Part 1
Catra mediated underneath the tree in their home, watching her brothers train against one another, improving their individual skills, and whoever won would face her. They were doing it this way since she was only asked to meditate and nothing else, but she wanted to have fun as well.
“Yah!” Her ears focused on the first fighting pair, Leonardo and Michelangelo, Leo was using one of his katana’s while Mikey used his nunchucks.
“Oh, yeah! Michelangelo is on the move!” They charged each other with Leo swinging first, Mikey dodging instantly by jumping over him, and proceeding to dodge all of his swings, “You don’t know what to do, I’m here, I'm there.”
“I could be anywhere.” Catra could tell Mikey was getting a little too confident, but that wouldn’t be anything new, despite that he was still managing to dodge Leo’s swings, “How do you stop something you can’t even see?”
There it was, Mikey’s downfall, charging Leo one more time. Leo was prepared, flipping his katana so he held the blade in one hand and the handle in the other, thrusting the handle forward into Mikey’s shell.
Mikey rolled forward away from him stopping on his knees, holding his stomach, looking like he was going to throw up, “Blaarrrggg!”
“Like that?” Leo smiled watching Mikey collapse to the floor, doing the best version of a turtle’s thumbs up, in a bit of pain, “Good one, Leo.”
Her ears twitched hearing the sound of rushing air and the spinning of a bo-staff bringing her attention to the other fight, Raphael and Donatello, she already knew the outcome of it before it even began, but watched just in case.
“All right, Donnie,” Raph cracked his neck twice already for the fight, she didn’t like when he did that, it annoyed her ears, “Put down the staff, and no one gets hurt.”
“Uh, you said that last time, Raph, then you hurt me.” Catra couldn’t help but smirk at that, Donnie learned from last time not to put his weapon down, especially against Raph.
“Yeah, but less than I would have.” Raph told the truth, despite his voice making him sound otherwise.
“Yeah, right.” Donnie of course didn’t believe him.
Donnie was the first one to make a move as he spun his bo-staff quickly to try and confuse Raph, but it never did. Catra tilted her head to the side when an accidental swing from Donnie came her way, she wasn’t all that bothered as she was used to it now, same can’t be said when it first happened.
Whenever there’s a fight with Raph it never lasts long, he was easily dodging all of Donnie’s attacks. Donnie swung and finally thought it connected, only to realise Raph had taken it from him with ease, snapping it half on his knee and holding either half in his hands.
“Should’ve dropped the staff?” Donnie now realised his mistake.
“Should’ve dropped the staff.” Raph smirked
Donnie tried to run, but there was no escape from Raph as he started hitting him on the back of the shell with the broken staff, forcing him to huddle on the ground to hide from the pain, “Okay okay. Ow! I’m down!”
“That’s enough, Raph, you still have Leo to fight.” Catra flashed her blue eye at him with a glare, making him shiver and back off giving Donnie breathing room, Raph turning to face Leo. Sometimes they find her scary when they see her bi-coloured eyes glowing in the darkness.
“Thank sis.” Donnie gave a pained smile getting up and going and kneeling next to Mikey, who mostly had a smile on his face watching it all.
“Onegai shimashu.” Leo’s words made her focus on the fight, this was one she was waiting for, whoever wins will have to face her, and she has no clue who could win as it changes every time.
“Whatever you say.” Raph shrugged just wanting to fight already, both preparing their weapons then the fight began.
First was a downward swing from Leo, blocked by Raph’s twin sai’s, the sound of metal on metal used to annoy Catra but her ears have grown used to the sound and don’t even flinch.
Raph deflected Leo away, spinning behind him attempting to strike the back of his shell, but Leo had the same idea as their weapons bounced off each other, backing away for a bit. The first hit was from Raph who managed to hit Leo in the jaw with his knuckles.
But the pain was doubled as Leo kicked Raph over who fell onto his back, but he didn’t stay down for long as he immediately jumped to his feet. Just in time to block Leo’s attack, but one of his sai’s went flying towards Catra.
She just tilted her head again allowing it to fly by, but catching it with her tail not wanting the tree to be damaged.
Leo and Raph caught their breath for a second before attacking again, but this time Raph disarmed Leo of his katana, caught Leo’s arm in one of his sai’s, grabbing his arm and throwing him over his shoulder.
Leo went a couple of feet holding right arm as it might have pulled a muscle, but it would be fine soon. Raph stood over him with a victory smile, “Nice try.”
“Yo, Catra, Master Splinter isn’t here yet.” Mikey called out to her smiling as both him and Donnie were waiting to watch her fight.
“Right, I get to have fun now as well,” Catra’s ears twitched pointing each direction to listen just in case, but it was all clear. Standing and picking up her Nodachi she proceeded to the centre of the room, “So, Raph, would you prefer my weapon in its sheath or not?”
“Last time it still hurt while in the sheath.” Raph returned to the centre more serious than before, catching his other sai as Catra tossed it to him.
“Yeah, but less than it would have.” Catra smirked at Raph, hearing Donnie laugh from the edge of the room, Leo kneeling down with them.
“Okay, I’ll give you that one.” Raph sighed, there was a hidden smile from having the joke turned on him.
Raph figured the way to win against Catra was to charge right in, but that was his first mistake. Catra lifted her nodachi and blocked both his sai’s catching them on the sheathed blade, before spinning it and launching both of his sai’s away.
Before he could even move to retrieve them, her tail had wrapped around his arm keeping a firm grasp as she thrusted the handle forward into his shell, winding him for a bit before he slipped from her grasp, grabbing the closest sai.
Raph caught Catra off guard, which is a rare occurrence, throwing his sai, impacting against the Nodachi where her hand held, causing her to yelp and drop it. Quickly kicking her stomach while she was off guard knocking her onto the ground. But she used it to her advantage, spinning on the ground and kicking his feet out from underneath him.
Jumping on top of him before he could move holding her claws near his face, slowly retracting them as she stood up, “I win.”
Her ears twitched in warning, quickly going to the others and kneeling beside Mikey, acting like she was meditating the whole time as words from their Master were heard, “Ya me!”
Master Splinter entered the room after all the training was done, Raph moved to Leo, his pride wounded slightly but it would heal in time.
“You all did very well.” Splinter walked by in front of them all inspecting each of them as he did.
“But I did better.” Raph announced happily, this was another part of the agreement, they had to act like she didn’t join.
“This is about self-improvement, Raphael,” Catra noticed as Master Splinter walked around behind them and was slowly making his way behind Raph, “It is not about winning and losing.”
“I know Sensei. But I won and they lost,” Raph relaxed a bit, before Splinter pressed one of his claws on Raph’s pressure point to the right side of his jaw, right where it meets the neck, “Ah, ah, ah! But what’s really important is that we all did our best. Good job, everyone! Ah!”
“Hee hee hee,” Splinter gave a slight chuckle which always made Catra smile, moving his finger away from the pressure point allowing him to relax again. Her fur, tail and ears stood on end, shivering when Splinter stopped behind her, “Besides, I’m sure Catra was the winner.”
“What are you talking about, Master Splinter?” Catra tried playing it off, but her ears and tail weren’t helping, “I’ve been mediating the whole time.”
“Perhaps I would have believed you,” Splinter pressed his claw on the back of her ear at the base, making her twitch in pain biting her lip, “If you remembered that I also told you to stay under the tree. And clearly, you are not.”
“Well, we tried, Catra.” Raph shrugged, smiling that he wasn’t the only one who had to deal with pain from Splinter
“Master, we wanted to...expand our training, which we needed her to train with us.” Leo tried thinking of an excuse.
“I thought we weren’t allowed to so we were supposed to be quiet about it?” Mikey questioned before getting elbowed by Donnie, that’s when Mikey caught on, “Oh right, we did want to expand our training.”
“We decided that missions would go unexpected so with having her join us we wouldn’t be prepared and have to think more carefully,” Donnie thought of the best excuse he could, which Splinter gave that some thought and moved his claw away.
“Very well, you are correct, missions can’t always go as expected, there are always elements that you won’t know about. But, Catra,” Splinter looked at her as she was worried about what he would say, before unexpectedly smiling, “You could have just asked to train with them.”
Algae and worms, that’s all they ever ate, well Catra mostly only ate the worms, she ate Algae once but she ended up being sick the whole day, so whenever she gets worms, they make sure it hadn’t been crawling through algae. Donnie was the other who didn’t like it but he ate it all the same.
“There’s a little more algae and worms left if anybody wants it. Anybody? Anybody?” Mikey thought asking that twice would make them consider, but none of them did.
“No thanks.”
“I’m good.”
“All yours.”
“My stomach is getting full, so no thanks, Mikey.” One after the other they pushed their plates to the middle of the bench, all full, or disgusted to keep eating.
“Well, I guess no one left room for...cake!” Mikey revealed his masterpiece of what he was working away for the last five minutes.
“Whoa!” All of them were left speechless, even Catra as they all looked at it in all of it’s green and blue glory...well as glory as it could be.
“It is a cake!” Donnie might have been the most impressed out of all of them.
“Made of...algae...and...worms.” Raph was slightly disappointed when looking closely at it. Catra might have been the same as well, but you don’t have much to work with when you live in the sewer.
“What’s the frosting made out of?” Leo looked at it confused.
“You don’t wanna know,” Mikey deflected, making Catra’s interest go right out the window, she was considering trying to eat it, but not anymore, “Happy Mutation Day!”
“Happy Mutation Day!” Catra, Leo, Donnie and Raph cheered, it was one of Catra’s favourite days.
“Ah, yes. 15 years ago today, our lives changed forever and we became the unlikeliest of families.” Splinter seemed to have a glint of happiness in his eyes when he spoke and couldn’t keep the smile from his face.
“Tell us the story, Master Splinter.” Mikey asked, he always did when it was Mutation day, and as much as the other three get bored of it, she loved hearing the story every time.
“Michelangelo, I have already told it many times.” Despite this he kept smiling, not minding one bit.
“Please! Pleeeeaaaseee!” Mikey started to beg and before Raph could do anything her tail went and covered Mikey’s mouth, stopping him from speaking.
“Please. It’s the only way to shut Mikey up.” Raph was grateful and nodded.
“Ah, very well,” Splinter sighed agreeing, Catra moved her tail away and apologised to Mikey for covering his mouth out of nowhere, before listening to Splinter, “Many years ago, when I was still human, I was leaving the pet store with four baby turtles.”
“That was us?” Mikey interrupted causing Catra to sigh internally, one of the things she didn’t like Mikey doing was interrupting.
“Yes. Don’t interrupt!” Splinter gave Mikey a small glare which kept him quiet, “I passed a strange man on the street. Something felt off about him. I decided to follow.”
Catra listened closely to the story and played it out all in her head of how it went, she might have gone overboard in her imagination of how Splinter easily defeated those men, but her mind was her own. Shaking her head realising she was missing most of the story as she focused back.
“I thought the ooze had only changed Me and the turtles, but I was surprised to see a stray kitten, who had mutated with us, nibbling my leg,” Splinter laughed causing Catra to hide her face embarrassed, that’s one thing she wished he didn’t remember, “But, having you there made our family bigger. And i wouldn’t change that.”
“It took awhile for her to stop nibbling on all our shells as we grew up.” Leo had to interrupt and mention that, causing everyone to chuckle, even Catra as she looked back at them.
“That was the beginning of our life together,” Splinter reached under into the cabinet and got the broken canister that started it all, “It was the mysterious substance in this canister that, in a way, gave birth to us all.”
“Mom.” Mikey hugged the canister, which they kinda all kept quiet on cause it was slightly weird. Catra, Leo, Donnie and Raph looked between each other and nodded.
“So Sensei, now that we’re 15, I think we’re finally ready to go up to the surface, don’t you?” Leo was the one to start as they all looked at him hopeful.
“Yes,” Her brothers started cheering but she knew they shouldn’t be excited, after all this was his favourite thing to say as they all got disappointed when he continued, “And no.”
“You have grown powerful, but you are still young. You lack the maturity to use your skills wisely.” Splinter got up and began to walk around. Catra would disagree but she can see what he means, but still she is disappointed as well.
“So, Sensei, isn’t that just no?” Donnie was confused, which is funny from the smartest member of them.
“Yes...and no,” Catra could tell he was having fun with that, but he was being serious as well as he sighed and kept going, “Wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from making mistakes.”
“Aha! So in order for us to gain wisdom, we have to make the mistakes. So we can go.” Catra could not see what Donnie was thinking inside his head, but that made no sense at all, at least to her.
“No.” Splinter said simply looking at him
“And yes?” Donnie was hopeful
“No!”
“Oh…” Donnie sighed
“Sensei, we know you’re trying to protect us, but we can’t spend our whole lives hiding down here.” This was one reason Catra liked Leo, he can always say the best things when they need it, wisdom that anyone needs to hear.
Splinter started to think while rubbing away at his little beard. Catra watched her brothers go and kneel on the ground in front of him, and probably begging him with big sparkling eyes. Splinter looked surprised at them, looking at Catra too. Despite her trying not to, her tail was swaying behind her.
“Mm. You may go tonight.” Splinter relented even if he was worried.
“High three!” They cheered and jumped up, high-threeing each other, Raph then walked over and gave her a fist-bump after.
Catra was practising her kicks and punches on a training dummy in the main room, waiting for when they would leave for the surface. Raph was nearby reading a comic with probably random junk in it, while Leo was nearby watching the show ‘Space Heroes’, Catra personally didn’t like it but if it made Leo happy then whatever.
“Gentleman, I have a bold and daring plan,” But when Leo starts impersonating the captain in the show, that’s when her patience wears thin, “There’s no time for hesitation. My orders must be carried out without question!”
“You know this show is stupid, right?” Raph didn’t even look away from his comic but he was probably thinking the same as Catra, she was usually just nicer.
“Space Heroes is a great show and Captain Ryan is a great hero.” Leo argued back as he talked about his fascination with the show, “Someday, I am going to be just like him.”
“Are you sure you want to be just like him?” Catra turned and faced them after she gave the dummy’s head a quick kick, “Copycat hero’s never really work out well. Being your own kind of hero, that’s different.”
“I wouldn’t be exactly like a copy of Captain Ryan.” Leo stammered not knowing what to say, trying to think of something witty.
“Well, you do like to hear yourself talk, so you’re on your way.” Raph peeked over his comic before looking back.
“It’s go time!” Mikey entered the room with Donnie whose bo-staff had been fixed.
Everyone else got their weapons prepared, Catra gave her nodachi a quick clean, able to see the reflection of her eyes, able to see behind her, seeing her brothers testing the durability and smoothness of their weapons and movements. Before they were prepared standing side by side in a line in front of Splinter
“You’re going up to a strange and hostile world,” Splinter paced back and forth, “You must maintain awareness at all times.”
“Aye, Sensei!” The five of them agreed and turned to go, but Splinter wasn’t done yet.
“Stay in the Shadows.”
“Aye, Sensei!”
“Don’t talk to strangers.”
“Aye, Sensei!” They were slowly getting bored and mostly stayed in the position of turning to leaving, waiting for him to be finished. When he didn’t say anything they moved to the stairs before he said one more thing.
“Make sure you go before you leave. The restrooms up there are filthy.” That just made them embarrassed as they looked at him, “Sensei!”
“Good luck, my sons, my daughter,” Splinter sighed and finally let them go, with them all cheering and leaving, jumping over the old train station barricades, Catra was sure she was the only one to hear Splinter say one more thing, “Look both ways before crossing the street!”
Catra was the last to climb the ladder up out of the sewer with her nose being hit by all new sensations, she smelt nice things, but they were further out, the closest smells were terrible as they stood in an alleyway littered with trash which makes the sewer smell better than here, she did feel bad for the human who was sleeping nearby on a worn out mattress and a newspaper as a blanket.
Her ears twitched at all new sounds, well not really new as she heard them on the tv before, but there was something new about hearing it crystal clear and not through the static of a small plastic box. Her eyes however were drawn to the many sparking lights coming from all the tallest skyscrapers.
“It’s so beautiful.” Mikey sounded like he agreed, but you never know what exactly he was thinking about.
“This city is full of possibility,” Leo was definitely excited leaving the alleyway as they followed, looking around the corner and down the street, “There could be adventure around this corner.”
Catra climbed up one of the light posts on the street to get a better look at everything around her, she still followed her brothers, just jumping from post to post. Hiding a giggle watching Leo look around every corner, trying to find adventure anywhere he could.
“Or this one!” Leonardo looked down a mostly barren street, with only a dumpster with a small cat sitting on top.
“I think one cat is enough adventure for you, don’t need another one.” Catra laughed, making the others chuckle as Leo shook his head smiling moving further down the street, “There’s not, but there could be!”
“Look at all the computers!” Donnie didn’t surprise Catra as he was looking into a store filled with all types of electronics, “Is that the next generation cadmium processor with quantum encryption?”
“I don’t know, Donatello. Is it?” Raph was obviously sarcastic about it, but Catra was curious, she was slowly gaining interest in the stuff thanks to Donatello.
“Can’t really see past your big brain right now.” Catra smirked teasing and complimenting at the same time, so Donnie ignored Raph and answered Catra, “It is! It could help with some experiments.”
“Unfortunately for us, we aren’t really stacked on cash.” Putting hands into fake pockets and pulling out nothing, they both sighed as they kept walking.
“Guys, guys! Check this out. A hand made out of light. Now it’s an eye made out of light,” Mikey was at the next store with the sign saying fortune teller, whatever that was, Mikey stuck looking at the lights, “And the hand again! Now the eye’s back!”
“Come on, genius.” Raph grabbed Mikey by the back of the Bandanna to the middle of the barren street where everyone else was waiting, Catra giggling at Mikey’s antics.
“So, where to next?” Donnie asked, immediately cut off by a light and a motorcycle engine. A human had stopped in front of them looking confused and probably thinking he was seeing things, as they didn’t move all say anything. Well until Raph practically spooked them causing them to drive off quickly, a small box falling off the cycle, “That was kinda fun”.
“We forgot to look both ways… don’t tell Master Splinter.” Catra was nervous about telling Splinter as her fur stood on end, the others shivered and agreed to leave this part out when returning.
“We’re too exposed out here. Come on!” Even if Leo didn’t know it yet, he was acting like a leader, someone she wouldn’t mind following.
They went to the nearest alleyway and jumped up the fire escapes on either building, using their ninja training to move up there with ease. They reached the top and Catra could see even further than they imagined, she could also see Mikey wasn’t with them.
Turning to go look for him, she didn’t need to go far as he reached the top, with the small box in his hands.He placed it on top of one of those square air vents as they all stood around it, inspecting it.
“Pizza?” Mikey looked at this new and mysterious word.
“Should we open it?” Donnie didn’t even know what the word was, so that had Catra worried too.
“Careful! It could be dangerous.” Leo warned, Raph just shook his head and opened it.
A powerful and delightful smell filled her nose, steam rising from the box slowly revealing a food they had never seen before, well she knew it was food from the smell, the one reason she loved her nose and how she had an advantage over her brothers in that regard. She won’t tell them just yet.
“I think it’s food.” Donnie was on the right track but still not sure.
“It’s not like any food I ever saw.” Raph was confused and wondered while Catra thought, ‘Because we’ve mostly had worms and Algae’
“I’ll try it.” Mikey was the brave one to try and eat it first. He slowly took one nib at the piece he picked up, Catra could tell he absolutely loved it, well it wasn’t that hard to tell because he immediately started gulping it down, making noises of delight and burping when he finished, realising that they were still watching.
“Uh, yuck. You guys won’t like it.I’ll take the rest-” None of them were having it as they all took a piece for themselves, all of them eating happily.
“I never thought I’d taste anything better than worms and algae, but this is amazing!” Raph couldn’t eat his piece fast enough, enjoying it as much as he could.
“I never want worms again, I just want to eat pizza from now on, it's heavenly food.” Catra’s taste buds tingle as she ate, wanting to keep this new sensation forever.
“I love it up here!” Mikey shouted to the heavens.
That’s when the real fun began as they ran across rooftops and jumping over alleyways to the next roof, jumping over and on things in their path, Catra also did a few wall running tricks when she could and even front flipping over Leo just to land on a water tank.
This was the most fun any of them had in a long time, Catra found it so freeing that she honestly wanted to stay up here for the rest of her life, feeling the wind on her face as she ran, all the delightful smells of food, and all the lovely sights of the city around them. They must have been doing it for at least an hour as they all skited to a stop on the edge of a building to catch their breath.
“All right, guys, it’s getting late. We should probably head back home.” Leo cutting of their fun.
“Aww, and it was just getting amazing as well.” Catra sighed, she wanted to stay up here for at least another hour, and from the reactions from her brothers, they did too.
“Guys! Look at that!” Donnie gasped, all of them stopping as they looked where he was pointing.
Catra could see exactly why, there were two people, an old man which wasn’t what had caught Donnie’s, and now her’s attention, but the girl beside him which was obviously his daughter, but my god was she beautiful, making her tail have the slightest of sways and doing a quiet purr with her heart pounding.
“She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.” Donnie drooled a little with love stuck eyes, Catra could even hear his heart beating faster than normal, the same with how her heart was acting.
“Isn’t she the only girl you’ve ever seen?” Raph questioned, already feeling the threat of a slap as he continued, “That isn’t our sister?”
“My point still stands.” Donnie closed his eyes as everyone shook their heads.
But he opened them again, Catra’s ears also twitching when they heard the screeching of car tires coming to a stop, seeing a van stopped right in front of the father and her daughter. Five identical looking men in suits hopped out of the back.
“We gotta save ‘em!” Donnie rushed to move, but Leo grabbed his shoulder.
“Splinter’s instructions were very clear. We’re supposed to stay away from people,” Leo was being serious at first, but then joked about the next one, “And bathrooms.”
“I’m pretty sure he said not to talk to strangers, he never said not to help them,” Catra reasoned, “Besides, we already forgot to look both ways when crossing the street.”
“I thought you wanted to be a hero,” Raph couldn’t help but give a small chuckle at Catra as they all argued against Leo, “Since when do heroes ask for permission?”
“They don’t. But…” Leo was cut off this time by Donnie, who jumped off while saying, “Well, I’m going.”
Catra, Mikey and Raph followed right after, Leo hesitating a bit before following after them as well, all agreeing that they would face one man each. They silently snuck up on them as they were too busy trying to get them in the van, with Raph making the first move getting the attention of the man who tossed the father in the van, punching him in the stomach.
The whole fight didn’t go as planned, sure they managed to get their attention to fight one on ones, but that’s where it went downhill fast. First Catra who was used to giving strong punches and kicks, punched the man in the face, but it was her hand that hurt a lot after, she held it before being kicked.
Secondly none of them were coordinated, nearly hitting each other, jumping in front of others, hell Catra thought she caught one of the man's legs before they kicked her in the face, but no it was Mikey’s nunchuck with the extendable blade out and centimetres from her face.
“Hey, cut it out! Stop! Ow! Let go of me!” The girl’s screaming got both Catra’s and Donnie’s attention watching as one of the men was trying to put her in the van, they nodded to each other with Catra quickly taking Donnie’s bo-staff and throwing it, knocking the man away, and the girl flying.
“Gotcha!” Donnie ran and quickly caught the girl in his arms, which of course the girl's reaction was to scream. Catra couldn’t blame her because when do people normally see mutated animals helping them, but she blames Donnie for screaming and dropping her on the ground in panic, “Don’t worry. We’re the good guys. It’s okay”
Catra and Donnie were moving close to help her as she was slowly crawling away from them, but looking over her shoulder at the men then back at them, she reluctantly reached her hand out for theirs. Catra looked in her eyes, seeing the fear but also the hope to be saved by them.
It would have gone fine if a nunchuck didn’t come out of nowhere, causing Catra to duck as it hit Donnie in the head.
“Sorry. Watch out!” Mikey quickly apologised, but warned too late as the three of them got kicked by the men and sent flying into a pile of garbage on top each other, groaning in pain. Giving the men enough time to put the girl in the van and drive off.
“They’re getting away! They’ve got the girl!” Donnie was the first one to get up, grabbing his bo-staff as he quickly ran after them, Leo and Raph not far behind him. Catra figuring Mikey would be fine as she got up and chased after them, but realising after running to the next street they are already long gone.
“I should probably check to see if Mikey is alright.” Sighing as she went back, but there was no Mikey, only one of his nunchucks that was left in the street. Picking it up sniffing it to follow the scent, she didn’t have to go far hearing Mikey’s scream in the distance, and a purple glowing flash from an alleyway down the street.
Moving like the wind, she got there to see Mikey trying to pull a brain with tentacles off his face in panic, on the ground nearby was one of the men from before, but different, it was a robot disguised as a man with it damaged, probably from Mikey swinging scared, and an empty chest cavity in the body, where she suspected the brain thing came from.
“Oh, right, I should help him with that.” Catra moved and got Mikey to stay still, grabbing the brain thing on both sides, feeling the slimy texture in between her claws, pressing a foot to his shell as she pulled, hearing a pop as it detached from his face and slipped between her claws, colliding with the nearby wall with a splat.
When it moved Catra noticed it also had eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth, making a few angry noises before it ran away on its tentacles. Catra gave Mikey's nunchuck back before asking one question, “What the hell was that?!”
“I have no idea, it's like a robot with an alien brain in its chest!” Mikey did the best he could at explaining, and Catra just went with it because she had no idea what to call it either, “We have to tell the others!”
“Let’s just hope they believe us,” Usually Catra would have doubts about telling something wacky with Mikey, which she’s done before sometimes just to be funny, but this time they would have proof, “We need to find them first.”
They didn’t have to go far as they quickly exited the alleyway, seeing their brothers coming onto the street a few ways down, Mikey and Catra jogged to them.
“Guys! Guys! You’re never gonna believe this! That dude, he… he… had a brain!” Mikey shouted in shock, Catra shaking her head at his stupidity, of course they weren’t going to end up believing this.
“We all have brains, Mikey.” Leo sighed
“Not all of us.” Donnie said after, as hurtful as it was to Mikey, it was true sometimes, but he has his moments.
“Just wait for it guys, he’s not done yet.” Raph, Donnie and Leo looked at her skeptically, she couldn’t blame them.
“In our chests?” Mikey tried to convey what he meant, but it was already lost. Catra started to think perhaps she should have started the conversation.
“No, Mikey. Not in our chests.” They were just getting annoyed now.
“You’re not listening to me!” Mikey was the one annoyed now as he shouted, getting a slap from Leo putting him on defensive mode, “Did you just slap me?”
“I was calming you down.” Leo tried explaining, but it wasn’t a good enough one.
“Why would that calm me down?” Mikey just got louder and louder.
“Hey, Raph, that’s another point to Leo of being a copycat hero of ‘Captain Ryan’,” Catra looked at Raph who laughed and gave her a fist-bump embrassassing Leo, which she then glared at, “Don’t ever slap me.”
“I think he’s delusional.” Donnie tried to think of a reasonable excuse, but couldn’t, he mostly directed that to Mikey not wanting to face his sister's wrath.
“Just-just come here. I’m telling you.” Mikey started walking hoping they would follow, they did when getting a glare from Catra basically saying ‘Humor him’, “ The big guy was a robot and he had a freaky-weird alien brain thing in his chest. You gotta believe me.”
“I’m not sure we do.” Raph questioned, he didn’t believe Mikey, but there could be a chance it’s true if Catra is involved, or not.
“Oh, yeah? Well, you’ll change your tune when you see that he’s,” When they reached the alleyway, it was barren, like no one had been there recently, with no trace of body or brain alien, “Gone?”
Leo, Donnie and Raph shook their heads annoyed as they turned and left for home, Catra cheering up Mikey as they started walking too, but Catra too had thoughts, ‘One of us should have stayed to make sure nothing happened’.
“And so your inability to work together allowed them all to get away!” Splinter was mad, he wasn’t fun when like this, Catra always did her best to keep him happy, her brothers on the other hand. But she can’t place the blame on all of them, she wasn’t able to fight properly as well.
“Well, maybe if I didn’t have to waste time arguing with hero boy, I could’ve saved them.” Raph was of course quick to anger, and this time Catra agreed, but she wouldn’t not say a word, everyone was at fault, even her.
“Hey, if you hadn’t gotten in my way, I could have done it,” Leo argued back, before turning it onto Donnie, “And you went flying off on your own. How smart was that?”
“Correction, I was with Catra,” Donnie made that quick correction, turning to face Mikey with a bit of anger well deserved, “But it would’ve worked great if somebody didn’t hit me in the head with their nunchucks!”
“Well, none of this would have happened if…” Mikey faced Catra before slowly thinking better of it, for one thing Catra sided with him and secondly he could see she wanted no part in this, so of course he made a worst choice looking to Splinter, “Somebody hadn’t trusted us to go up there in the first place.”
That shocked everyone as Splinter stopped moving not looking at them, Mikey realising what he did, “Oh, geez. Sensei, I didn’t mean to-”
“No, Michelangelo. You are right.” Turning and facing them, surprising them.
“I am?”
“He is?”
“You were not fully prepared for what was up there. I trained you to fight as individuals, not as a team,” Splinter explained as he paced. Catra couldn’t really blame him for that, he can't always teach everything, they must also learn things on their own, teamwork was one of them, focusing as Splinter continued, “And as your teacher, your father, the responsibility for that is mine. Perhaps in another year we can try again.”
“Another year? Has everybody forgotten that people were kidnapped?” Donnie spoke up in denial of Splinter’s response, Catra agreed with him, “They don’t have a year! Sensei, we have to do something now!”
“You weren’t there Sensei,” Catra’s first words since returning home, having been silent the whole time, all eyes on her, “You didn’t see the way that girl looked into my eyes. She was scared. And she was counting on me-” Catra quickly bit her tongue when they all looked at her trying to hide a blush, “Us to save her!”
Splinter turned and walked to his little shrine, staring at the only picture, of him and his old family, of his wife, and daughter. Catra felt a little jealous, but she never tried to replace his daughter, she didn’t want to. They were family too, so she would have had a younger or older sister. She could see him look at her from the corner of his eye, even though he acted like he didn’t.
“Yes, you must save her.” Finally turning and facing them after coming to a conclusion.
“I agree, Sensei. But in that fight, we weren’t exactly a well-oiled machine.” Leo brought the reality of the fight back to them, contemplating how to solve that issue.
“Like that robot with the brain thingy.” Mikey hadn’t given up, but Catra has, figuring the only way for them to believe is to see it with their own eyes.
“Give it a rest!” Raph had enough of it too, for different reasons.
“Hmm. If you are to fight more effectively as a unit, you are going to need a leader.” Looking at them all, his eyes glided over Catra, but she shook her head with a gentle smile. She didn’t trust herself as a leader, and honestly didn’t want the responsibility of one, she would rather follow orders instead.
“Can I be the leader?” Leo put his hand up with a smile, like they did when they were younger.
“Why should you be the leader?” Raph already didn’t like the idea of Leo being the leader, “I kicked your butt. I should be the leader.”
“Hey, I’m smarter than all you guys put together,” Donnie also joined in, “It should be me.”
“No way! It should be me!” Mikey of course joined in as well, getting stares from everyone, “I don’t really have a reason. I just think it would be me.”
“I don’t want to be a leader, so it’s between you four.” Catra simply said and that was that, they didn’t pry.
“This is a difficult decision. I must meditate,” Splinter entered his room, Catra already knew his answer as she smiled, he opened the door a few seconds later and closed it after he gave his answer, “It’s Leonardo.”
“No hard feelings, Raph?” Leo already attempted to calm Raph down, but he already started storming off.
“Stick it in your shell.” Storming out of the room.
“Give him time, he’ll calm down.” Catra could tell how long his outbursts would usually last, but this time, she had no clue.
“Explain to me one more time what we’re doing here.” Mikey whispered, which he didn’t need to, everyone just groaned already annoyed with him. They were on a stakeout watching over a building that had the same logo as the van, so the plan was to wait for the guy to show up...however long that would be.
“Just hit the guy I tell you to.” Leo just went with simple words for Mikey.
“Will do.” Mikey understood that at least.
“Are you sure this is gonna work?” Raph had calmed somewhat but still annoyed.
“Trust me. They’ll be here any second.” Leo was confident.
Any second turned into 2 hours of waiting for anyone to show up, Leo had been standing the whole time, Catra had been has well, but finally got bored and layed on the edge of the building to look up at the stars, as much as she could see with the lights of the city blocking some of them out.
Usually she was all for Leo’s plans, but this wasn’t one of his best.
“Give it up already. The guy’s not gonna show.” Sitting up and looking at her brother, tail swaying off the edge of the building, she finally spoke her mind.
“We have to be patient.” Leo insisted, Raph coming over and joining in.
“No, you have to come up with a better plan,” Raph was slowly raging again, “Cause the five of us standing here without thumbs up our noses is pointless.”
“I don’t think they’d fit.” Mikey came in with an unhelpful comment.
“You sure about that, Raph?” Leo smirked, Catra could hear the sound of tires and an engine of a vehicle, looking down into the alleyway, her eyes twitched slightly as the person happened to show up right now.
“He just showed up, didn’t he?” Raph was unamused as he looked over the edge and saw them as well, “I should’ve complained two hours ago.”
“If only we knew that complaining about the plan, would make the plan work.” She was annoyed as well, but couldn’t complain now that the guy showed up, getting to her feet.
When Leo started quoting the line from ‘Space heroes’ it was ignored as they all slinked into the shadows as they made their way down to the alleyway, Leo joining them. They waited for the guy to exit the van, when he did he only walked a few steps as they emerged from the shadows surrounding him, Catra stood on the roof of the van.
“All right, buddy. We can do this the easy way,” Raph looked at the others smiling as they all prepared their weapons, “Or my vote, the hard way.”
“Yeah, look at it logically,” Donnie wanted a turn to frighten the guy, “There are five of us and one of you. What are you going to do?”
Unfortunately this guy had an answer, pulling out a weird alien gun and started firing lazers at them, they all jumped to safety away from them. While they were dazed and confused, the guy quickly hopped into his van and started driving away. Catra made a brash decision before he could get too far, pulling out her Nodachi and jumping onto the van and stabbing the roof.
“I’m going to regret this.” Catra held on for dear life on the handle, being the only thing keeping her on the van as he started driving fast and swerving corners.
Raph managed to jump ontot eh van as well, but before Catra could grab him, he got sent flying into a nearby wall as they kept driving. Her Nodachi was slowly cutting through the roof, bringing her closer and closer to the back and threatening to throw her off. She peeked over at the driver’s side mirror, seeing him reaching for the gun again.
She ducked her head back out of sight, but she wasn’t the target, he was firing at her brothers who were running along the rooftops to keep up with them, but they had to jump out of the way. Her Nodachi only had a few centimeters of metal left before it cut the roof.
“Screw this,” Catra managed to slowly stand up, somehow making sure her weapon didn’t cut any further. She flipped off the van, throwing a star from her belt. It directly hit a tyre, causing the van to skit out of control, hitting a light pole and flipping onto its side as she landed on her feet, “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
She rubbed her head feeling dizzy after that whole stunt, wobbling on her feet towards the van. Her brothers reached her as she pulled the Nodachi from the roof and put it back into its sheath.
“That was awesome sis!” Mikey and the others were impressed, “You have to do that again!”
“Never. Again.” Catra denied it, but honestly couldn’t wait to try again.
They reached the back of the van, one of the doors had broken open, cardboard boxes blocked their view. Raph reached and opened the unbroken door, a canister falling out and rolling by their feet, Catra stopped it with her foot as she inspected it. The canister had a familiar glowing ooze inside.
“Mom?” Mikey’s mind was blown.