Chapter 22-Karai's Here!?
After finishing their time at the Merchant's shop, the turtle brothers moved on and entered a room that looked like a wine cellar.
However, what the trio saw in front of them had nothing to do with wine at all; there were three hooded figures knelt down in a circle and facing a deformed skeleton, which was covered in blood, hanging on the wall. The turtle brothers then discovered that the three figures were dead and had been like that for some time due to how badly decayed their bodies were.
"Man, dis is messed up!" Raph exclaimed in disgust.
"Shh, listen…Is that chanting?" Donnie hissed suddenly when he heard faint but clear chanting coming from the other side of the room.
"This way…" Leo said as he pointed towards a small set of stairs on the left side of the room.
The turtle brothers walked up the steps and saw a viewing window with its bars broken away in the middle, and it was there that they noticed that the chanting was louder than before.
Curious to know what was going on, the trio jumped through the window and landed in the next room full of barrels, and they then saw a doorway with statues on each side being barricaded by a metal portcullis. Studying it further, Donnie noticed that only one of the statues was holding a lantern which was glowing red.
"It looks like this door can be unlocked by finding the missing lantern…" Donnie pointed out.
"And I'm bettin' dat whoever's doin' da chantin' has it…" Raph added his guess.
"Let's find out…" Leo replied before the trio began their walk over to a door that was partially covered by a large piece of ripped fabric.
When they had reached it, the turtle brothers spotted someone wearing a red-coloured cloak and an animal skull mask through. They hid behind some barrels and watched as the red cloaked man chanted and waved a lantern, which glowed an ominous red light, above a few worshippers who all suddenly start convulsing and large parasitic bodies with cross-shaped mouths burst out from their heads. This horrified the turtle brothers.
"Is he doing this!?" Donnie questioned in shock.
"Ngh! W-What the…?" Leo grunted when he suddenly felt a pain in his head and became slightly dizzy shortly after.
"Leo!? Are you ok!?" Donnie asked in concern as he steadied his oldest brother.
"…I-I feel weird…" Leo managed to say whilst fighting off the dizziness.
"Dat guy with da red lantern must be doin' somethin' ta ya!" Raph realised when he saw the way Leo was reacting to the red lantern being swung by the red-cloaked man.
"Then let's stop him and get that lantern off of him!" Donnie replied urgently.
Once Leo had come out of his funny state, the turtle brothers made their move; they came out of their hiding place and ran towards the mutated worshippers with their weapons in hand.
"Sorry ta interrupt!" Raph shouted before he charged towards one of the mutated hostiles and stabbed its head with his sai, and then he dodged out of its way when it tried to attack him.
Next, Leo readied his machinegun and fired at the parasitic bodies multiple times until the mutated worshippers stopped and screeched in pain.
Taking advantage of this, Donnie took out his crossbow and loaded explosive arrows before he shot one each at the worshippers. He then ducked as the arrows beeped and exploded seconds later, causing the mutated heads to disintegrate and the human bodies collapsed to the ground shortly after.
Suddenly, the man in red resumed his chanting and waved the red lantern around, making Leo stop and feel weird again.
"Ugh! N-Not again…!" Leo grimaced whilst holding his head in his hands when the pain and dizziness struck him once more.
"Leo! Hang in there!" Donnie cried out as he steadied Leo again.
"Dat's it! I'm takin' dis freak in red out!" Raph shouted as he fired his shotgun at the red cloaked man who was running and dodging the turtle brothers' attacks.
Despite the long chase, the trio managed to corner the red cloaked man and shoot him down, stopping the chanting and shining of the lantern altogether.
"At last…He shut up…" Raph panted.
"Yeah…My head doesn't hurt anymore, and the dizziness has stopped too…" Leo agreed in relief.
"Let's keep hold of this lantern for now; it might come in handy somewhere…" Donnie proposed as he held and assessed the red lantern.
"Ok, but just keep it still and far away from me, please…" Leo pleaded, not wanting to go through another spell of discomfort and pain.
Nodding in understanding, Donnie held the red lantern securely whilst grabbing a cloth and covering it up to reduce its ominous light. The turtle brothers then walked back towards where they had entered from and faced the barricaded door.
Donnie placed the chain handle of the lantern on the left statue's hooked fingers and stepped back. The trio then watched as the statue's arm lowered slightly and the portcullis rose up seconds later, opening the doorway for them.
The turtle brothers walked through the doorway and down a hallway until they had reached a door. They opened it and walked into what looked like a display room. There was a variety of rare and unique artifacts in glass display cases and on shelves everywhere in the room.
When they took another few steps forward…
"Hold it right there, turtles…!"
A female voice was heard, followed by the sound of footsteps that were getting closer to the trio from behind them.
As soon as they looked towards the source of the voice, their eyes widened in shock and surprise when they saw that it was Karai who was slowly walking towards them whilst pointing and aiming a handgun at their faces!
"Karai…!? What are you doing here!?" Leo questioned in shock, but didn't move a muscle due to the unpredictability of the human female's gun.
"It is none of your business, Leonardo…Though I could ask you the same thing…" Karai answered firmly.
"It's got nothin' ta do with you either, lady…!" Raph fired back.
"After a few years since our last encounter, you make one shell of an entrance, Karai…" Leo complimented sarcastically but with a hint of seriousness.
"You don't sound so surprised by that…Interesting…" Karai replied in a slightly stunned tone.
Then, as quick as a flash, Leo dashed towards Karai and grabbed her arm before twisting it to make her drop her gun. Karai was stunned by this for a moment before she quickly snapped out of it and kicked Leo in the plastron, making him let go of her arm.
Raph charged forward next and tried to restrain her, but the human female was swifter and easily dodged him before kicking him in the back, making him stumble forward. However, Karai wasn't quick enough when Donnie swept his bo staff across her feet, tripping her over, but she managed to stop herself from landing flat on the ground by doing a hand stand and then a backflip over the turtle brothers.
Just as she landed and turned around, Karai froze when a kunai came into close contact with her neck, and she saw Leo's stern face looking at her own.
"A little advice; try using a kunai next time, they work best on close encounters…" Leo advised before backing away and withdrawing his kunai.
"I see that the rumours were true…" Karai said after a moment of silence as she stood back up and picked up her gun off the floor.
"What rumours?" Raph questioned suspiciously.
"Rumours about your brother being held captive by the people here, and that he is being used as part of their evil plan, which I have yet to know more about…" Karai specified before her eyes narrowed as she spoke again.
"Now, you take my advice, turtles; leave this place and forget about your brother…It is too late for him, no matter what you do…"
"You're wrong, Karai! Mikey will make it, and we're bringing him back home alive!" Leo immediately countered with slight anger in his tone of voice.
"Right! We won't give up on him that easily…! There's still time for us to save him!" Donnie agreed firmly.
"Yeah, so back off and leave us alone!" Raph demanded.
"Suit yourself…" Karai said flatly before she started walking away from the turtles and climbed on the window sill.
"Just don't get in my way next time…" She warned them before she jumped out of the window and disappeared into the darkness.
"Well, that was unexpected…!" Donnie said after a moment of silence.
"Yeah, she's da last person dat we thought we'd run into here of all places…! What's she even doin' here!?" Raph agreed in astonishment.
"What Karai is doing here is not our main concern right now; our little brother is still missing somewhere within this castle, and we need to find him before we lose more time…!" Leo reminded his brothers firmly.
His brothers nodded in agreement before the trio left the display room and resumed their search for Mikey, leaving behind any remaining awkward memories of their sudden encounter of their frenemy.