April stands in front of me with her fists in front of me. I face her with my mask pulled up only gazing at her with my eyes.
She pulls out her beautifully sharp tessen, the one that Splinter would have given to his daughter if he hadn't lost her, and holds it in front of her, and I take out my Katana.
"You sure it's okay to have that difference in weapons?" I ask, concerned about my friend/sister.
"I fight aliens with a wooden Bo staff," Donnie informs.
"And that is the point, Sara," Splinter says. "A ninja must know how to use its tools effectively."
I nod and look back at April.
"Hajime!" Splinter gives the order.
April runs toward me and swings her tessen at me with speed. In that aspect she's improved a lot and puts up a pretty good fight, and gives me a hard time dodging. When it's hitting I don't mind, but this time she has something very sharp. I make a backflip with which I lightly strike her chin, and in that split second that she's startled, I grab her wrist.
This time, I'm choosing a different method to win. Instead of beating her to the ground, I'm gonna disarm her. I grab her wrist and twist my arm around hers, then I squeeze a nerve with my hand and make her drop the tessen, and I let her go pointing my katana at her.
"Michelangelo," Splinter says. "Get in the fight."
"Khé," Mikey says surprised. "Alright."
He shyly takes his nunchucks and stands next to April when she picks up the tessen and we start fighting again. Mikey and April split up. She's in front of me and Mikey behind. I manage to stop April's hand with my own and wield the katana with my other hand to stop Mikey's nunchuck. Then I pull them both in and make them bump each other; afterwards I kick the both down.
"Excellent," Splinter says. "However, I never said anything about teams. My sons, join them."
The six of us stand in a circle until Splinter gives the order once more. I first strike Donnie who's right beside me and we engage in a full fight, but neither one knocks down the other. I notice that he's sticking close to April so that she can see him, and manages to take down Mikey while April is fighting Leonardo. That leaves me with Raphael. We wrestle and Donnie tries to kick him down while we're struggling, but fails stupidly. Raphael gets angry and goes against Donnie.
It's now that I notice that April was taken down by Leonardo, because he comes with both katanas ready. Leonardo and I smirk at each other, because we love fighting each other. With our compatibility, a one on one fight is always a fun challenge.
Raphael charges at us screaming forcing Leonardo and I to split up and the three of us fight each other. Then, I glance over at Leonardo and our eyes meet reaching a complete agreement. I grab Raphael's right arm and Leonardo grabs his left arm. We lift Raphael and flip him making him land flat on his shell.
"Yame!" Splinter orders and we line up in front of him. "Well done, everyone. I have seen a lot of progress. We will continue training tomorrow."
"Hai, Sensei!" We all answer and Splinter leaves.
I walk ahead of Raphael and suddenly see that he's still in the Dojo with Donnie. I walk back to see what's up.
"If you wanna impress April, you better leave me out of it," Raphael says and walks back toward me.
I stare blankly at him.
"What is it, Doll?" He asks.
"You should be nicer to your brother," I say and turn around making my way to the couch.
"Oh, come on!" He complains. "Do you really think he has a shot with her?"
"He'd probably had bigger chances if you guys didn't make it so difficult," I reply. "Maybe making him look good once in a while isn't a bad idea."
Raphael scoffs. "You'd be giving him false hopes."
"That's what you think," I sit on the sofa.
Raphael sits and spoons me lovingly. "Does April like him?"
"She's slowly getting there," I say. "Just don't be mean to Donnie, okay? They weren't like that when you started hitting on me, where they?"
Raphael blushes and looks away. "No."
I hear a really strange noise, kind of like electronic music coming from April,s laptop.
"Not bad!" Mikey yells. "It needs more drumming, though."
Then the sound stops and we lean in to see.
"What was that?" Leonardo asks.
"I don't know," she says. "It's some random email I got."
Donnie places a hand on his chin thoughtfully. It must be encrypted into a different type of data in the-"
"Top it down a notch," Leonardo says.
"It means that the message must have been placed into an encrypting filter altering its soundwaves-"
"Not enough notches," Mikey says.
"It's a secret message," Donnie says, annoyed.
"But who would send me a secret message?" April wonders.
"I could find out if you like," Donnie says.
"Thanks," April smiles at him.
Raphael grabs my wrist gently. "Is that gonna make her like him?"
"Everyone has their own charms," I say. "You have temper problems and anger outbursts and I fell for you anyway."
"That and I'm irresistably handsome," Raphael says cockily and sits on the couch.
I chuckle and kiss his jaw. I'm feeling worn out from training, so I sit next to him and let him spoon me and then I fall asleep on Raph.
****
I wake up with someone shaking me gently. "Sara?"
It's Raphael. I smile and yawn. "How long was I sleeping?"
"A couple of hours," he replies and kisses my forehead. "But, we need your help."
My eyes open fully. "Why? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah..." Raphael says. "Except that Donnie went hunting for a Kraang facility on his own."
"Oh, crap," I get up. "Let's go get him then. Any clue of where he might be?"
"He left a map on his computer," he replies.
"Alright then let me copy it on my T-Phone," I say. "Are the other two ready?"
"Yup," Raphael says.
I quickly download the map to my phone and meet the turtles back at the exit of the lair so that we can go. But what on Earth would Donnie even be doing on his own?
They sky is cloudy and it's daytime, although it's really early because the sky isn't so bright. We're making our way over the rooftops using the map I downloaded.
"Why would Donnie go after a secret Kraang facility all by himself?" Leonardo asks.
"Whatever his reason is," says Raph, "it better be good.
Oh... I think I know what it is.
If it's about what Raphael told him earlier, we're gonna have to talk.
"Maybe because it had to do with April's dad," Mikey says.
I stop. "Her dad?"
"Yeah, it was him in the secret message," Mikey says.
"But still, why is he going alone?" Leonardo asks.
I frown and glare at Raphael. "Maybe he wants to impress April."
"Hey don't look at me, I only told him to-"
"Yeah well what you told him made him go after Mr. O'Neil, and for all I know my dad could be there too. I should be there Raph, but I'm not because of your stupid 'leave me out of it' thing!"
"What?!" Leonardo says. "Why would you say that?!"
"Because he has no shot with April!"
"Yeah but you don't just say those things," Leonardo says. "Look what he's doing now!"
My T-Phone beeps and the map indicates that Donnie's signal is already there.
"We should keep going," Leonardo says and jumps to another rooftop.
Raphael looks at me with regret.
"We'll talk this later," I say and follow Leonardo.
After a lot of jumping around, we finally arrive at the facility.
"You sure this is the right place?" Raphael asks.
"Positive," I reply.
Leonardo crouches down in front of a small doorway and picks up an open lock. "Either Donnie's here or the mechanic stole his lock pick."
"So the mechanic does steal," Mikey says.
The other three of us look at him blankly as he clearly didn't get it. But there's no point in scolding him right now.
"Come on, Leo!" Mikey says. "You should know this stuff."
Leonardo keeps staring.
"Now let's move! Alright, then," Mikey says. "You say it."
"Let's move!" Leonardo opens the door and we all go inside.
Inside it looks just like any other warehouse. It's dimly lit, a lot of boxes everywhere and... there's the catch. There's a trashed Kraang droid lying on the ground.
"You think Donnie did this?" Raphael asks.
"Yeah," I say. "Why?"
"'Cuz the droid looks bored to death."
Bad pun.
"Hey guys!" Mikey yells. When we look up at him, he's inside a car. "Check out my new ride!"
He drives it and the car crashes pathetically and honking loudly.
"Do not say you intended on doing that," I say.
Mikey blushes and gets out of the car. "Okay."
"Alright, let's move on," Leonardo orders. We jump down a hole that's beneath the platform where the car was, which looks like it might just be the way to the facility.
The halls down here are totally different, and we know we're on the right track mostly because of another trashed droid. Then there's a closed door, which Raphael struggles to open by force.
Leonardo stops him. "Okay, what would Donnie have done?"
Raphael looks at the droid. "Oh, right."
Yeah, because you just grab the droid and put its ID sensor to the door and it'll let us in... or you could just bang its head stupidly on the door which is what the turtles are doing. Then, an alarm is set off.
"Oh, for crying out loud!" I take the droid from them and place the sensor to the door getting the door opens and at the same time, many Kraang droids come toward us in an ambush.
I take out the katana and attack the droids coming our way, working mostly alongside Raphael even though I'm still a little angry at him. But even in spite of that we're doing just fine.
We take out all the droids thinkinh that's it, but we hear something else. Something not pleasant, kind of like slmething big that's growling and moving around.
"Maybe if we ignore it, it'll go away," Mike says.
The noise gets louder and then this big salamander-like monster pops up beneath the roof and shoots rockets at us.
"Move!" Raphael yells and we get out the way managing to successfully dodge the rockets and they crash on the door of one of the cells, revealing both Donnie and Mr. O'Neil.
"Donnie!" Mikey yells happily.
I keep a sharp eye out to see if my dad's there.
"What about Dante?" I say.
Donnie and Mr. O'Neil exchange looks, and immediately I know what that means. My dad is not here, not on this occasion.
"He's probably back at the other facility," Mr. O'Neil says. "I was the only one transferred here."
I look down and try not to express my sadness. I was really hoping I could see my dad again today.
"Uh... guys?" Mikey says. "Giant lizard thing with weapons!"
Oh right, that.
"Donatello calls it the Neutralizer," Mr. O'Neil says.
"YOU NAMED SOMETHING WITHOUT ME?" Mikey gets angry.
The Neutralizer starts shooting at us, to which we obviously have to run way. We go into some sort of control room and close the door behind us to buy us slme time.
"Great, now we're locked inside the prison!" Leonardo says.
"Technically it's a detention center," Mr. O'Neil says. "A prison is more-"
"Not now, Donnie," Raphael says only to realize it was Mr. O'Neil. "Oh, now there's two of them."
To add to our problems, a door opens behind us. Surprisingly, it's the Kraang back to shoot more lazers at us. Yay.
"Hold them off!" Leonardo yells.
We wield our katanas to hold off all the droids, but there are just too many of them.
"I got an idea!" Donnie says and grabs the Kraang computer.
"Donnie, now's not the time ti be checking your email," Leonardo says as he and I take down more Kraang.
"If the Kraang locked up the Neutralizer, I'm guessing it wasn't because he's their friend," he says and opens the door allowing the Neutralizer to trash Kraang and while we're at it, we lock the Neutralizer back in a cell.
****
April has an emotional re-encounter with her father, and she takes him into the Dojo. I sit at the sofa and tuck my knees into my chest pulling down my mask.
Raphael sits next to me. "I'm sorry."
I sigh. "Don't worry," I say softly. "He wasn't there anyway."
"I promise we're gonna get him back," Raphael takes me into his arms. "Still, I'm sorry..."
And when I look at him, I realize he's disappointed in himself, the way that I once felt Leonardo's sadness.
I sigh and cup my head in my knees. Now, that can't be good for us.
I feel a hand on my shoulder, but don't bother looking when I start sobbing quietly. The hand squeezes gently, letting me know it's going to be okay.