A Turtle's Temper
Catra laid on the edge of the building in the cold night air, messing around with a phone she got from April. She had a spare and decided to give it to her, as a bonus she got her phone number. However, that same number was put on the fridge in the lair as the others didn’t have one.
Tail swaying off the edge of the building while doing so, in one ear, she could hear the screams of a horror movie as someone in an apartment below their location. In the other, she could listen to Mikey snickering as he was messing around trying to annoy Raph.
Donnie and Leo were right next to her, but standing as they were the ones keeping an eye on the building below. Catra got intel from April that the krang was going to hit the place across the road, she then told Donnie, and now here they are. Her Nodachi was on the floor just inside the roof.
“Anything?” Leo had his arms folded as he stood back away from the edge.
Donnie had a telescope with him to keep an even closer eye on the place, even though they could see it perfectly from there. Leaning over slightly, “Nothing yet.”
“Hey,” Catra lifted her spare hand and tapped her claw on the end of the telescope, making Donnie jump a bit in surprise, but he calmed instantly, “You think if we complain about the plan, they’ll show up?”
“You’re not going to let that go, are you?” Leo sighed, but there was a smile on his face.
“Nope, we stayed there for two hours until the guy showed up, just as we complained.” Shaking her head while her ears were twitching from the message tone on her phone, focusing back on it to read the message.
“If we’re going by that logic, technically Leo, Raph, or Mikey need to complain,” Donnie chuckled, looking back through the telescope, knowing Catra wouldn’t do it a second time, “It’s our plan, after all, Catra.”
“Yeah...your right,” Tapping her claw away as she was typing a message back, “It was worth a sh‒”
“Ahh!” Mikey shouted in pain; turning her head, she saw Raph had caught Mikey’s finger and was crushing it in his hand. Catra just shook her head.
“Guys, when ninjas are on surveillance, they are supposed to be silent,” Leo shouted quietly at them.
“Knowing Mikey, he’ll apologize, then give the wrong answer.” Putting her phone away, for now, counting slowly on her claws, “Three, two, one….”
“Sorry, Leo. I’ll scream quieter.” Mikey went and proved Catra right.
“We know what’s about to happen, right, Donnie?” Catra just smirked slightly.
“Yep.” Donnie focused his attention back on the location.
No sooner had she said that Mikey poked Raph one more time, making him reach his limit. He grabbed Mikey and threw him over his shoulder onto the ground, breaking a small satellite dish in the process. Catra was more focused on the action that she didn’t notice the horror movie cut off in the other ear, replaced by colorful language.
Recently, Raph has made Mikey say many great things about him, more like forcibly telling him those things. Most of the time, though, it’s Mikey’s fault as he keeps annoying Raph. The sooner he learns to stop doing that, the sooner he can stop being tormented by Raph. Yeah, that won’t be happening anytime soon.
“Can you two knock it off? You’ve done this earlier tonight already.” Catra just glared at Raph, making him sigh and release Mikey as he stood up.
“We’re wasting our time,” Raph approached them causally, “The Kraang aren’t going to show up.”
“Have a little patience, will you?” Leo’s patience was wearing thin from Raph’s outburst, though.
“Remember, we need to wait at least two hours before we complain,” Catra snickered as they all stared at her; she poked her tongue out at them, “I’ll stop ...for now.”
“Trust me, guys. They’re going to break into that lab tonight,” Donnie had put away the telescope as he had his fists against his waist, “I have reliable intel. Catr‒”
“Intel? You mean April told you.” Raph just smirked and pointed at him, not catching the second part of the sentence.
“You mean your girlfriend.” Mikey ended up teasing.
Of course, Donnie was slightly embarrassed at that comment but also knew Catra would be jealous as well, but it’s not like they knew. But the smirk on her face was more worrying.
“Ouch, must hurt that your girlfriend messaged me and not you then,” Catra smirked, going along with it, getting a shocked look of pretending betrayal from Donnie, “For real, though, April messaged me, and I informed him.”
“So, the joke wouldn’t make sense?” Mikey tilted his head slightly.
“Oh, by all means, joke about it cause we all know it hilarious,” Catra laughed a little, sitting up, stretching and bumping shoulders with Donnie teasing him, “Right?”
“And I thought I was bad enough having Mikey and Raph but betrayed by my sister too.” Donnie shook his head with a slight smile; he knew it was all in good fun.
“What the heck’s going on up here?” A new voice interrupted their conversation. They all turned their heads, seeing the roof access door open, and a rotund man standing there, looking at them confused, “What, are you playing dress-up?”
“I guess that could be a good excuse if we get spotted again…” Catra muttered softly, not knowing how to react to this man.
“No, sir, we were just….” Leo never got to finish his sentence, as the man’s face filled with rage as he eyed something across from them. Catra took a peek, and it was at the now-destroyed satellite dish.
“Which of you slimy green ham shanks busted my satellite dish?” He pointed at them accusingly, though they didn’t understand what the words meant.
“Ham shanks?” Raph didn’t know either, but it didn’t stop him from getting angry.
“I don’t even know what that means….” Hell, even Donnie was confused.
“Love how he assumed it could be one of you though, didn’t even point me out.” Catra just snickered, sitting down again, feeling like this could be entertainment.
“Me neither. But I don’t like it.” Raph reached for his sai, glaring when Leo grabbed his arm.
“Let’s go.” Leo calmly suggested, slowly and turning to walk away. Catra didn’t move yet as she felt this wasn’t over.
“That’s right, you spineless cream puff!” Catra only commended this guy’s bravery as he taunted his suicidalness of making Raph mad on the other hand, she did not, “Listen to your mommy.”
“Hey! Watch it, buddy.” Raph turned on a time, pulling out his sai’s. Even then, the man didn’t care.
“Oh, no. I didn’t know you had solid tongs.” He said in mock fear.
‘I mean, farmers used them for vegetable harvesting before being adopted by the ninja as a weapon.’ Catra thought to herself.
Raph started shouting at the man, having reached the peak of his anger; that’s when it became less entertaining for Catra. Sure it had been funny, to begin with, sure she had anger issues at some point, but she learned to change anger to laughter for herself. Though when Raph gets angry, all she can ever hear is his angry shouts.
Groaning in annoyance, placing her hands on her ears to flatten them to block out the noise, she watched the other three trying to hold Raph back from attacking the man. She also wished this man was just a krang in disguise just so she could cut him down, but she knew better than that.
Glancing across the rooftop, she spied some movement. Focusing, she watched as a man climbed up onto the roof, followed by a few identical men. The kraang droids had found them, and she had barely jumped out of the way in time as they shot a laser at her.
“Kraang Droids!” Leo shouted, pulling out his katanas.
“Holy Toledo!” The man was surprised as well.
“Way to blow our position, Raph.” Leo glared at him as the others prepared their weapons.
“Well, Catra was meant to be on the lookout!” Raph shouted, his anger still somewhat consuming.
“Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn’t hear over all your shouting!” Catra shouted right back, annoyed at how he tried to pin the blame on her—picking up her Nodachi from the floor.
“Scram!” Leo ordered.
The five of them started dodging around as the kraang droids fired upon them. Unlike the first time they had fought them, Catra had held back her punches, which was why it hurt the first time. But now, knowing what was underneath, she didn’t need to worry about it.
Ducking and jumping over blasts of purple lasers, she managed to reach the first kraang droid, scratching his face leaving scars in the rubber of it. Dipping under a swipe of their fist before bringing her elbow up hard against their chin, knocking them back a couple of steps.
Sensing a presence behind her, Catra backflipped and slammed her Nodachi against another’s head, directing it towards Donnie. He followed up with an attack with his staff into their head and sent them onto their back.
What seemed to be a new tactic for the kraang recently was to run away when they knew they were going to lose, and they were about to give chase until the man shouted again, “Keep going, kung fu frogs. This is pure gold.”
“We’re not frogs, you idiot!” Raph went back into rage mode.
“Yeah, and it’s not kung fu,” Donnie annoyed, but for a different reason entirely, “It’s an ancient Japanese battle art.”
“Am I the only one he can’t see? I swear he's just tunneling in on you guys,” Catra didn’t mind as she rather not have insults thrown her way, not like they’d affect her much, pointing her claw at his phone, “But more importantly...he’s filming us right now.”
“Not for long.” Raph started running at the man. Pouncing towards him, only to get his head slammed against the door as the man shut it.
Catra shook her head, standing up straight, hearing the sirens before the others, pointing a claw in the direction of it, “Fire trucks are coming. Forty-five seconds at most.”
“Let’s move.” Leo nodded at her.
As they ran, Catra could hear Raph complaining about something again. Catra was annoyed at him, digging her claws into a drainpipe. She slid down to street level, a screeching noise accompanying her action. It annoyed her too, but she knew Raph hated it as well.
“Not only did Raphael alert the kraang, but you got caught on video.” Splinter was annoyed for sure when they explained what had happened.
The five of them kneeled on the ground as he walked back and forth, scolding them—Raph for alerting the enemy, but all of them caught on camera. Catra herself felt a little bit of pride break with that because she was usually so well at staying out of sight until tonight.
“Sensei, he was the angriest, nastiest guy you ever met.” Raph felt right in saying that, but it was just an excuse.
“Except for you.” Mikey burned Raph with that comment.
“Well, not nastiest,” Catra’s tail shot and grabbed Raph’s wrist before he could slap Mikey, “Angriest, however...I’m still working that out.”
“You should have heard the insults this guy was throwing at us. They were so insulting.” Raph was still mad about it.
“Correction, he was insulting you. Want to know why,” Catra glared at him with narrowed eyes, pointing a claw to his face, “Because you were the only one reacting negatively. You could have chosen to ignore him, but no.”
“Oh, I did not realize he said mean things. You had no choice but to jeopardize your mission.” Splinter also glared at Raph angrily. Then looking at Catra, “You may go; perhaps you can track down the enemies Raph lost.”
“Ohh double burn.” Mikey muttered quietly to Donnie, “Sensi and sis are mad.”
“Yes, Sensei.” Catra stood up with her tail releasing its hold on Raph’s wrist, bowing respectively and heading for her room to collect something.
Catra’s bedroom connected to Donnie’s, the only one of her brothers she knows wouldn’t go peeking through her stuff. It would be challenging to get there unnoticed because they would have to go through Donnie’s room to a ladder that led up into her room. There is a hatch for when she just wants quiet.
Honestly, though, there wasn’t much that had interested her, so there wasn’t much in her room. Her bed was a collection of bean bags in the corner, though she had to be careful not to scratch the material, or she would be cleaning the mess from it.
There were only three movie posters on the walls, which she only wanted after seeing the movies and enjoying them quite a bit. A desk where she cleans her weapon, a bunch of throwing stars in a small container, also has a target on the wall that she can throw at and improve her skills.
Also on the desk was a flat disk, a device Donnie had made for her, at her request. It was a tracker but not by traditional means. It releases a scent that she can track, having tried a few different ones to see which was most effective. Her sense of smell that day was all over the place.
Grabbing it with her tail while opening one of the desk drawers, she had a poster rolled up in a sleeve to keep it clean. She didn’t know if it was in mint condition, but she doesn’t think April would mind. After all, it’s a gift for April, having some luck while just on a random exploration of the sewers and found it.
It was a show she liked and hadn’t sold too many posters.
Making sure she had everything on her, she slid back down the ladder and back into the ‘lounge room,’ which was just a big open area in the middle of the lair that led to every single part. It was where they watch movies, hang out, or do random wacky things at times.
Catra was about to leave the lair before Leo called out for her.
“Hey, Catra, what do you have there?” Leo asked, walking up to her, waiting for the others.
“This?” Catra gestured to the poster, getting a nod in response, “Well...it’s a gift for April. She had mentioned when messaging she liked it.”
“April’s lucky cause that seems like a rare mint-condition poster,” Leo seemed excited talking about it; he laughed nervously when Catra just blinked, “Sorry, I’m just usually good at noticing things like that.”
“Oh...I’m just impressed, nothing bad about that,” Shaking her head before heading out while waving, “Have fun with whatever Splinter has you doing.”
Leo waited for her to walk out of sight, and when he was pretty sure she was out of hearing range, turned to his brothers when they showed up, “When do you think she’ll tell us?”
“Don’t know, but it better be soon because it’s hard to hold back from teasing her...unlike Donnie.” Raph had managed to calm slightly from earlier.
“Hey...but true,” Donnie sighed, “She’ll tell you when she’s ready. She trusted me enough to tell me. Even though we all know she likes girls.”
“Wait, Catra likes girls?” Mikey was bewildered by the new information he’d already heard before—getting a smack from Raph.
“...Everyone except Mikey knows Catra likes girls.” Donnie corrected himself.
Catra slinked down from the roof-top and landed silently on to the fire escape below, just outside the window to April's room. Catra may or may not have memorized the path from the lair to April’s apartment, and if the others figure out, she’ll blame Donnie. Then she’ll apologize for throwing him under the bus.
Tapping her claw silently in a rhythm on the glass, she didn’t have to wait long for April to appear. Opening up the window with a smile.
“Catra!” April smiled happily at her, “How did the stakeout go?”
“Well…”
Catra explained the whole situation from Raph’s temper, the angry man, the kraang droids, and being caught on video before having to escape. April listened with interest, reacting from the displeasure of Raph’s behavior, the exhilaration from Catra describing the write, and cringing when they got scolded by Splinter.
“Has Raph always been like that?” April asked as she sat on her window sill.
“There are times he isn’t, but for the rest, yeah,” Despite this, Catra just laughed with happiness, “But then again, it wouldn’t be him otherwise. He was my inspiration when it comes to fighting.”
“Raph was your inspiration? Not Leo?” April tilted her head.
“My brothers all inspired me in some way, but yes Raph, as crazy as it seems,” Sitting on the railing letting her tail sway in the night breeze, “And crazy stunts you see me pull...well, I got it from seeing Raph being reckless, but still winning.”
“What did the others inspire you with?” April’s interest had peaked, but Catra would leave her hanging.
“I’ll tell you about it another later. I still have a mission to do after all,” Catra stood up and was about to leave before remembering, revealing the poster, “By the way, this is for you.”
“Oh my god, thank you!” April smiled happily, accepting it, turning into a frown slightly as she sniffed somewhat, “Why does it smell like lavender?”
“...well, did you want it to smell like the sewer?” Tilting her head slightly as ears twitched, frowning thinking she did something wrong.
“Oh right, sorry,” April chuckled nervously, then turned her anger to the sky, “But who would want to throw something amazing like this away?!”
“I have no idea...so I'm going to pretend it was the kraang and beat them up for you.” Catra jumped back, landing on the railing in a crouched position.
“My hero.” April smiled, rolling her eyes at the joke.
With a smirk and small wave, she jumped across, wind bristling through her fur before landing on the ledge of another building, hearing April clapping at the display, doing a slight bow also to hide her blush. Before moving out to find where the kraang would be.
The first option to look was where they were doing the stakeout, going off the fact that the kraang had come up to fight them. Meaning the kraang might not be finished from the first time.
Hopefully, she wouldn’t need to deal with the angry man again.
It didn’t take her long before reaching the location, and with luck, it seems the kraang had come back. Keeping her tail wrapped around the hilt of her nodachi, she watched from the rooftop. Sure she could attack them right now, but she could attach the tracker and wait for them to leave to track them to one of their hidden bases if she were to wait for them to clear up.
It was a good solid plan in her mind, so she just had to wait.
‘So there’s a van and a truck… Since there’s a larger area of the truck, I’ll place the tracker there,’ Catra thought silently, slowly pulling the tracker from her belt, ‘Now just need quietly‒’
“I’ll kick your hairy butt all the way to New Jersey!” Familiar yelling echoed through the street.
‘Are you kidding me?!’
Catra’s eyes twitched, fuming in silence as she turned her head slowly to the left to see her brothers down the street, Raph threatening the man. She didn’t know what made him mad this time, but clearly, it made her angry as Raph’s yelling, once again, alerted the kraang.
The kraang in the van immediately drove towards them, watching them diving out of the way. Leaving the only choice to track them was with the truck, so she made her move. Quickly jumping down the ledge of the building to make it to street level, she pounced over the truck’s roof and slammed it on the top.
It beeped at it attached itself to the roof.
Landing just beside the truck as it started speeding off as well, ‘Great, now they have just to let it‒’
Raph had picked up a metal bin and threw it at the truck, hitting the engine department as it severed and crashed into the wall of a building. It didn’t damage the vehicle too much as it wasn’t too fast at the time but still stopped them in their tracks.
‘Of course.’
Taking a breath and calming her anger, she charged towards them as kraang exited the back of the truck and started firing at her brothers. Taking notice of her as well when she threw a ninja star into one of their robotic heads.
“Catra! What are you doing here?” Donnie flipped over one of the droids; staff latched around their neck to swing them over him and slam it against the ground.
“Trying to keep my cool and not hit Raph for alerting the kraang again.” Catra put it bluntly, slicing through one of the blasters, latching her claws in the droids' chin, feeling the electricity dancing around them.
“That's...a pretty good reason.” Donnie nodded.
Donnie tripped one of the kraang’s up, allowing Catra an opening, slicing the droid’s head off, kicking it at another, and saving Mikey from being shot in the back by another. Mikey managed to wrap his Nunchuk around the neck of one of the droids with skin, letting Catra kick them hard in the face.
And while they had given her openings, she had given them openings as well. She tripped one with her tail to allow Donnie to use the blade hidden in his staff while kicking another in the stomach, which was immediately knocked in the head by Mikey’s nunchuck.
Catra wished she could say the same with Leo and Raph teaming up, but Raph ended up ignoring all of the fightings to yell at the same man, who was hiding in the back of the truck now. Making Catra, Mikey, and Donnie save Leo as the remaining kraang were kicking him around.
Her ears twitched, hearing the sound of the truck starting again, turning and jumping out of the way in time, seeing Raph in the back fighting a few kraang by himself. The man was also in the truck, seeming indifferent about the whole thing.
Being the fastest one of her brothers, she ran ahead to try and catch up and help him, she might still be angry, but he was still her brother.
Though being fast doesn’t mean she was going to be getting in the fan, so she sheathed her Nodachi then held it out for him, “Raph! Just exit the truck! We’ll catch them later!”
Raph seemed to listen to her as he made sure the kraang were knocked out before trying to get the man to exit with him. At first, she didn’t care about the man, but now she was just furious as he refused and said that the kraang might give him money for the video.
If he had paid attention to the fight, he might not have been wanting to.
One of the kraang droids started moving and grabbed Raph before Catra could warn him and threw him off the truck. Directly at her. When Raph’s shell collided against her arm, she could feel the joint popping out of place, hissing in pain. Catra didn’t have much time to react and ended up rolling back with him as well.
Hearing grunts from her other brothers as they rolled, with all five of them ending up sprawled underneath a light post.
They slowly moved to stand up after getting their breath back, Catra biting her lip, hiding the pain from the misaligned joint in her arm.
“Nice going, Raph.” Leo was quick to call out their hot-headed brother when everyone had stood.
“What did I do?” Raph’s response was to go into anger mode.
“What did you do? You left the four of us in the middle of the fight to yell at somebody. We could have stopped them, but thanks to your temper, the guy with the tape….”
Donnie was going to interject to correct Leo, but Catra just covered his mouth with her hand. Sighing, knowing they wouldn’t care either way, “Sorry Catra, I'm suspecting you had a plan that we ruined….”
“I still have a plan, so it’s not ruined, and it’s not your fault; its hot-head’s over there,” Pointing to Raph with her thumb. Eyes widen, remembering as her tail wrapped around a small detonator-like device on her belt, pressing the button “Just give it a few seconds.”
“That's the detonator for the scent tracker.” Donnie immediately recognized his work.
“Now, how are we supposed to find them?” Leonardo had finished his little rant to Raph, having gotten it out of his system.
Waiting a few seconds before the scent of the tracker hit her nose, turning to them, “I have the scent, so it should lead us to the location.”
“All right! Catra can follow the scent to their hideout.” Leo cheered up slightly, knowing the mission hasn’t failed yet.
“And then we’ll bash some bots?” Raph seemed excited but only got stares from the others, “What?”
“We are going to bash some bots,” Leo gestured to everyone but Raph, “You are going home.”
“What, are you kidding? Come on, guys. Are we going to let Leo power-trip like this?” Raph was annoyed but still pleaded with them.
“Power-trip? You think Leo’s happy to send you home?” Catra had snapped the last straw for the night at Raph’s words, Donnie and Mikey stepping back away from their sister, “No. You’re just trying to find excuses to negate that you don’t have anger issues.”
“Hey, I’m not the only one with them! And you should be the one going home. You’re injur‒”
Raph never got to finish as Catra was suddenly in his face, tripping him up as her tail pulled his legs from under him, shoving an elbow into his shell, knocking him to the ground. Masking him gasp for air as she left him winded on the road as she started walking away.
“I can still fight even when injured….” Catra muttered softly, her brothers, but Raph followed. Catra gripped her arm and forced the joint back into place.
Catra wished she could say she never got into any fights with her brothers, but that would be a lie. Though ranking from lowest to highest would be Donnie, Leo, Mikey was surprisingly the second she gets in most fights with, but those conflicts usually didn’t last, then there was Raph.
Sure they got along fine, but then there were rough days where they didn’t even speak to each other sometimes. It would usually end up in a fight. When younger, Catra would be the one who started a lot of them, though, from a single lesson from Splinter, it became less and less.
The reason she had struck him tonight was in hopes of him going back and receiving the same lesson from Splinter.
“You alright, sis?” Donnie was the first to speak after their trip had been spent in silence following her, trying to figure out the right words to say.
“I’m...fine now,” Letting out just a shaky breath as her tail stretched and relaxed as well, “I’ll apologize to him later. He needed to cool off.”
“More like dust off after you send him tumbling.” Mikey laughed, trying to think of a joke; it got a small chuckle out of her.
“How far away are we?” Leo asked, stepping in time with her. He was usually the one to calm her from most fights.
“Hmm, that corner-building up ahead.” Nodding her head with her ears twitching.
Reaching the corner and just hiding around it, taking one last sniff to make sure before nodding to them. A frontal approach wouldn’t work, so they would have to sneak inside, which they did from the roof access. Catra did suggest she quietly cut a hole in the glass instead, but it was better this way.
Inside it was darker than expected, which honestly wasn’t bad for Catra as her eyes quickly adjusted. Her brothers took a little bit of time for their eyesight change as well. Many wooden crates were littered around and stacked on each other, and a few cobwebs also hung about, some empty, and others had spiders. Catra shivered at the sight of every single one of them.
Then there was the thing that was out of place, a large device of some sort belonging to the kraang. The kraang droids near it also gave it away. The piping and all the bright glowing greenish-blue meant mutagen filled it. But first, they had one objective.
“Let’s...get him out of here first,” Catra whispered to her brothers, pointing to the man who was roped in a chair while the kraang was watching the video on his phone, “And hope we don’t need to deal with him again.”
“Right, Mikey.” Leo gestured to Mikey’s nunchucks, and he got the idea.
Thanks to the kraang being distracted, they didn’t hear Mikey’s extended chain wrapping around the base of the moving chair and slowly pulling him towards them.
“We’re going to get you out of here,” Leo whispered, trying to reassure the man.
“What about my phone?” The man couldn’t keep his voice down, still only caring about his phone.
“Shh! Be quiet for once!” Catra flexed her claws slightly, hoping he would just shut up.
“Don’t shush me. I’m not leaving without my phone, you flea-ridden furball.” Growled at them angrily and loudly, alerting the kraang to their presence.
“Remind me why we have to rescue this guy again?” Donnie asked, annoyed, for him giving them away and insulting his sister.
“Cause...we’re good people…” Catra’s eyes twitched, but keeping her cool, pulling out her weapon as her brothers did the same.
They were immediately dodging around swiftly as the kraangdroids fired at them, having learned how they react so far and not having adapted to their skills, thankfully. Catra knew she could quickly stop them by killing the aliens inside, but none of them had ever killed before and wouldn’t start now. Not since they can easily take apart the droids housing them.
And it had also been easier to find the joints easier to tear them apart quicker, with both her weapon and her claws. Though she had to admit, it felt weird without Raph there fighting alongside them, but that’s how it was. However, she laid her ears flat at the noise that filled the room.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” The scream echoed throughout the entire room, slowly fading off and getting deeper at the same time.
She, her brothers, and surprisingly the kraang stopped fighting when all heard the noise. Even looking at each other in confusion, one of the kraang was ordered to check inside the darkness. It slowly faded from view.
Before being knocked straight back out damaged as it landed on the floor, the kraang exited it in fear before running off at the sound of a roar.
“I don’t like the sound of that….” Mikey commented as everyone backed away slowly.
What jumped from the darkness sent a shiver of fear cascading up Catra’s spine, with all her fur standing on end in alarm. A giant mutant spider that was black and red with a few orange outlines of coloring emerged. There were six eyes up top and a few lower down under its mouth filled with sharp fangs.
Its arms and legs seemed a bit more human-like in appearance, but what was most alarming was the four spider-like limbs on top, with the sharp tips glowing the same color as the mutagen.
“I don’t like the look of it either!” Mikey followed up on his last statement.
“What did you do to me? I’m hideous.” He didn’t like how he looked now, and quite frankly, neither did Catra.
“Hideous is a large understatement.” Muttered softly under her breath, now wishing for the man back to normal, despite not liking him.
“Don’t worry, the five of us can handle him.” Leo tried reassuring everyone.
“Okay, this might be a bad time to point this out, but you send one of the five of us home.” Donnie pointed out, worried.
“And right now, I wish it was me,” Mikey whined out.
“Uhh...no, I wish it was me,” Catra chuckled nervously, trying to be brave, but Donnie could see her arms were a little shaky, “D-Don’t exactly w-want to face my fear today.”
“This is your fault,” He pointed specifically towards Catra, but primarily to them all, “I’m going to rip your heads off.”
“I know I was annoyed at him ignoring me for most of the night...kinda wish he kept doing so…” Catra’s breath was shaky holding her sheathed Nodachi; she might be scared but wasn’t going to kill him.
Catra backstepped as the spider swung a leg at them; unfortunately, she forgot to consider that Leo was standing next to her. Leo flew and crashed into a stack of crates, breaking apart under his shell.
Charging forward, she swung again and again, but each time he blocked it with one of his limbs, but at least he wasn’t able to strike back at her. She fell back to avoid being crushed in his enormous jaws, crawling backward to avoid getting skewed on the limbs.
Mikey got his attention by smacking his nunchucks into his face, not making him dazed but plenty annoyed as he tried swinging at Mikey instead. Only to be blocked by Donnie’s staff. Leo followed up by jumping over him and striking at his back, not piercing the skin much, but it hurt him.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Mikey taunted the giant spider mutant.
His answer was a giant green blob of goo shot from his mouth and landing in front of their feet, the floor sizzling through the floor.
“First a large spider...now acidic spit….” Catra muttered, having jumped back further, thinking it was just gross stuff, but now it was deadly, “We didn’t want an answer for that question!”
Now it was the running and dodging game as he started to keep spitting at them, having to jump and avoid everywhere while also not being stabbed. They were was striking at him at any chance they could get and avoiding the holes in the floor. Finding an opportunity, she kicked a metal barrel into the air, with Mikey following up and kicking it at him.
It lodged inside his mouth, preventing him from spitting. Though the creaking of metal from him trying to bite was worrying. A hissing sound barely registered to Catra as she looked down to see where they were standing before the floor collapsed beneath them.
They landed in a grunt of pain on the floor below. Catra lost her grip on her weapon.
“We’re no match for Spider Bytez.” Mikey stood up, naming the spider.
“ “Spider Bytez”?” Leo questioned him.
“Better than nothing, I suppose….” Catra shook her head, fur a little chaotic after the fighting so far.
Spider Bytez jumped from the hole they fell through, cornering them in a small space. Catra tried grabbing her weapon but retracted her hand back in alarm as the acid was spat on it, melting away both the sheath and blade hidden inside. It left her weaponless.
“R-Remind me to ask Sensei f-for a new one when we get home.” Catra backed up to be beside her brothers, flexing her fingers to use her claws for the battle instead.
“Playtime's over, freaks.” Spider Bytez spat more acid, causing them to back up further into the corner, not having a way to escape past him.
“Wow. I didn’t think this guy could get any uglier. How are you holding up, sis?”
Looking up, they saw Raph standing at the edge of the hole they fell through; he was a sight for sore eyes. Catra could tell he seemed calmer than before now. Raph was also the first one of her brothers to discover her fear of spiders, and he was understanding. He did fear roaches, after all.
“A bit calmer now that you’re here,” Catra admitted with a smirk, nerves calm somewhat. They watched him jump down to their level.
“Well, I think you've been punished long enough. Come and join us.” Catra wasn’t the only one that was happy since Leo made that comment.
“Hey, it’s the kung fu frog with the salad tongs.” Spider Bytez went straight to taunting him, trying to throw him off his game.
“Hey, it’s the stupid loudmouth who’s about to get his butt kicked.” Raph taunted right back, showing no reaction to his taunts.
“Be careful, Raph; he spits acid!” Catra called out, at least warning him of the danger.
Raph nodded, dodging the acid ball spat at him, distracting him a little. Catra huddled with the rest of her brothers as Spider Bytez circled them, spitting acid at the floor. Though she was the only one of them to jump off the small platform, they had, as it collapsed to the next floor. Catra found herself next to Raph.
“Dance for me, freaks!” Spider Bytez focused on the two of them, spitting acid into the air.
“What happened to your weapon?” Raph asked while they proceeded to dodge.
“Melted, need to ask sensei for a new one!” Catra pulled her tail in, just avoiding it being melted, “Think the two of us alone can take him down?”
“Well, let’s find out.” Raph tossed her one of his sai’s to use.
Both of them ran towards him, Raph ducking under the strike of the limbs, while Catra jumped and ran along the length of it, making him focus on two different targets. He took too long to pick one as Raph punched at his face knocking him back a few steps with each punch.
Catra deflected another one of the limbs with the sai before jumping towards his face. Kicking him right between the eyes, and on a downwards strike scratched at one of his eyes, leaving a mark and him shouting in pain and having to shut it. He still had five eyes regardless.
With a quick nod to each other, they tackled him through the hole, knowing he wouldn’t be able to strike at them without hitting himself. Using him as their landing, dazing him as he impacted against the ground. Their brothers cheered when seeing the fighting.
He was backing away as he was slowly shaking to take a stand. Catra noticed something from the corner of her eye. She threw her sai and broke the guy’s phone.
“No! My phone!” Spider Bytez realized he was slowly surrounded by them, “You guys are going to regret this.”
He jumped and started crawling up the piping to escape. They followed right after him to the roof. Just in time to see him already a few rooftops away as he ran, disappearing out of sight.
“Okay, I’ll admit...but he was freaky, disgusting, and I never want to see him again,” Catra let out her emotions as her shivering came back for a bit before calming, looking at Raph, “How was storytime with Sensei?”
“How’d you know that?” Raph was honestly just a little surprised.
“Had the same lesson not too long ago, sorry for hitting you, by the way,” She gave a nervous chuckle before moving on ahead, “Now, if you excuse me...I need a new weapon.”