Cleo's POV:
"Anything yet?" asked Leo. "Not yet" I responded as I looked underneath decomposing boxes. "There's bound to be something. Donnie's scanner lead us here, right? Donnie?" Donnie wasn't paying attention to us, or even his scanner. He seemed to be focused on something in his other hand. Raph marched over to him and snatched the object out of his hand. It was his phone. He looked down at it and gave Donnie an almost pitying look.

"You're texting April again, dude." "I know I know, I just... ugh..." Raph gave his brother his phone back before going back to where he had been looking before. I gave Donnie a sad look. I understood what he was feeling. We all did. It's been so long since any of us had seen or heard from April. It felt almost unnatural that we hadn't even received a text from her in such a long time.

I continued to text her though. Not constantly like I feared Donnie might have been doing, just every so often to see if she was still okay. The last time I texted her I saw that she had finally read my message, and she had even started typing, but she stopped shortly after. And that was about it. But, as much as I missed her, I knew it was nothing compared to what Donnie was feeling.

"C'mon Donnie, don't get so bent outta shape about April," said Raph. "She'll come around." Donnie messed around on his mutagen scanner for a moment as he sighed. "Yeah, guess you're right..." "No sign of any mutagen," Mikey said as he popped up from inside the dumpster. "But you're not gonna believe what I found!" "Another trash-to-treasure related item?" I asked. "Yep! An iguana wearing a top hat!"

That made me turn my head. Sure enough, Mikey was holding a huge, stuffed iguana wearing a top hat and a dirty monocle. "Isn't that cool?! I mean, why would you throw this out?" Mikey giggled and started to move the iguana's limbs like a puppet. "'Ello, gov'nor! How do you like my minocle?" "Monocle." Donnie corrected. "Whatever." "You realize that could be a distant cousin?" Raph pointed out. "And he's stuffed with sawdust."

Mikey immediately cringed as he leapt out of the dumpster and tossed the iguana out towards the back of the alley. "Ugh! Sick!" "You just bathed yourself in a dumpster full of garbage and that disgusts you?" I asked him. "Quiet guys!" Donnie snapped. "My ooze scanner is going crazy again! I told you there was mutagen close by." Raph rolled his eyes. "Ah, your scanner is about as useless as a trench coat on a turtle." I stuffed my hands in my pockets. "Not much of a fashion statement, either."

"Just give it a chance, guys," said Leo. "It's our fault that those containers went missing, we gotta find them before some random Joe ends up mutated." "This way!" We followed Donnie's directions up to the building by our right. Once we reached the roof, he told us to start looking everywhere. We searched for probably 2 minutes before we all heard Mikey shout. "Found it!" he held the full mutagen canister up above his head, smirking. "How many does that bring us up to?" Donnie looked up. "One... and a half." Me and the others all groaned irritably. "But look on the bright side- only 63 more to go!" We all turned our heads towards him, giving him deadpanned looks. He frowned, embarrassed.

(-)

(Theme song)

♫ Teenage Mutant Ninja Team ♫
♫ Teenage Mutant Ninja Team ♫
♫ Teenage Mutant Ninja Team ​​​​​​♫
♫ Heroes in the shadows ♫
♫ Ninja power! ♫

♫ Here we go! It's the lean, skilled, ninja team ♫
♫ On the scene, cool teens doing ninja things ♫
♫ So extreme, out the sewers like laser beams ♫
♫ Get rocked with the pizza kings and queen ♫
♫ Can't stop these dudes and dudette ♫
♫ The secret of the ooze made the chosen few ♫
♫ Emerge from the shadows to make their move ♫
♫ The good guys win, and the bad guys lose ♫

♫ Leonardo's the leader in blue, ♫
♫ Does anything it takes to get his ninjas through ♫
♫ Donatello is a fellow, has a way with machines ♫
♫ Raphael has the most attitude on the team ♫
♫ Cleopatra, she's a special girl, ♫
♫ Does anything to protect everyone she loves ♫
♫ Michelangelo, he's one of a kind, ♫
♫ And you know just where to find him when it's party time ♫
♫ Master Splinter taught them every single skill they need ♫
♫ To be one lean, mean, skilled incredible team ♫

♫ Teenage Mutant Ninja Team ♫
♫ Teenage Mutant Ninja Team​​​​​​​ ♫
♫ Teenage Mutant Ninja Team ♫
♫ Heroes in the shadows ♫
♫ Ninja power! ♫

(-)

Cleo's POV:
Once we made sure no other mutagen was on the roof, we continued our search. Two more solid hours of looking and we still hadn't come close to anything. It was already getting late, and it was obvious that the others were starting to get tired. As much as I had faith in Donnie, my tired and irritated mind wanted to take his scanner and toss it into the street for being so useless as of late. "We've been looking for mutagen for days now, dudes! This is so boring, I'm gonna scream."

At once, Mikey opened his mouth and began letting out an annoying, ear-piercing scream that was so loud it could have woken up Jersey. I whipped around and ran up to him, slapping my hand over his mouth as we all shouted, "MIKEY!" "Okay, OKAY! We get it!" Leo roared. "We'll take a little break and do something fun. Cool?" I removed my hand from Mikey's mouth as we all yelped happily. Leo grinned as well. "Training session! Yes!"

At once our moods changed and we all let out a disappointed "Aw". Leo's smile fell too as he looked down at us. "Guys, Sensei wants me to train you, and that's what I'm gonna do." We all glared at him, but he didn't see. He was too busy looking around, apparently finding something to help us train. "You see that dragon gate over there?" I stood up to see what he was pointing at. It was the gate entrance into Chinatown. "Yeah?" "I'm gonna defend it, like... king of the mountain, okay?" "Is 'King of the Hill' copyrighted?" Leo gave me a stern look. I held back my giggles as I shrugged.

"Anyways... the only way you can get past me is to use traditional close quarters fighting. Got it?" Raph frowned. "Whatever you say, Fearless Leader. Let's just get it over with." Leo jumped off the roof and we followed. He started to lead us towards Chinatown with us just feet behind him. Once we reached the other side of the buildings, Raph stopped us in our tracks. "Guys, I've got an idea," he whispered to us. "Let's mess around with Leo."

"Like how?" "He's gonna be expecting us to use that traditional, right? Well, let's surprise him! Everyone use something different, so he won't see us coming." "Yeah!" "Cool." Raph looked over at me. "What do you say?" I blinked. Was Raph asking for my permission? Well, I did tend to play the 'Big Sister Card' pretty strictly every now and again, although it is pretty funny and ironic because I'm the youngest in the family, so I guess it wasn't surprising. I turned to look at Leo as he stood on top of the gate. We all had had a long night, and maybe messing around and having some fun would do him some good.

"Let's do it." Raph grinned. "Good answer." A few minutes later we were all on the opposite side of the Chinatown gate. Leo took out one of his katana's and stepped out onto the long wires connecting the gate to the roof we were on. He stopped halfway through and stood there, waiting. I elbowed Mikey, and when he turned, I held out the T-Pod and some headphones to him. He grinned before taking them.

The others smirked and winked at him as he walked out to the edge. He popped the earbuds into his head before he started to walk out onto the wires. "What's up, ninja? HA!" Leo blinked. "What are you doing, Mikey?" Mikey didn't respond. He continued to listen to his music as he started dancing on top of the wires, looking like he had not a care in the world.

Leo frowned as he advanced on him with his katana. Mikey opened his eyes just in time to block his attack, and also lay down a few of his own, knocking Leo back a few feet. He continued to dance as he did so, as well. "Real funny. Come on!" Leo urged. Mikey grinned widely at his brother. Then, he bounced onto the wire, flew up in the air over Leo, and landed perfectly onto the gate on the other side. "Made it! HA! WOO!" 

"That's not fair! That was not a real fight!" Donnie fisted bumped Raph and I before simply walking onto the wire himself. Leo turned to look at him, and grinned. "Ah, okay..." Donnie reached behind him and pulled out a throwing star. I could almost see the wheels turning and the calculations being made in his head as he focused in on his brother. Then, without hesitation, he immediately started throwing star after star at all corners around him.

Some went straight for Leo, others bounced off buildings towards him, and Leo was forced to block each one with his katana. "Are you kidding me, Donnie?" Leo was so occupied with having to stop the stars that Donnie was able to easily maneuver past him and join Mikey on the other side on the gate. By the time Leo was able to finally catch his breath Donnie was already celebrating with Mikey. "Ow! King of the mountain, baby!" "Ha! That's my ninja!" Leo turned and started fuming at them. Raph and I grinned at each other. He gestured outward, allowing me to go first. I grinned as I walked to the edge. I waited until Leo had turned before I started to walk out onto the line.

"Alright," he huffed. "Shouldn't have any problems with you, huh?" "Normally, you'd be right," I said as I took out my tessen. "But... I'm feeling like having a little fun tonight." I opened my fan up and instantly tossed it forward. It spun towards his face, but he ducked backwards as it missed and spun back. I caught it in my hands and tossed it again, and Leo tried to duck and block the fan with his katana. He ended up losing his balance and fell off, grabbing onto the wires as he hung off, his feet dangling towards the ground below.

I sprinted forward across the wires, reaching up and grabbing my tessen as I got closer to the gate until I finally reached the edge. "Haha!" I laughed happily. "You guys may be the Kings of the mountain, but I'm the Queen of the mountain, woo!" Mikey raised his hand, and I reached up for a high-three. Donnie came up behind me, raising his fist, which I met with my own. I turned to see Leo had managed to climb his way back onto the wires, clutching his katana tightly. He was breathing heavily, now looking very irritated. He slowly turned back towards the opposite building, where Raph was still sitting. "So, what's your trick gonna be?" "Tricks? What're you guys talking about?" 

And then he reached down and pulled out one of his sais, tossing it directly at Leo. Leo held up his katana to block it, and it fell to the ground below. "Hey! Ninjas never throw their weapons!" Raph sprung up from his spot and ran forward on the wires at full speed. He hunched down and ran smack dab into Leo, knocking him off balance and making him fall down to the ground.

I gasped, my sister instincts immediately kicking in as I leapt down below and ran over to him. "Leo, are you alright?" He groaned in response. There was a sudden clang as his other katana fell directly in front of him. Raph had taken his and marked on it the word 'Lame-o-nardo' in the dust on the metal. The other three had jumped from the gate and landed in a huddle. They all whooped and hollered as they high-threed each other. 

I ignored them as I went to put a hand on Leo's shell. "Bro, are you hurt-?" But he smacked my hand away as he got to his feet. He turned to glare at all of us as he pointed a shaking finger. "Why do you always undermined my training?!" "You just want us to fight exactly like you fight!" Raph snapped. "But the whole point is to make it to the dragon gate any way we can, right?"

I gulped. "He's got a point, Leo. I mean, in a life-or-death situation, anyway we can get by is-" "Oh, of course you agree with him!" he yelled, turning towards me. "You were up there playing tricks like the rest of them!" "Don't you start on her!" Raph growled threateningly, taking a few steps forward. "Guys, stop it!" I quickly got between them, holding my arms out.

Flex!

Suddenly the trashcans were pushed back as I jumped while we all look at the direction. "What was that?" Donnie asked confused, I became nervous. Dang it! I have got to learn to control my powers better. Leo groaned angrily, turning away from us. I looked over at Raph, who had stopped walking when I had spoken up. "Whatever. C'mon guys," he said, turning back to the others. "Coming Cleo?" I looked over at Leo, who had been looking over at me, but immediately turned away as I looked at him. I felt a huge pang in my stomach. "Yeah... I'm coming." I stuffed my hands in my pockets as I followed the others, leaving Leo behind.

(-)

It had been two nights since the training incident. Leo has been relatively quiet during that time. Not like he didn't talk at all; he just didn't say much if it wasn't related to training or patrol. I still felt bad about how training ended up the other night. I really thought that us having some fun might have lightened him up a little bit. But even as we rode out on patrol for more mutagen, he remained silent. Mikey, who seemed to be the only one other than me who felt bad, decided to ask first.

"You're not mad at us, are you Leo? I'll give you Mutant Puss Monsters 23 if you're not mad." I turned my head from my station as I heard, seeing Mikey holding up one of his many comics. Leo looked at his brother for a moment, frown still on his face. However, the stoic expression seemed to soften as he looked at Mikey's worried little eyes. Leo lowered the comic from his face. "I'm not mad. I just think you guys need to be a little better at following my orders."

"Aww... it's too bad I can't play my violin while I drive," Raph said rudely. I frowned at him as Leo glared. "What's your problem lately, Raph? You still jealous you're not leading the team-" "Stop the Shellraiser!" Donnie perked his head up, his scanner suddenly beeping loud and fast. "Scanner's picked up another mutagen canister nearby!"

Leo stopped talking as Raph quickly put the van in park. So quickly in fact, that the Shellraiser skidded to a sharp halt, causing us all to jolt forward. Since I had my seatbelt, I just slammed back into my seat. Mikey, however, flew several feet forward and landed on the floor and Donnie smacked his head against his computer screen.

"And that's why you wear your seatbelt," I groaned, rubbing my chest as I unbuckled. We all exited the van and stepped out. It was very late, and the only source of light was a nearby streetlamp. Donnie led the way with his scanner as we all followed close behind. "We're close, guys. Signal's coming from the basement." "Okay," Leo started. "Let's not make any sudden moves before I give the-" He was cut off by a loud screech of metal.

The other three had moved forward, despite his instructions, and had moved the large metal grate and gone into the chute. "... orders." "At least they didn't do anything crazy," I said encouragingly, running forward and hopping down into the chute. Donnie continued to lead us in the basement. So far, all that we saw were dusty walls and hundreds of wooden crates.

"You guys see anything?" I asked as I shifted a few boxes to the side. "Not yet." "It's really close guys." There was a minute of silence, then... "Oh yeah! Found it!" I turned my head to see Mikey marching into a room, where a full, intact canister lay in the center of the floor in plain view. That's weird...

"Go Ninja, go ninja, go!" Mikey knelt by the canister and grabbed it, looking very proud of himself. But out of nowhere, Leo screamed. "Don't!" But Mikey had already picked it up. There were several loud bangs that echoed around the room. I looked up to see metal doors slamming shut on all of the exits. "See! If you would listen to me-" "Easier than I thought."

We all froze. I knew that voice. I kept myself from groaning as I turned. Sure enough, standing on a tower of crates, looking very proud and full of herself, was... "Karai!" Leo said, surprised. "Long time, eh Leo?" Before we could respond there was movement from all sides. I whipped around as I pulled out my tessen. At least a dozen Foot Soldiers seemed to have appeared out of thin air and had surrounded us from all sides. "Your lady friend is getting really good at setting ambushes," said Donnie. Raph barked, "Ha! They're just Foot Soldiers. Won't even break a sweat!"

Raph leapt forward first, and then so did we. I went straight for the two in front of me, holding my tessen level with my shoulder. They both swung their katanas at me, but I ducked backwards, sliding forward on my legs. I immediately spun around in the air, kicking them both in the head as I flung my tessen out. It slashed across their faces before shooting back towards me, and I caught it. The Foot Soldiers looked like they were off balance for a moment.

Then, their heads shot up to look at me, and their eyes suddenly start to light up red. "What the-" They snapped up and started running at me again. I ran forward and at the last minute I jumped into the air, summersaulted and brought my foot down to hit the right one's head. But at that moment, it reached up and grabbed my ankle. I gasped as I was slammed forward onto the ground and had a huge foot pressed down onto my back. "They armored up or something?" I heard Mikey ask.

I looked up. From what I could see, the others were having just as much trouble as I was. I flipped myself around and tripped the Foot Soldier that was on top of me off. After getting to my feet I immediately backed away to get closer to my bros, and they seemed to have the same idea. "Everybody, fall back!" Leo suddenly ordered. Raph shouted. "What?! We're running away?" "It's not running, it's a tactical retreat. Move!"

Leo immediately turned and began running towards an old, opened elevator shaft nearby. I was about to turn and follow when I noticed none of the others did. "I don't care what Leo says. I don't run from the Foot." Raph then leapt forward and swung at a group of ninjas. They each laid one blow on him before he was on the ground in front of us again. The looks on the others faces showed that they were no longer in favor of staying.

"This way!" We all finally headed in Leo's direction. After slipping through the broken doors I grabbed onto the metal beams on the side and began to climb upwards, the others following close behind me. The Foot Soldiers began following us up the shaft as well and were gaining on us. I heard a yell and saw that a ninja had grabbed Mikey and was hanging by his ankle. "Get off me, creep!"

Leo jumped forward and jumped off the ninja's head, causing him to fall while Leo landed back on the wall. We watched the ninja fall until he reached the bottom. Then, we saw his head suddenly pop off like a bottle cap, and power sparks started shooting out of his next. "Those guys are robots?" Donnie gasped. "Move your shell, Donnie! Go!" Leo snapped. Raph was the first to reach the next level. Once there he reached down and helped Mikey, Donnie and I out onto the floor.

I sat there catching my breath as Raph remained at the edge. "Hurry Leo!" he yelled. I didn't hear Leo respond. I got up quickly to look in, and I saw that all of the soldiers started to gang up on him. They were grabbing him, clinging to him, doing whatever they could to keep him from getting up. One of Leo's hands remained attached to the wall, the other reached out for Raph's hand. I reached behind me to get some ninja stars to throw at the Foot, but just as I did Leo's hand slipped.

His body seemed to slowly fade into the darkness slowly as he fell down, the soldiers falling with him as he yelled all the way down. "Leo!" "No!" I cried as I leaned forward, but Raph stood up and pulled me back away from the ledge. I struggled for a moment before allowing him to move me and gently set me down on the ground. "What happened?" Donnie asked. I felt close to tears as Raph straightened up. "Leo's gone... and it's all my fault."

(-)

Leo's POV:
This was as bad as it could be. We were nowhere near finding all the mutagen, our plan to escape the Foot failed, and now I was hanging in a cage in... wherever this place was. Well, no. It was worse than that. Karai had to add insult to injury by mocking me. "You know, I bet I'd make a small fortune if I sold you to a science lab," she gloated, waving my katanas around aimlessly as she paced around the room. "Could you imagine the press? 'Talking Ninja Turtle Found in Sewer'."

I sighed. "Sweet. Captured and now totally humiliated. Awesome day, Leo. Awesome day." "You deserve everything you're getting, Leo," Karai spat, suddenly angry. "After you betrayed me last time." I wanted to respond, but my mouth remained shut. As bad as Karai might be, I betrayed her first. As mad as I am right now, I still can't forgive myself for that. I should have listened to Cleo. There was the sound of heavy footsteps and I looked down through the cage bars. There were several more of the Foot soldier robots from before. They were all walking further into the room and forming a circle all around me on the floor. "Don't you love it? My new robotic Foot Bots follow my orders to a T. No arguing, no prodding. They do whatever I want. Cool, right?"

"Yeah, convenient. Nice." "I've been teaching the Foot Bots new skills," she smirked. "But, now I'm turning the training over to someone new." She took out a knife and tossed it forward. It cut the rope of the cage and I fell down heavily. This caused the cage to break and fall apart off of me. I looked up to see Karai step in front of me before she tossed my katanas down on the floor.

"Foot Bots. De-shell him." I gasped and instantly swiped up my katanas, slicing at the first bot that swung at me. The others looked at me before advancing. I dodged several pairs of throwing stars before circling around the room. I cut through the bots that were in my way until I reached the other side of the room and turned. I blocked an oncoming attach with my blades, but I was soon kicked in the side and backed into a corner.

I looked up in time to see them charging at me again. They just kept coming! I managed to cut up two who advanced, but one managed to kick me hard so that I was back in the middle of the bots again. I raised my katanas up just in time to block a set of blades from coming down on my head. "You spend years learning a fighting style, and my robots learn it in seconds-from you. Fighting just improves their skills."

It wasn't long before each of the bots were on me. They knocked me off balance and took my katanas, pinning me to the ground so hard it felt like my plastron might crack. I struggled as best as I could, glancing up to see Karai standing there, staring at me. "Karai!" I grunted. "I never got to know my mother, because your rodent master took her away from me!" "Splinter...?"

I shook my head as I managed to push the Foot Bots off of me, I jumped to my feet and ran up to her, several more bots stopping me in my tracks. "That's a lie!" Karai glared at me. "Get him out of my sight." The Foot Bots started to drag me away. I fought against them, not taking my eyes off of Karai as she turned away from me. "Karai, listen to me! Splinter would never hurt your mother." Karai seemed to turn her head slightly before walking away. The Foot Bots pulled me further way, and I could feel tape being slapped across my mouth.

(-)

Cleo's POV:
"Okay, so I hacked into some security footage," Donnie zoomed in on the little screens on his computer. "There! It's Karai's van." "They took Leo to the Bradford Dojo!" piped up Mikey. "Why would Karai go there of all places?" I asked. "It doesn't matter why," said Raph. "What matters is that we know where Leo is. Let's do this!" "Wait, so your leader now?" "Whoa whoa whoa, hold up. I'm the smartest so-"

"Guys!" I snapped, making them all turn to stare at me. "Now is not the time to be playing Hot Potato with Leo's leadership. We don't have any idea what Karai is doing, so we need to go get Leo back now before she does something bad to him!" "She's right," Raph stood up. "Leo needs us. And listen, this time we fight how Leo wanted us to fight-the way he fights."

"Well said," Donnie agreed, getting to his feet as well. "Alright, let's get going!" We wasted no more time as we left the dojo in a rush. It felt like seconds before we had reached the rooftops on the surface. Mikey was up in front with Raph since he remembered how to get there, while Donnie and I brought up the rear. Not many words were spoken between us. We all wanted to remain as undetectable as possible.

Soon enough we reached the right building. Getting up top was easy enough, but we had to make sure that we wouldn't be spotted getting in there. "We can't sneak in," he whispered. "Security camera." "No sweat, I got this." Raph reached around, and suddenly pulled out a small pigeon. It sat in his palm, its crooked eyes staring blankly as its head twitched. After getting over the surprise of the bird's appearance, I was about to ask how he got the pigeon when Donnie shook his head.

"It's not just one. The entire roof is bracketed by surveillance." Raph just smiled as he gently stroked the pigeon's head. I could've sworn I heard him mumble something before he lifted his hand, and the pigeon flew up and landed on the skylight. It started cooing and calling loudly, and after a second several more pigeons came by. Then some more. The entire roof was flooded with pigeons, more than enough to cover the cameras.

"Let's go." Raph quickly walked towards the skylight and opened the hatch. Donnie crawled inside and Mikey did after. I stopped in front of it to grin at Raph. "You know, if this whole ninja thing doesn't work out, I heard they're holding tryouts for the next Disney princess, if you're interested." Raph's eyes glared at me, but I could tell from his expression that he wanted to laugh. "Shut up and get in there." I nodded and hopped right in. I saw him give the pigeons a thumbs up before climbing in and shutting the hatch.

Things were immediately serious again. We all carefully snuck across the beams up by the ceiling, not opening our mouths for anything. It took us a minute before we found the room where Leo was. He was tied up to a chair and had duct tape on his mouth. Several of the Foot Bots from before surrounded him, clearly guarding him. Leo didn't notice us until we were on the beams directly above him.

But when he looked up and saw us, he didn't look happy or relieved like I'd hoped. He looked shocked and flustered. He started grunting and making noises, shaking his head wildly at us. I blinked. Something wasn't right. "Hey, guys..." But the other three had already jumped down, knocking down the Foot Bots. I rolled my eyes and leapt down in front of Leo. He continued to thrash his head around and attempted to speak through the tape on his mouth. "Calm down, bro, let me get this off of you," I told him. I walked around him as I took out one of my kamas and cut the ropes. As soon as he was free, he yanked the tape off of his mouth and suddenly shouted, "It's a trap!"

Before we could respond, what seemed like a dozen Foot Bots suddenly flooded into the room. There was the sound of doors sliding open, and I turned my head to see Karai standing behind us with even more Foot Bots beside her. She had a huge smirk on her face that I was tempted to smack right off. "Nice, Leo! You could've said something!" Mikey commented. "Uh, Mikey. I think that's what Leo's been trying to tell us." I said annoyingly.

"You got two choices, sweetheart," Raph threatened, grabbing onto his sais. "Let us go or walk away from this inside a sandwich bag." "Sorry, Raphael. Can't let you go," Karai stepped down from the desk she had been standing on and sat down in her chair. "It's not really that personal with the rest of you-I just need you for bait." "She wants Splinter," Leo explained, glaring up at Karai. "Your sensei will eventually track you here, and when he shows up, Splinter will know what it's like to truly suffer," she snapped her fingers. "Restrain them."

I instantly pulled out my other kama as the boys took out their weapons. The Foot Bots attacked us without hesitation, and I narrowly missed getting my neck hit with a shikoro before blocking it. "Let's smash some robots!" Raph hollered as he sliced through the two bots nearest him. "They're only 1000 times better at fighting than regular Foot," said Donnie as he struggled to fight the two around him.

I shoved the bot away from my throat and tossed one of my kamas at him, hitting him in the head. I ran out and grabbed it just as another bot stuck its foot out and tripped me. I had barely gotten myself back up before I looked up and saw two bots throwing their own kamas at me exactly how I just did. I had to flattened myself out and roll away to avoid them. "My Foot Bots know every move," said Karai. "Every skill. Every attack."

"We're out of real-estate," Donnie grunted. I sat up and looked at the advancing Foot Bots, feeling a little lost as to what to do next. Then Leo suddenly slid in-between us and the bots, holding his katanas up. "If I order you to run away, will you guys listen this time?" "Heck yeah!" said Mikey. "And we can still call it a tactical retreat, if you want." We all got up and immediately started to climb up towards the ceiling. I looked down to make sure Leo was following us before continuing to climb up to the hatch on the skylight. "Foot Bots! Don't let them escape!" 

I didn't even bother looking back as we reached the roof and immediately started running across, trying to get as much distance between us and the bots as possible. "Our moves are useless!" Raph snapped. "What do we do, Leo?" I asked as I ran up to him. "I don't know," he responded. "They know every move I can make. Every fighting style, every skill, every- Wait a second..." He stopped talking, a look of realization on his face. "Remember King of the Mountain?" "Yeah, sure." "What about it?"

We all jumped down from the last roof and landed into a small park. Just as the bots following us landed in the park too, Leo shouted loudly to get their attention, tossing one of his katanas into the air. I stared in confusion just as he tossed his other katana at the bots, who had all been staring up at the katana in the air. The other one went straight through the head of one of the bots, and the others charged forward as Leo caught the katana out of the air. "Oh, I get what you're saying!" said Donnie. "Be unpredictable. Do our thing!"

I turned my head as I looked at the group of bots coming my way. "Be unpredictable. Alright..." I gripped my kamas tightly and ran forward, tossing both out to go above their heads. I leaned back as far as I could go and slid between the middle one's legs. As I did, I reached down and pulled my tessen out of its holster, stood up, and sliced the back of the middle bot's head. The other two turned to look at me, and I smirked. Before they could do more than raise their weapons, my kamas finally fell down, right through their heads. I replaced my tessen and picked up both of my kamas. "We might actually have a chance now."

I heard a high-pitched yell, and I looked up to the building next to me. Leo and Karai were both standing on the edge, swinging their weapons at each other. I glared. "I don't think so." I ran towards the building and leapt onto the fire escape, climbing up as fast as I can. As soon as I reached the top I saw Karai standing in front of Leo, her back facing me. I knelt down and quietly crept up closer and closer towards her. "You might as well give up now!" she yelled. "The more you fight those robots, the more they adapt!"

Leo glanced behind Karai to look at me for a fraction of a second. He looked back at her, a small smirk on his face. "Your robots may know our moves, but you don't!" And he threw his katana directly at her. Karai was caught off guard for a moment before blocking it and knocking it into the air. "Fool! A ninja never throws away their weapon!" I grinned as I grabbed my tessen. "That's the point!"

Before she could turn around or even move, I ran up and punched her in the ribs. She grunted as I spun around and kicked her hard in her chest, knocking her back several feet. By now, Leo had caught his katana out of the air and had advanced on her, pushing her further towards the ledge of the building. She glanced behind her, smirked, and then leapt backwards off the edge. I blinked and ran forward. I hadn't even noticed that we had made it back to the Chinatown gateway.

Karai had landed on top of the gate and Leo, and I followed after her. She was visibly becoming angrier by the second. "Think you've won?" She blocked Leo's katana and then kicked him in the chest, knocking him down so he almost fell off the gate. I ran up from behind her and swung at her with my tessen. She ducked and went to stab me in the neck, but I moved to the side and swung my leg out underneath her.

She quickly slid down the side and fell down to the ground, landing with a loud thud. I leapt down and ran over, kicking her tanto out of the way. She tried to sit up, but I reached down and held my tessen up to her throat, holding her in place. Leo, who had since gotten to the ground safely, walked over to us. He grinned at me before looking down very seriously at Karai.

"Shredder is lying to you," he said firmly. "Splinter would never hurt an innocent." Karai didn't respond. She glanced between me and Leo, looking much calmer than before. Leo gave me a stiff nod, and I lowered my tessen as I stood back on my feet. Leo looked back down at Karai as he took a step towards her. "Your grudge is with me. Stay away from my family, and my Sensei. Understood?"

Karai looked up at him, brows furrowed, an ugly frown on her red lips. Leo turned and ran back towards the building, jumping up to the fire escape. I, however, remained where I was. "Cleo." I didn't move. "You and the boys go ahead," I told him. "I'll catch up." Leo didn't move for a second. He nodded, gave Karai a stern look, then continued to climb back towards the others. I put my tessen back into its holster as I looked at her as well.

"You can get up now." She glared as she quickly stood up, brushing dirty off of her armor. "What's the matter with you, Karai?" "Excuse me-" "Don't pretend," I cut her off. "You think I don't know how you got those bots? Geez, you're willingly working with the Kraang now?! Who was the one who wanted them off the planet just as much as we did? Who was the one who came to me for help?"

Karai folded her arms. "Times change, warrior princess," she smirked. "What? You didn't actually start to trust me, did you? I thought you knew who I was." "I thought I did, too," I snapped. "I thought you were better than Shredder. I thought you had enough sense to know that he puts his stupid vendetta above everything else, including you. But, no! Like father, like daughter! You two are just the same; you two won't stop at nothing until you get want and that's by getting your revenge!"

Karai let out an angry sound as she reached behind her to grab her tanto, but it wasn't there. It was still on the ground, several feet behind me. "I didn't stay behind to fight, so don't even bother." Karai lowered her hands. "We had our fun, warrior princess," she said. "But now it's time to be serious about this. This can only end one way, with one of our masters and their apprentices dead. Only then will the fighting stop." I shook my head. "Whatever you say, Karai."

I took a step back to follow where Leo had gone but paused and looked back at her. "I don't know what Shredder has told you, but he is lying," I said seriously. "And Leo's right. Unlike your master, my father isn't evil enough to hurt an innocent person, no matter what." Karai snorted. "And what proof do you have of that, might I ask?" "Think about it, Karai. If my father is evil enough to hurt someone you love, why would he raise the turtles as his own? Why would he train them if he thought the Shredder was dead? Why would he save me as a baby if he was so evil?"

She frowned. "What do you mean he saved you when you were a baby?" I realized how much I had said, and I mentally slapped myself. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that you need to figure out your vendetta against Leo, and you need to realize that Shredder is using you, before you get yourself killed." Karai folded her arms and looked away from me, looking stubborn and irritated. I shook my head before turning away from her. "Please, believe me, Karai," I said, much kinder and softer than before. "It's not too late. You can still save yourself before Shredder takes you down with him." And I ran off in the same direction as Leo.

(-)

Things were much better once we got back to the lair. Once we had a moment to relax we all started to take turns on the pinball machine. Try as hard as we did, we just couldn't beat our own high scores. We didn't even bother trying to beat Leo's, none of us could do that. Heck, it took Mikey a total of 5 tries to surpass his own personal high score. "You guys wanna play?" Donnie asked. "I'm good. You guys have fun," said Leo. He and Raph turned and walked into the pit, Leo grinning and Raph frowning.

I watched as Raph suddenly slung his arm around Leo's shoulders and brought him in for a tight hug. Leo groaned at the added weight as Raph spoke up. "It's good to have yah back, Leo," he said. "I mean it, brother." Leo smiled as he pushed himself up. "Thanks, Raph." They both raised their fists and did a small handshake before Raph went back to the pinball machine, challenging the other two for the best high score. I grinned at him.

I was about to say something to Leo when I noticed he wasn't there anymore. I turned my head around the room until I spotted him on the other side, going into the dojo. I looked at the others to make sure they were distracted by their game before swiftly walking up to the dojo's entrance. I peeked in and saw Leo sitting next to father, who must have been meditating before.

"I need to ask you some questions," Leo continued. "About Karai..." "It is late, Leonardo," Father stood up. "These questions will have to wait for another time." Leo stood up, too. "She said... you took her mother away from her. I know it's not true, right?" I froze, staring at the back of father's head. Her mother?! That's who Karai thought father had killed? But why? "No. It is not true," Father said genuinely. "But the truth is... almost as difficult."

"Please, Sensei," Leo begged. "Tell me... trust me." Father, who had been making his way to his room, stopped in his tracks. I thought he was just going to tell Leo sternly that it was late and that he could explain later. But, as he turned around I knew that that was not what he was about to say. A moment later, he said four little words that made my heart stop. "Karai... is my daughter."

Flex!

Some of the weapons fell off their place as Leo and father quickly turn to them, I quickly ran before Leo and father noticed me. I ran into my room, quickly shutting the door. I lean against the door as I slid down on my butt and pull my knees to my chest. Why is this happening? How am I able to do that? I tried to control them the best I can, but every time I do, I lose control every time I feel shocked, scared or angry.

Flex!

I panic as my eyes widen when I saw all my stuff floating in the air, I hugged myself as I cried. I don't deserve all of this! I want to tell my family about it, but I don't know how to tell them. I don't want to hurt them! What am I going to do?