A Storm
Chapter Two
Despite Master Splinter’s different approach to training, Karai could see why, no matter what life or aliens or Shredder had ever thrown the turtles’ way, they made it through. They may have gotten hurt sometimes, may have been worn thin, may have lost nearly everything—but they survived. Karai was almost certain it was due to the close bonds that they all shared; not just with Splinter, but with each other. They were more than clan; they were family, all of them—April and Casey included.
Karai knelt on the mat beside April and her brothers, watching while her father showed Casey Jones the basics of defense and offense. It was something that they had all agreed he needed to learn, even if only secretly amongst themselves.
Casey, unlike the rest of them, had never had any practical training in fighting styles. That wasn’t to say that he couldn’t hold his own. Unlike April, who had basically started from nothing, Casey did have his hockey training, which was impressive and, if combined with actual fighting knowledge, would no doubt be quite formidable.
While Karai observed, she found her gaze drifting from her father and Casey to the girl kneeling beside her. April looked as lovely as she always did, red hair pulled back into a ponytail, small smile curling her lips as she watched her friend get dropped to the mat over and over again.
Karai wondered what it was that drew her to April. Even from the first time she saw her, back when she was still with the Foot and trying to capture April for one reason or another, she’d found the girl oddly appealing. At first, she hadn’t put much thought into it; maybe April was just pretty, she figured. Perhaps it had only been simple attraction. But, now that she was getting to know the other girl better, she was sure that that wasn’t it. At least, not entirely.
There was just something so incredibly special about April, and not that she was a psychic mutant—some strange byproduct of alien experimentation. Whatever was special about April O’Neil was strictly a characteristic of her. Karai had never felt this pull towards anyone else, not even the few people she’d experimented with whenever she could risk not being the leader of the Foot and actually be a young person who was growing and changing.
Karai felt herself smile when April glanced her way, her smile widening slightly as they made eye contact for a brief moment. April wrinkled her nose slightly as she made a silly face in Karai’s direction before dutifully turning her attention back to their Sensei. Karai felt her heart flutter and wondered how she’d been so fortunate. She reached across the space between them, her fingers inching across the mat, and she gently poked the other girl’s calf with her pinky. For a split second, she wasn’t sure that the other girl had noticed, but, without looking at her, April slid her hand from her thigh and interlocked their fingers.
It had only been a few weeks since Karai had asked April out on a date—a date that had consisted of a simple meal on the rooftop of April’s apartment building and catching a late-night movie at the theater. All in all, Karai didn’t think she’d ever had a better time. April was like a ray of sunshine, and Karai felt like a slightly withered plant eagerly absorbing her light.
A loud thump and a groan drew Karai’s attention back to the middle of the dojo, where Casey was once again on the floor. Whatever had happened must have been a glorious fail, because April and the turtles burst out laughing. Karai smiled at the obvious frustration written all over Casey’s face. He didn’t take losing well, and she knew that training with Master Splinter would no doubt greatly frustrate him.
“Nice going, Casey!” Leo laughed, not exactly being ill-humored.
“How’s that mat tasting, Jones?” Raph crowed.
“Even a white belt should have been able to avoid that!” Donnie cackled.
April, for her part, kept her thoughts to herself; though Karai could tell at a glance how much force of will it was taking the other girl to keep from laughing too raucously, her cheeks turning red with the effort.
Casey rolled onto his stomach and glared angrily in their direction, grinding his teeth together as he rigidly climbed back to his feet. His shoulders were stiff and he looked ready to shove his set-aside hockey sticks into painful places.
“Oh, shut up! This is harder than it looks, okay?!” the hockey-player-turned-vigilante barked, his words going mostly unnoticed by the still-cackling turtles.
April’s eyes widened and she quickly wiped the humor from her face, and, out of the corner of her eye, Karai could see why. If April’s expression hadn’t given him away, Karai probably wouldn’t have noticed her father move from behind Casey to behind the turtles.
“Shizukani shite!” Splinter snapped, smacking the turtles upside the backs of the heads in one quick motion. “That is no way to treat your friend.”
“Hai, Sensei.”
“Sorry, Sensei.”
“Sorry, Casey.”
“Yeah, sorry,” the turtles grumbled together, looking sullen and apologetic.
Then Splinter turned his sharp amber eyes towards April and Karai, and Karai wondered for a brief moment if they were going to get slapped as well.
“You’re righ,m Sensei,” April said, releasing Karai’s hand and getting to her feet. She bowed lightly in Splinter’s direction before turning to look at Casey. “Sorry, Casey, I shouldn’t have laughed.” She walked over towards the irritable boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I should know better than anyone else here what you’re going through—being so new to all of this still myself. You’ll get this,” she said with an assuring and bracing smile. She looked back at Splinter. “You’ve got the best teacher. And the best friends and teammates to help you along.” She pointed looked at the rest of the team. “Isn’t that, right?”
“Yeah,” Leo said with a nod, getting to his feet as well and crossing the mat towards them. “You’ll get the basics in no time. I noticed that your balance is a little off; you should really make your stance a little wider. It’s just like when you’re on the ice—balance is always the key.” The oldest of the turtles spread his own legs and lowered himself into a stable, wide stance for Casey to mimic.
“You’d think this would be less awkward without ice skates,” Casey grumbled.
Karai couldn’t help but smile at the teenage boy; he might have been a bit of a complainer, but there was no doubt that he had drive. That would probably be the one thing that took him the farthest the fastest: his sheer determination to prove himself.
“I think it’s nice that you’ve taken Jones under you wing. He’ll benefit from your training,” Karai said conversationally, walking relaxed laps around the dojo beside her father.
The fight against Shredder had taken its toll on all of them in one way or another, but it had perhaps affected Splinter most of all. Not only had the confrontation caused him physical injury, one he was still recovering from, but also emotional and spiritual upset. Karai couldn’t pretend to fully understand, as she herself was still adjusting to the fact that the stories she’d been told growing up were all lies, but she tried to be sympathetic.
“He certainly has drive, but he lacks focus,” Splinter replied simply, his gait slow but steady. Even simple exercises as walking were good to do to strengthen himself, but he also knew not to push the muscles too much until they were ready.
“Yes,” Karai agreed, clasping her hands behind her back. She could hear the pitching and diving hum of the television beneath the dojo, where her brothers and friends had gone to relax and enjoy themselves after their training. She could hardly believe how much downtime they all really took; they were obviously skilled, but she felt almost lazy living in the lair, as though she weren’t doing enough. It made her restless.
“Father, may I ask you something?”
“You are wondering why I agreed to take on Casey Jones as a student?”
“Yes, but not just him; why did you take on April, and beyond that, why did you start training the turtle in the art of ninjutsu?” The questions seemed to tumble out of her faster than she could move to stop them. She paused and grimaced slightly. She hated asking her father so many questions at once; it made her sound impatient—which, if she were to be honest, she was.
Splinter continued on a few feet before pausing himself and turning to look back at her. “Casey has been working with our family for long months, and has put himself into dangerous situations with little concern for his own safety. He needs to learn how to protect himself, hold his own.” He made a vague gesture with his hand, looking up towards the towering bonsai tree growing through the middle of the dojo. “He needs to be able to protect himself when we will not be there. I hope that we always will be, but there is no guarantee.”
“That’s wise.”
“He is foolish and impulsive. I do not want him to get hurt, or get April or my sons hurt. Or you,” Splinter said, looking back towards Karai, who felt herself warm slightly.
She loosely folded her arms over her chest, clasping her elbows as she joined him at his side. “And April? The turtles?” she asked tentatively, curious as to how much she could get her father to reveal. Neither Splinter nor Shredder were big conversationalists, but Karai felt that Splinter was more willing to talk. She didn’t know why, but she felt less reluctant to ask her questions, even if she might not get an answer right away.
“In April’s case, the circumstances called for it. She needed protection, a safe place to go to, a family. And as far as the turtles…” He sighed and reached out to her, placing his clawed hand on her shoulder in a gesture she was beginning to recognize for what it was: the thing that her father did when he couldn’t bring himself to hug any of them. “I believed that I had lost everything—my clan, your mother, you.”
Karai felt her chest tighten at the haunting look that flashed behind his eyes, and his fingers tightened on her shoulder slightly.
“Soon after, I’d lost the new life that I had been trying to start. All I had were four baby turtles, who, thanks to the mutagen, were developing human intelligence.”
“So, you just…decided to teach them ninjutsu?” she asked with a crooked smile, hoping to alleviate some of the tension she could feel descending upon the dojo.
The corner of Splinter’s mouth quirked upwards slightly and he shook his head, releasing her shoulder. “No. I decided to find us a suitable place to live. I decided to help the turtles, help them grow, teach them how to survive. It was not until they were a little older that I decided to train them in the art of ninjutsu. By that point, we had grown together as a family. The boys regarded me as their father, and I regarded them as my sons. It felt only right to pass on what I knew. Despite the turtles not being my blood, they would continue the Hamato traditions.”
“That’s…” Karai hunted around for the word she was looking for, eventually landing on, “noble.”
“I also knew that, someday, they would wish to go up to the surface, and they would need to be able to defend themselves.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle at the seriousness behind her father’s words and shook her head, sighing contentedly to herself. “You’re amazing,” she said, and stepped forward to hug him, her cheek pressed against the soft material of his robe. “I hope someday to be as wise and as kind as you.” She released him and took a few steps back. “April and I are going out on patrol tonight; the turtles want to watch the newest episode of that Meteorville show.”
“Take your T-phone.”
“We will. If anything happens, we’ll call, or you’ll call. The city’s been pretty quiet; I don’t think we’ll have any problems,” she said with a smile, bowing and backing out of the dojo before spinning and heading down the stairs.
April was leaning over the back of the sofa, watching the television idly, but, when she spotted Karai out of the corner of her eye, she straightened up and smiled. “Okay, guys, we’re off,” she said to the turtles, stepping back from the sofa.
“Okay.”
“Be safe.”
“Call us if you need us.”
“WE LOVE YOU!” the turtles chorused, attention still glued to the television. Mikey was the one that shouted above the others in his Mikey fashion, and it made Karai’s stomach turn happily as April giggled.
“Come on, let’s go,” the red-head said, gesturing towards the exit and grabbing up her bag, fan tucked away on her person.
---
As predicted, their patrol reaped very little action. The city had been quiet for weeks—particularly quiet for days—, and any leads involving the Foot Clan had been going colder and colder.
It frustrated Karai to no end, not being able to bring down the lot of those traitors—those who had knowingly and willingly betrayed the Hamato Clan. It made her physically ill to think about it, that the people she’d grown up around, the people she had trained with, the people she had lead into confrontations with the turtles were traitors. It went against everything she had ever learned as a ninja. Honor and loyalty were the staple of her belief system, and, though she was sure that would never change, she felt betrayed right down to her bones.
“Well, this is boring,” April sighed, stretching her arms above her head with a long groan before letting her forearms rest on the crown of her skull. “What I wouldn’t give to run into even the Purple Dragons.”
“Really?” Karai couldn’t quite restrain the sarcasm from her voice.
April shrugged her shoulders, letting her arms drop, and smiled. “Hey, they maybe lame but at least we’d get some exercise,” she said, leaning back on the edge of the roof they’d been loitering on.
Karai’s gazed drifted above the other girl’s head, and a thought occurred to her. “So you want some exercise, O’Neil?”
“I don’t want to fight you, Karai. We’ve done our training for the day,” April said, standing up and raising a hand. “I just don’t want to spend the next four hours sitting on a rooftop with nothing to do.”
“I wasn’t going to suggest we fight,” Karai replied, turning April around by the shoulder and pointing towards the horizon. “Why don’t we go for a swim?” she suggested, shooting the other girl a sidelong smile.
“I didn’t pack a bathing suit.” April returned the smile as Karai released her shoulder and stepped onto the edge of the building.
“Neither did I.”
---
“Come on, April! You can swim, can’t you?” Karai teased as she made her way across the sand, her hips swaying a little more than they would usually as she sank with each step.
“Of course I can swim,” April replied, glancing nervously around the section of beach they’d come upon.
Karai spun around and walked backwards, her gait a little slower as her eyes focused in on the red-head. “Then what are you waiting for? There’s no one else here,” Karai assured, crossing her arms at the bottom of her shirt and pulling it up over her head, revealing the simple white bra and binding underneath.
April swallowed, her nerves still a-tingle, but nodded and began making her way across the beach after the other girl. She began removing her own clothes as she went, staggering occasionally due to the awkwardness of attempting to strip and walk at the same time.
Karai beamed at her when she finally caught up. “We won’t be long, don’t worry,” she assured, folding her clothes and setting them down on the beach. April thought she looked rather ethereal in nothing but her white binding and underwear, her skin almost aglow against the backdrop of the ocean behind her. “We’ll just take a quick swim and be gone before anyone has a chance to see you in your underwear.”
“So…you don’t count then?” April asked as she folded her own clothes and set them beside the other girl’s, feeling only slightly self-conscious about her purple and black star underpants.
“Oh, I count,” Karai teased, eyeing the paler girl in her undressed glory and mismatching underwear. “But in all the best possible ways.” She waggled her eyebrows before turning and trotting towards the water’s edge.
April felt herself blush but shook it off and followed the other girl.
With little hesitation, Karai waded in to about the middle of thighs before diving in. She momentarily disappearing beneath the water, then resurfaced a few seconds later and a bit farther out. She stood up, the water lapping at her collarbone.
“C’mon, April! Don’t just stand there,” she called, shifting so she could keep the beach and April, as well as the rest of the vast ocean, in her view.
“It’s cold!” April squealed, shivering as the cold water lapped against her warm knees.
“It won’t be if you just get it over with!” Karai called louder.
April made a face before taking a few more wide steps and jumping the rest of the way in. She popped up out of the water a second later, squealing and laughing, moving to join Karai.
“Still cold!” she laughed, causing Karai to chuckle.
“I think it feels nice, but it is cold,” she admitted. “Summers aren’t as hot here as they were back in Japan,” she said as they waded together, dragging their toes in the soft sand and occasionally kicking up seashells or discarded glass bottles.
“Do you miss it?” April asked as she kicked off of the sand bank and swam out a little ways.
Karai followed her, swimming circles around the red-head when she finally decided she’d gone out far enough. “Yes. New York is amazing, but I do miss Japan,” she admitted.
April followed her, spinning on the spot, her toes just shy of being able to touch the sandy bottom. “Do… Do you think you’ll go back?” April tried to keep the selfish concern out of her voice, but didn’t think she was entirely successful.
Karai turned her head to look at April more directly, still swimming small laps around her.
“I miss Japan, but there are so many memories that are bitter for me now. I don’t think I could ever go back. At least, not for a long time.” She paddled a little closer to the other girl and took April’s hand. “But maybe, someday, I could take you back to Japan with me, and show you the beauty of where I grew up.”
April smiled. “I’d like that.”
Releasing April’s hand, Karai took a few strokes backwards, pulling herself away from the other girl. “Now come on, O’Neil, let’s see what you’ve got.” She splashed the other girl, who spluttered and laughed.
“Oh, is that how it is?”
“That’s how it is.”
“Okay, you asked for it, Karai!” April playfully growled before lunging forward to try and catch the other girl, who rolled on the spot and began swimming away from her.
The two girls swam and chased each other for awhile, splashing and laughing, not caring or thinking about potential sunburns, or how the salty ocean water would dry out their skin. They swam in circles, one chasing, and the other fleeing. They splashed each other, dunked each other, and eventually started attempting to do underwater tricks—something that was considerably harder to do against the ocean’s current rather than in a placid, chlorinated pool.
“Ah, we should probably head back,” April said after awhile, licking her lips and cringing at how salty they were. “It’s getting late.”
“Okay, sounds good,” Karai said with a nod. “I’m going to do a few more dives and laps, but I’ll follow you.”
“Okay.” April nodded back, swimming backwards slowly towards the shallows. She kept her feet lifted even after she was sure she could touch the sandy bottom.
April watched Karai over her shoulder, admiring how graceful she could be—on both land and water. April wondered if it was due to her training in ninjutsu, or if it was all about confidence; either way, she doubted that she’d ever be so graceful.
The contrast between the top of the ocean and beneath its surface was stark. Above, the sparkling water was a roar of wind on waves, of sea bird cries, and the semi-distant sound of city life. Beneath the waves, all was muted to a dull but continual hum; there was no distinction between the hum of the ocean itself and the creatures that lived in it. The shift between the two extremes of below and above were exhilarating and alarming each and every time Karai’s head broke the surface.
She glanced back towards April waiting not too far away, then took in a deep lungful of air and dived beneath the waves again. April was like a buoy, the point in the ocean she watched to keep herself from drifting too far away in any direction. Each time she would surface, she would glance to find where the girl was standing, always keeping her position at the forefront of her mind.
Moving through the water, the hum loud in her ears, colors slightly muted beneath the waves, Karai swam and moved with the grace and strength of someone who had swam in the ocean many times before. She wasn’t uncomfortable beneath the waves; she was confident in her swimming skills, but comfort, confidence, and skills weren’t always enough to face the unknown.
She turned herself around prepared to surface and head back towards the beach. Then, suddenly, she felt the weight of it pressing against her shoulder before she registered the growing humming of the current, and only had a second to register that something was wrong before she was caught in the current.
She was forced over and under, closing her eyes as the undersea world was flipped upside-down, and she was dragged into the undertow. Her heart pounded rapidly, her lungs burned, her instincts screamed at her to struggle, to try and pull away—an instinct she was only able to fight off for a split second before succumbing.
She became disoriented as she was flipped over and over, her body spinning out of her control as the water seemed to push on her from all sides. Panic rose inside of her, and she attempted to swim to the surface, never exactly sure if she were going in the right direction.
With a yell of panic and surprise, the bubble of air in her lungs escaped, blinding her further as she was crushed into the sandbar beneath the surf. She registered the hit, the dull ache of impact before she lost all coherent thought.
April waved her arms steadily atop the water, her toes shifting in the sand as she attempted to anchor herself against the bobbing current. She frowned as she scanned the top of the water; Karai hadn’t come back up.
“Karai?” She felt her heart begin to beat a little faster against her ribs, as she turned on the spot, looking all around her, towards the beach, then back out towards the open ocean. “Karai!” she yelled, panic beginning to set into her veins as she registered that something was wrong. “KARAI!” she screamed, pushing off from the sand and moving towards the last place she’d seen the other girl.
“Oh god, oh god, oh god, Karai!” She spun around, trying to keep herself in place, a much more difficult task now that she couldn’t touch the sand beneath the surf. Blood seemed to rush to her ears and her eyes began to burn, tears welling up and blurring her vision. A thousand terrible scenarios were playing at the forefront of her mind, though she hardly registered that they were there as they whipped through her thoughts.
“KAR—” She gasped, blinking away her tears as her eyes grew wider. She could see the other girl’s body bobbing atop the water’s surface, rising and falling with the current. “KARAI!”
She swam as fast as she could towards her. She grabbed the other girl, rolling her onto her back and attempting to swim back towards the shore—not an easy feat as she dragged the dead weight of the other girl behind her. “It’s okay! It’s okay, we’re almost there!” April panted, digging her feet into the sand the moment her toes were able to reach, and using her legs to help pull the two of them towards the beach.
Still dragging the unconscious girl behind her, April clawed her way onto the beach, hands and knees digging into the sand as she attempted to get them away from the pull of the water. She put herself between the unconscious girl and the ocean, shakily beginning looking her over.
Karai was pale—skin clammy, plastered messily across her face. April tried to brush the wet, sandy locks away with care, but her shaking fingers wouldn’t permit it.
“Karai? Karai?” She leaned down and listened for the sound of the other girl’s breath, and then against her chest to listen for a heartbeat. The beat was there—barely audible, but there. “No, no, no.” April straightened up, pushing her own lose strands of hair out of her face before leaning back down and pressing her lips against Karai’s.
It had been a while since April had taken a CPR class; regardless, if she followed all of the procedures step-by-step exactly as her instructor had told her, she figured anything could help. She straightened back up and pumped the other girl’s chest firmly five times before going back to forcing air into her lungs.
“Come on, Karai, don’t do this to me!”
April repeated the process a few more times before the other girl’s eyes snapped open and she coughed up seawater.
“Oh my god, Karai! Are you okay?” April practically sobbed, tilting the other girl’s head to the side as she continued to hack and cough, her breathing raspy as her lungs tried to drag in much-needed air.
“A-April…”
“I’m here! It’s okay, you’re okay.”
“I— I can’t move,” Karai gasped, panic wrinkling her brow as widening her watery eyes.
“Oh, god, don’t worry, it’ll be okay! Just lay still!” April weakly climbed to her feet, her knees trembling terribly. “I’ll be right back, I promise, just…hold on,” she called as she staggered up the beach towards their pile of clothes. Tearing her T-phone from the folds of her clothes, she quickly ran back to the other girl, dropping down onto the sand and dialing 911.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, you’re going to be fine,” April assured as she held the other girl’s hand. She pressed the phone hard against her ear. “Hello? Hello! Please, you have to help me! My friend almost drowned,” she cried into the mouthpiece, tears spilling freely down her cheeks as she informed the dispatcher where they were. “Please hurry, I think she’s hurt really bad!”
“A-April,” Karai said quietly, her eyes still wide as she gazed up at the sky, the other girl going in and out of her line of sight as she rocked back and forth sobbing into the phone. “April—”
“It’s going to be okay, you’ll be fine. The ambulance is on its way, you’ll be okay,” April tried to reassure, holding the other girl’s hand firmly in her own, and carefully petting her wet, sandy hair out of her face.
“April, I’m scared,” Karai whimpered, her voice sounding small as tears started to slide down along the sides of her face.
“It’ll be okay, I’m right here, I’ll be with you the whole time.”
“W-Will you hold my hand?”
April blinked, surprised, and leaned forward slightly, gently thumbing the tears from the corner of Karai’s eyes.
“I am holding your hand.”
“R-Really, please. I’m really scared, April. Please hold my hand.”
“Karai, I… I am holding your hand, see?” April lifted their interlocked hands, a dawning fear beginning to gnaw at her insides as the pressure around her heart began to increase.
Karai’s eyes wavered slightly as she looked at their interlocked fingers, the tears welling up larger and falling faster than before as she drew a shuddering breath. “O-oh, oh god... April, A-April I can’t feel it,” Karai stuttered. “I can’t feel your hand. Oh my god, oh my god.”
“It— It’ll, it’s…” April sobbed, squeezing her hand tighter. “It’s okay, it’ll be okay,” she cried, the sound of approaching sirens doing little to reassure her that things would in fact be alright. “You’ll be fine, they’ll help you, and you’ll be fine. I’ll be with you the entire time,” she repeated over and over again like a prayer, holding tightly onto Karai, who sobbed and gasped on the sand.
The ambulance ride was a claustrophobic blur for April, who remembered very little beyond Karai crying for her to stay with her, and the EMTs asking exactly what had happened. April did her best to reassure her friend, beginning to feel numb inside, and tell the EMTs what she could since Karai couldn’t. She was really only aware of holding the other girl’s cold hand in her own, and the fact that she couldn’t seem to find room to shift.
---
April stood in the ER’s information room, the woman behind the desk taking down as much information as April could provide. She didn’t know Karai’s exact birthdate; only Splinter would know that. She didn’t know if the other girl had any allergies, or had been or was on any medication. She didn’t even know if Karai had medical insurance.
“I don’t know,” was all she seemed to be able to say, over and over again in a deadened and quiet whisper. She’d had a clear moment in which she’d remembered to grab their clothes, and clung to Karai’s folded sandy bundle like a security blanket. Her own clothes did very little to keep away the shivers.
“Do you know how I can contact her next of kin? Any emergency contacts?” the lady behind the desk asked, sounding a little exasperated, but otherwise not unfriendly.
April’s lip trembled and she shook her head. “No, I’m— I’m her emergency contact. Her…her dad’s dead, the rest of her family’s in Japan… I don’t know how to get ahold of them.”
“All right, thank you. Please take a seat; it might be a little while,” the woman said, gesturing towards the chairs along the back wall. “Do you want anything? Something warm to drink, a blanket?” She offered, but April merely shook her head.
“I… I need to make a phone call,” she mumbled, then turned and left the room.
“Are you sure I can’t get you anything?” the woman called after her, but April ignored her.
She walked along the hall, and paused beside a payphone. Glancing up and down the hall first, April pulled out her T-phone and leaned against the wall, dialing the first number that popped up in her contacts list.
The phone seemed to ring forever, and April feared that no one would answer, but then, like a miracle, the line went live.
“D-Donnie,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “D-Donnie, I-I need to talk to Master Splinter…p-please,” she gasped, her breath stuttering as she tried to keep the sobs at bay.
She listened a moment as Donnie moved, talking to the others, who asked what was going on but received no answer. Donnie called for Splinter, and she heard the sound of the doors to the dojo opening, and him informing their Master that it was April.
“Moshi moshi.”
April let out a little gasp at the sound of their Master’s voice, and held onto the phone a little tighter.
“April? April, can you hear me? What is wrong?”
“Master Splinter,” she gasped, her chest tightening and forcing out a dry sob. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, oh my god.” April clung to the phone with both hands, fresh tears rolling down her face. “I’m so sorry,” she gasped, sobbing uncontrollably into the phone.
“April, April what is wrong? What has happened? Are you alright?”
“It’s K-Karai,” she managed to gasp out between sobs, sliding down the wall as her knees trembled and would no longer support her weight. “Oh my god.”
“April, where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”