishface.
"Quit complaining and let's focus on our mission." said Rahzar.
"Right. We have a dragon to capture." began Fishface. "I never thought I'd get to say that." muttered Fishface. "Hey, what do we do if we run into the turtles or any of their friends?"
"According to Master Shredder, we should ignore them, since they aren't our target, but if they dare to attack, we will respond." said Rahzar showing his claws.
"Of course. After all, it would be self-defense. It would be their fault, not ours." said Fishface.
"Exactly." said Rahzar with an evil grin before the two evil mutants went on their mission.