Searching for April O'Neal

Chapter 20: Someone Shall Die (PART TWO)

The place didn't look evil. It didn't really look like anything. Just an empty hallway. No doors. No pictures on the wall. Everything was just white. Bright, bright white. It definitely wasn't dark, either, like Shredder's Lair.

"My eyes burn," Raph muttered. "What is the point of these bright freaking lights?"

"Dunno," Donnie answered. He had a hand up in front of his eyes to ensure that he wouldn't be blinded by the lights.

"Where do you think April is?" Casey asked. "There aren't even any doors in this hallway."

"Probably at the end of the hall," Raph said, sounding like he was talking to a Kindergartener. Casey didn't reply.

"Okay, guys," Leo said quietly. "When we see April, we get her out of danger. We avoid fighting anything. Our strategy here is to retreat."

"Seriously?" Raph complained.

"I'm the leader, okay, Raph? So I get to lead, and you get to follow," Leo retorted almost immediately. "And Raph, you can stay with Jamie to make sure she doesn't get killed."

Raph growled as he took out his sai.

"I'm not helpless," Jamie said. "You make it sound like I'm some sort of princess."

"Well...I can't have you dying," Leo told her.

"That is so incredibly sexist," Jamie said angrily. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't protect myself!"

"It's not because you're a girl!" Leo exclaimed. "It's because you've had no past experience in fighting for all I know!"

Jamie crossed her arms and was about to make a remark about how she once pepper sprayed someone in the face and then kicked them so hard they had to go to the hospital when a voice behind the odd group said, "This is unexpected."

Everyone spun around all at once, and there was Tang Shen standing there, a giant smirk on her face.

"Donnie. Raph. Jamie. Go find April," Leo whispered, not breaking eye contact with Tang Shen. No one argued.

Casey, Mikey, and Leo made a sort-of wall so that the other three could run off to look for April.

Tang Shen pretended not to notice that three of them were running. "I honestly didn't think you were going to find this place until I told you where it was."

"You underestimated us," Leo told her firmly.

"Apparently," she said thoughtfully. Leo noted that the only thing on her was a sword. She was wearing sweat pants and a close-fitted black T-shirt, with her hair pulled up into a bun. "Good luck getting out of here, though. This is the only exit, and I don't plan on moving."

Impossible, Leo thought. She had to have gotten behind them somehow...unless she'd just been spying on them from the alley all along. He didn't know. But if she was telling the truth and that was the only way out, then they'd have to figure out some way to defeat her.

"Just you? Against three of us?" Casey asked, sounding cocky. Leo wanted to kick him. Every time someone asked that the villain got a bunch of henchmen to come out of nowhere and kick their butts.

Surprisingly, however, Tang Shen just nodded. "Just me. But before you ask: No, I am not afraid of you defeating me. Because I've had decades and decades of training. You, Casey, just hit things with your hockey sticks. You, Michelangelo, hasn't fought since Shredder got his hands on you." Mikey visibly stiffened, and Leo cringed. "And, you, Leonardo...I've just had a lot more practice."

None of them responded so Tang Shen continued, "Do you want to try and attack me or are you just going to all stand there?"

"I think we're going to stand here," Leo firmly told her, putting a hand on Casey's shoulder as he stepped forward. Casey sighed but didn't try to go any further.

"Great. I can just talk, then." Tang Shen switched her sword to her left hand, twirling it expertly. "So how did that Kraang serum I got ahold of work out for you, Mikey?"

Leo's heart dropped. She had injected Mikey with a Kraang serum?! That was why he'd been all crazy...

He turned to Mikey, who had got completely stiff.

"It felt great, didn't it?" she said so quietly, it was almost a whisper. "Not fearing anything. Even if it was just temporary, it felt exhilarating. Like you could rule the world and no one could stop you. Like you were already ruling it, and no one was standing in your way. And it was amazing."

Leo expected Mikey to shake his head, or deny it, or something. But instead, he just slowly nodded.

And this made Leo angrier than he'd ever been in his life. He didn't know why exactly, he just knew that he wanted this woman to die.

So without even telling Mikey or Casey what he was doing, he charged Tang Shen, both swords raised.

Someone is going to die. And it'll be her!