The Last Turtle Yokai

Chapter 8

"I've been working on squirrelling away enough money to live off of, possibly for the rest of my life if I could manage to get enough. I opened an account at the most secure bank in the Hidden City years ago with the someday plan of running away. This bank is so cool!"

She had started flapping her uninjured hand before abruptly stopping and tucking it under her thigh.

"They link your account to you through this ritual with a sample of blood so no one can access your money, even magically disguised as you. And you can set who inherits when you die through giving a sample of their blood and the account automatically switches over a week after death! They even encourage that you not tell the heir to avoid safety issues, so consent isn't required, just their blood." Maria flicked her hand and a credit card looking thing blinked into existence between her fingers. "Total independence. I've been siphoning money from Big Mama through the card I was given for food and necessities for years." She motioned again and it disappeared.

"And she never noticed?" April asked.

"A) she's too rich to do her own accounting and b) it pays to have a fast food palette in a high class environment. I'd just move a hundred or two to my bank account for meals then get McDonald's or something. No hotel staff is gonna snitch to Mama about deliveries when you're a known Nexus Champion."

Donnie raised an eyebrow, then asked, "So who inherits your account if you die? I'm assuming you didn't leave it back to Big--"

"NO ONE!" She blurted out way to fast to be believable.

"Ooooh do you have secret partner? An ex? Saucy little something on the side?" Leo wiggled his eyebrows with a smirk.

"No! Stop that! I already told you, I'm ace!"

"That just attraction. We don't know your relationship preferences." Leo shrugged, a little too pleased with himself for getting a rise out of her.

"Anyways," Maria rolled her eyes. "Even if I did want a relationship right now, Big Mama tasked me with seducing her next big champion. Anyone I'd date would be at risk of ending up in the Nexus."

"Guess you just need to date a champion." Leo flexed his muscles in exaggerated joking motions.

"Ew."

"Ouch!" he placed a hand over his heart dramatically.

Everyone cracked up. Raph laughed so hard he ended up rolling on the floor.

"Sorry! Sorry! It just slipped out! Blame it on the morphine." She covered her mouth to hide a smile, also trying to stifle her own laughter.

Unbeknownst to the others in their revelry, Casey Junior's face changed to that of one considering a serious thought. While no memories had come to him, Casey had a strange deja vu like feeling. It was causing him to reconsider if he really had known Maria in the future and if they had just looked different than she did now.

Before the group could continue their conversation, a voice from across the lair interrupted them.

"I'm here for our weekly 'family' dinner! And Cassandra is with me." Barron Draxum yelled from the main room. "Where are you all? I know you didn't forget Sunday supper."

"Oh shit. We totally did." Mikey said, jumping up and running to the door. Leaning out into the hall, he yelled back, "We're in the med bay!"

"God, what have you all done now..." They could hear him exclaim in exasperation. 

Mikey plopped back down into his beanbag chair.

Raph gave him a look.

"I have lots of time to whip something up. It's fine." He waved him off.

Barry and Cassandra appeared in the doorway, stopping short to take in the unexpected scene.

"Ah, the Child." Barry's face dropped from angry to neutral.

"I go by Maria now." Maria gave him an awkward half smile, embarrassed at the state she was in for this unexpected reunion.

"Nice choice. I never understood why she didn't give you a proper name." He shook his head. "You look well. Relatively speaking."

"It's good to see you, too, Bear-bear."

"Wait, Barron Draxum is the alchemist that cared for you?" Leo asked, taken completely off guard.

"Yeah."

"You worked for Big Mama?" Mikey raised an eyebrow at Draxum.

"I did not work for her! She invested in my experiments and I gave her my failures for her battle nexus. At best it was a tentative partnership." Barry defended, walking over to look at Maria's injuries.

"You took care of her kid." Raph commented.

"More like her pet dog. All she cared about was what the child could do for her. Used the baby for publicity then exploited the child for personal tasks. Five years old and sent away for a human education to use later. Comes back permanently after graduating to be essentially hired muscle and get dropped in the battle nexus for any little mistake. Big Mama would just send them to me to patch up for the next fight." Barry scowled, having put on his readers, inspecting the x-rays Donnie pulled up.

"You went to human school?" April asked, turning back to Maria.

"Yeah, Big Mama didn't care for having an annoying child around, delegating my care to her staff. Eventually she sent me to Canada to live with a lizard yokai couple there during the school year. She thought getting me a good human education would help her later on. I guess she was right." Maria trailed off, obviously thinking of something unpleasant.

"Do I need to ask how you got these injuries?" Draxum looked up from the x-rays and at Maria over the rims of his reading glasses.

"The usual. Nexus battle. Mama played dirty 'cause she was mad."

Barry nodded. "So you finally got away?"

"Yeah."

"I'm glad."

There was a tense silence for a moment as the others didn't know what to say.

"Awwww the great warrior scientist, Barron Draxum, has finally gone full softy!" Leo clasped his hands together making a cutsy face.

"I have not!" Barry shot him a glare.

"No you're right. You were always soft." Maria retorted.

"Especially for turtle children, apparently." Leo added.

Leo and Maria shared a 'props' hand slap, smugly grinning at Barron.