From the Shadows: Warriors || BOOK 2 (TMNT)

Chapter 16. The Plan

    "You have done well, Athena," Shredder speaks rather gravelly.

     Athena lowers her head. "Of course, Master Shredder."

     She glances down at Raphael, who is forced to kneel before the Shredder by the Foot Bots. He glared up at her and rolls his eyes.

     "Don't sound too excited," Raph scoffs. "It wasn't exactly a fair fight."

     "Take him away," Shredder orders.

     The bots pick the turtle up, dragging him out of Shredder's throne room. Raphael doesn't struggle against the robots. It would be futile, even if he could escape from their grasp, he wouldn't get very far with the mutants standing guard. As he was taken away, Raphael fixated his choleric gaze from Athena to Shredder himself, up until they were no longer in sight.

     Shredder turns his attention to Karai. "Prepare Baxter's laboratory. Ensure he is ready."

     Karai bows. "Right away, Master Shredder."

     Karai turns and exits the room, leaving Athena alone. She stood, awkwardly, awaiting the Master's next words. She anticipated being taken just as Raph had, to be locked away until it was her time to be experimented on. But no such orders were uttered.

     "You are dismissed."

     Confused, Athena offers a quick bow and shuffles out of the room. Athena had thought she and the rest of the recruits would be used as human dummies for whatever experiment Baxtor Stockman had concocted. Yet, Shredder allowed her to walk free from his throne room with no indication that he had any intent on using her for his experiments. The more Athena thought about it, the more she worried about Shredder knowing she had listened in on his conversation with the fly mutant. It was quite possible he only said such a thing to spark fear and worry in her– feelings she would most certainly share with Raphael. Even worse, Athena gathered that the turtles were the true targets for Shredder's experiments. It could be plausible that she was just a backup.

     Athena took quick strides towards her room. She figured Raph wouldn't have much time and she needed to warn his brothers. She worried briefly about what they would think about her. Athena shook her head, suppressing those worries. Now was no time to dread the thoughts of ruining her friendships.

     Leonardo had already begun to suspect Raph's absence back at their lair.

     The leader emerged from the lab, Donnie following close behind. Mikey sat in front of the TV watching cartoons (although he was really keeping an eye out for Raph's return and making sure no one questioned his whereabouts).

     "Mikey," Leo begins, "where's Raph?"

     Mikey shrugs. "His room maybe? All I know is he doesn't want to be bothered."

     "Isn't that how he always is?" Donnie questions.

     "Well, it's extra bad tonight."

     "Donnie was able to hack into Shredder's system. He'll be able to delete the recruits' information, hopefully without Shredder knowing for a while. We need to head to Shredder's lair and-"

     "That's great. But maybe we can hold that off for an hour or two? Raph's working on something super important."

     "It can't be more important than this," Leo says, walking towards Raph's room.

     Mikey jumps up, racing in front of his brother, blocking his way.

     "Please!" Mikey shouts. "He promised me one of his exclusive comics to not let anyone bug him! Do you know how hard it's been to stop me from annoying him?"