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It starts with a sticky note.Karai stares at it, posted innocently in a location it shouldn’t be. Seriously; this is the heart of the compound, right on the screen of the center security monitor. It should not be here.‘your security sucks ass’ proclaims the note, in messy haphazard handwriting. None of Karai’s soldiers or cameras caught the intruder in action; none of them noticing the sticky note until hours later and fifty unregistered security protocol updates had been added to their systems. All without Karai’s know or say.Karai doesn’t even have to guess who it is that’s left the note.“Honestly, senpai, we have no idea how he got in,” Shini says as she leans over Karai’s shoulder. “Or how he got out,” She adds with a slight grimace. “He erased all the footage and none of your soldiers have found his exit point yet.”Karai narrows her eyes at the note, weighing her options. On the one hand, her security systems are at least three times better than they had been, far as her meager computer staff has been able to tell. On the other hand, her brother is a snot-nosed know it all who needs to mind his own business.She snatches the note off the screen, and crumples it in her hands. “Tell the men they’re to scour the whole building until they find how Donatello got in, and then tell them that if their performance doesn’t improve I’ll start singling people out. And remind them how quickly those individuals disappear, won’t you Shini?”“Hm, it would be my pleasure,” Shini replies with a catlike smile. Shini sashays off to terrify the recruits back into order, and Karai is left to stare in frustration at the computer monitors her brother had altered.She draws out her phone, and taps out a quick message. Try that again and I’ll flay you. I can’t afford to look bad in front of my soldiers.You should’ve hired better technicians, then, is Donnie’s immediate reply. It was like shredding wet tissue paper. You should thank me for saving you from someone a lot less innocent in intentions than I was.
Don’t you have things to do besides bother me?
Bothering my brothers is only so entertaining.
Karai scowls at her mobile, because she’s only had brothers for perhaps a year and a half and they’ve already begun to really get under her skin at times.Donatello is usually at least tolerable. He should watch himself, or Karai will stop giving him even that much.Karai elects to not deign Donatello with an answer, and puts the event from her mind for the most part. She focuses instead on continuing to cement her power over New York’s crime and reminding her soldiers that slacking will not be tolerated.—-It’s been some time since her father died. Both of them, the false one and the one she never knew. Karai mourned for them accordingly, and then swept the loss aside. Only on late nights does she have time for that sort of thing; she’s got an empire to run and a reputation to establish.Going rogue and disappearing from the criminal world for half a year or so does wonders to destroy your street cred. Karai is facing an uphill battle to reclaim what she’d established as the Shredder’s daughter. It’s unendingly frustrating, and drives her to hours of pacing or snapping at anyone who draws too close.Shini just tuts at her, and says Karai’s growing irritation is likely because of the cold weather closing in. Fall is nearly underway and even with the heaters on it affects Karai.Her mutation is a blessing and curse; it cost Karai her sanity at one point, but gave her a healing factor that’s saved her multiple times. No wonder her brothers always seemed to come back swinging; there are nights Karai swears she’s near invincible with the heightened reflexes and strength.But there are drawbacks, like getting urges she doesn’t want and the changing seasons pulling at still new instincts. Karai admits that her snake form is more prominent in the back of her mind lately, but she refuses to let its presence deter her from her mission.The last of summer starts to really slip away, and Karai starts hissing at people. Shini rolls her eyes, and Karai’s soldiers cower at the fangs Karai bares. Her mood remains irritable and tense, and it doesn’t matter how many sessions of sparring she puts in, Karai can’t shake it.The box showing up in her throne room, large in size and wrapped in pleasantly green paper with a dark bow, doesn’t help her mood.“Find him,” Karai nearly literally hisses at her closest soldiers. The Foot men and women scatter, heeding the dark tone Karai has. Shini clicks her tongue, circling the box in a mildly curious way.“Really, I’m beginning to wonder how he does it,” Shini says, toeing close enough to the box that she can stroke the large ribbon.Karai swats Shini’s hand away, and because she knows it’s from her insolent little brother, judging from the purple greeting card attached to the bow, Karai rips the thing open without care just to spite him.There’s a large cardboard box inside, significantly less fancy than the wrapping paper that’d covered it and smelling faintly of damp. Karai takes out one of her knives and slices the tape holding it shut.Inside is a contraption of wires and bulbs and what looks like large lamps.Shini gives Karai a look, one eyebrow raised. “Donatello gave you a lamp?”“Apparently so,” Karai replies with a frown. She finally decides to acknowledge the card it had come with, plucking it off the floor from where she’d tossed it. Inside is the same scrawling handwriting from the sticky note, and it says ‘thought you’d be feeling the winter blues coming. this helps keep you awake and alert through it, and I’m fairly certain it’ll temper that temper of yours.’Taped to the inside of the card are instructions of how to set up the heat lamps, and a list of warnings of its use and where best to hang them.Karai stares at the card, and tries to figure out Donatello’s angle.Shini nosily leans over Karai’s shoulder, and hums interestedly. “Just what every lady wants, a heat lamp. How thoughtful of him.”“He attached a PS about it improving my skin health,” Karai says. “I can’t tell if that’s sincere or a dig at my looks.”“Both, perhaps?”“That little shit.”Shini just laughs at Karai, like she usually does when the turtles start causing trouble.Karai resists all of two hours before ordering her still meager staff of technicians to set it up in her master bedroom. She then resists ten minutes before actually trying the damn things, giving into the curiosity of it all and shifting into her snake form.Karai ends up having the best sleep she’s had in months, and doesn’t move from her pile for over seven hours after.When she finally drags herself back out of the blissful comfort of being warm, Karai manages to shift most of her upper body back into human limbs. Just enough to use her hands, albeit scaly versions of them.She finds herself being quite sincere as she types. Thank you. I’ve decided to forgive you for breaking into my base.Donnie is, of course, awake, and answers near immediately. You’re welcome. Raph gets just as bad during the winter without his fix, so I assumed the same solution would apply to you. Then, following that: You should watch what your men text each other. I’ve had fifteen key words flagged in the red just tonight.
Is that how you knew to send this thing?
Yes, that and I’d been planning for this eventuality. You’re not quite the same sort of mutant as us, but snake is close enough to turtle that I assumed.
When did you even get into my soldiers’ private communication lines?
I’d like to say in my spare time, but I don’t have any of that so I’ll just say because I felt like it a couple weeks ago.
How thoughtful of you.
Your sarcasm is noted.
Quit interfering with my clan, Donatello. I can take care of things myself.
Maybe, but I need a pet project anyways, so. This.
The only reason I’m not going to hunt you down is because of the lamps, I hope you know.
Oh I know.
You’re such a little shit.
So I’ve been told. Enjoy the heat lamps, ‘sis’.
Karai decides to not deign that with an answer either. Instead, she tosses her phone across the room onto her bed, and returns to lounging under warm light that is somehow just the right temperature for her.If a shipment of factory fresh motor parts finds its way to one of Donatello’s favorite scavenging dumps, within two days of Karai’s lamp delivery and wrapped with black bows, then Karai knows absolutely nothing of it and will never admit anything even under duress.A collection of bulbs specific to her heat lamps shows up on the roof of the church not a day after that, again with a green bow and purple card and no trace of the sender, and Karai decides she’s got a favorite sibling.—-The season sets in properly, and Karai is warm all through it. A few hours beneath her heat lamps, and the newly added UV ray lamps, does wonders for her energy and mood each night. That, paired with the meatier diet she’s taken to, results in her being faster, stronger, and thrice as deadly as she’d used to be.Her empire is still too shaky in her opinion, voices of dissention continuing to pop up as she spreads out to reclaim Foot territory, but Karai knows she’s got it in hand.She notices that the nights in New York are becoming increasingly miserable; cold and windy, and wet if it’s a particularly bad evening. Karai adds a layer beneath her armor to fend off the damp cold, and a thought occurs to her.Michelangelo let slip at one point that they tended to break into super markets and take just what they needed to eat. None of them wear any clothing and hunger is something that won’t ever leave someone; especially not four hyper active mutant teenage boys. The weather will only worsen, and Karai is well aware that her half-siblings have no warm human body to shift into as it does.Karai has her technician staff reactivate three of the surviving Footbots. Their hardware has been scrapped of any Kraang programming traces, as well as the programming the Shredder had given them. They’re not battle worthy, barely even able to balance heavy loads let alone fight properly, but they’re good enough for an errand run.Karai sends them underground with coordinates and three weeks’ worth of non-perishables.They come slinking back to her base not a night later, programming and circuitry running better than even their decommissioned 2.0 cousins. The leader of them bows at Karai’s throne, and presents a purple card.Karai opens it, and finds a simple ‘thank you’ written inside.She’s been getting grateful texts from Leonardo and Michelangelo all day, and one curt message of gratitude from Raphael, but Donatello’s name hadn’t shown up on her phone’s screen even once. Somehow, the lone card and sentence conveys his gratefulness better than paragraphs of text would have.—-When a list of names, coordinates, and measured threat levels appears on her computer’s screen, sometime later, Karai doesn’t question their authenticity.The highest level threats are dealt with immediately. Two assassination plots and a mutiny in Japan stopped in their tracks. Karai gives her higher ranking soldiers the task of dealing with the remaining threats, and goes to find her phone.
I believe you’ve graduated to a whole new level of stalking prowess, Donatello. There was an impressive amount of personal info in those details.
Donnie never, ever seems to be asleep, and as always, replies just as Karai sends the message. The internet is not nearly as private as people like to think it is, and it’s not stalking if it saves lives.
No, I think it still is. And I would’ve handled it myself.
Maybe, but it’s done now and I assume you’ve already dealt with the ones I listed as priorities, right?
Not very heroic of you, Donatello. You know what my men will be doing to those people. Isn’t your clan all about sparing lives and mercy?
Donatello doesn’t reply for a long stretch of time, and Karai wonders if she’s being given the same treatment she’s been giving him.Then, he does reply.
Leo’s ideals aren’t mine. Not anymore, at least. I do what I have to, to keep our family safe.
The reply makes Karai blink at her screen, a little unsure if she’d read that right.
Family?
Aren’t we?
…I didn’t know you considered me as such.
You’re our sister, whether you wanted to be or not. And I’m a little tired of losing family members, so I think I’ll keep bothering you a bit longer.
Karai doesn’t know how to respond to that, not really. The only family she’s ever had was her crime lord father, and her singular confidant Shinigami.Though, she realizes that she’s been referring to Donatello as her brother for months, same as she has with all the turtles, rather than just calling him his name.She settles on replying: Then I’ll keep in mind to not get lost.Donatello doesn’t reply after that, but Karai finds she agrees that there’s not much else to say on this subject.—-The army decides to crack down on the mutant population in New York- part of a budding social revolution, now that aliens and monsters and mutants are acknowledged by the general public- and Karai is lucky enough to get a notification from one of her contacts within the justice system about new bills being put up for consideration.Karai isn’t a mutant that could easily be tracked or taken down by military forces- the Foot clan is still growing in power again, but she’s got power in the hierarchy already- but she knows there are many others much more vulnerable than herself.She gets a single text from Leonardo that he and his family, as well as their allies, are all going into hiding for the time being. Full lock down on communications and outings, until imminent threat to their lives passes.Donatello still answers his phone when she calls.
“I’m not supposed to be doing this.”
“Maybe, but you are, aren’t you?”
“…what do you want?”
“How many wrenches have you managed to throw into the works so far?” Karai asks, resisting the urge to pace the room. She’s oddly worried, despite knowing the brothers can take care of themselves. They have for years- except this is different, isn’t it? “I know you won’t just be sitting there twiddling your thumbs, Donatello.”Donatello scoffs over the phone line. “Like I’d do that when I could be steadily taking our national security’s security apart into iddy-biddy pieces.”“And how well is that going?” Karai asks. Then, she amends. “Or I suppose, how fast is that going?”“…too slow for my liking,” Donatello admits, and for a brief second Karai can hear the exhaustion in his voice. He probably hasn’t slept at all since the news hit the internet. “I can only do so much so quickly with what I have.”“What if I offered you an entire room with the latest computers available, and a fully trained staff to go with it?”She can hear Donatello’s silence, audible in its confusion.“I’d say you’d make my life a shit ton easier,” Donatello says warily after a long pause.“I’d offer transportation to my lair, as well as shelter to your family and allies, to go with it,” Karai says boldly, looking around at the desks of computers and miscellaneous extra components she doesn’t know the use of. “I have plenty of room and plenty of man power for those things.”“…shouldn’t you be talking to Leo about this?” Donatello asks in a quiet, disbelieving voice, and in doing so, reveals the truth of scared he is of what’s threatening him and his own.“You’re the brains of your team, Donatello,” Karai says. “You’re the one who’ll likely be able to put a stop to this whole thing, if I give you the tools to do so. I’ll ask Leo after you tell me it’s possible if I give you all this.”Donatello takes a soft inhale, and then breathlessly says, “I can do it in two days, maybe less, if you really have everything I’ll need.”“If I don’t, we’ll get it expressed ordered. None of you are dying while I have a say in things, Donatello. I won’t let you.”Donatello laughs, shaky and relieved. “Then I guess none of us will. You’d probably scare anyone to death who even tried.”Karai smiles to herself, and waves a hand to her nearest attendant to send out the trucks to retrieve Donatello and the others. If she were truthful with herself, Donatello’s assumption of her behavior is likely a correct one. “They’re heading out now. You’ll be picked up in less than twenty minutes, and the pickup spots are being sent to Leo as we speak.”
“I thought you were going to ask him before you did anything.”
“Time is of the essence,” Karai replies blithely. “I’ll explain everything to him later.”“Oh, he’ll just love that,” Donatello laughs.Karai chuckles, and hangs up the phone.Donatello comes striding into the computer room not a half hour later, and looks ready to take on an army by himself. Karai snaps her fingers, and her team of hackers and programmers introduce themselves to the storm in mutant form.Donatello stops only briefly to speak with them to them before he starts barking order, and what he says is- “If any of you try to sabotage this in any way, I will personally see your entire life torn down around you in every way conceivable, and then set my little brother on you and your families. I haven’t slept in a full day, have more coffee in my bloodstream than I do water, and am this close to just stealing nuclear war codes to get this over with. Do not push me. Do I make myself clear?”Karai’s staff nod their heads, and she catches the scent of fear on at least three of them.Donatello gives them all an even look, then gives one to Karai, and nods once. “Good. Let’s get to work, then.”He rattles off fifteen different important government figures he needs researched and dirt dug up about, twelve different bases of military operations he needs the firewalls of destroyed, five locations in New York he needs eyes on yesterday, and demands a cup of coffee that’s at least the size of his fist and black as they can get it.Karai steps back, and watches her brother destroy the militant efforts to capture and imprison his family from the inside out.It only takes him a day to put a stop to the law bills, the patrolling of the city for mutants, and expose all fifteen government leaders for corruption and severe law breaking in one form or another.Karai hears him order her staff to plant evidence for six of those individuals, and says nothing of that fact. Donatello looks drained and exhausted when he finally finishes, but triumphant of their victory.It puts something warm and suspiciously close to pride in Karai’s chest, and she can’t help the oddly fond smile she has as Donatello promptly passes out where he sits.She calls his- their- brothers to come find him, and leaves as they collect their savior and bundle him off to bed.—-When Donatello wakes up, in a bed bigger and comfier than he’s ever likely had, Karai makes sure there’s a warm breakfast waiting and a congratulatory bouquet along with it.He gives her an openly grateful look as he and his ragtag family leave the base, and Karai allows for a moment her mask of leadership to fall. She smiles, and waves her bizarre family goodbye.Donnie gives her one in return, along with all their siblings, and Karai wonders if this is how family is meant to feel.—-Karai curses, and loses her balance. Everything slides out of her grasp as she does, and not even her mutant fast reflexes can save her from hitting the floor.Agony spreads from the wound in her side, and she instinctively knows there’s poison flooding into her system with every beat her heart gives.She has so many enemies- new and old- and she’s failed to keep track of one that has been stalking her since the beginning of her rise to power.The assassin, no doubt sent by a member of the Foot’s sister clans, slips out of the room before anyone can stop them. Karai’s soldiers give chase, Shini’s furious commands sending them out into the night to hunt down the man, whoever he was. Bring him back alive for them to skin alive.Karai’s lips part and she coughs as red climbs up her throat. Shini is there by her side immediately, hands going to Karai’s already clammy face as the medical staff rush into the room.
“Karai! Karai, just hold on!”
Karai can’t speak, and barely manages a nod as pain takes over every inch of her body. Against her will, her survival instincts kicking in, her body begins to shift out of human form. Getting bigger and longer; stronger biology taking the place of her human one; easing human thought out of her grasp.Karai blacks out from pain and self-preservation--and wakes up warm and only aching a little.Donnie is beside her bed, typing away rapidly on his laptop. Karai takes a moment to figure out he’s really there, and not a hallucination or dream.“…why are you in my bedroom?” Karai asks, hoarse voice not helping the slight lisp her snake form has.Donnie’s eyes flicker up from his laptop, and then return to whatever he’s working on. “You’re a giant mutant snake. Your medical staff were only trained how to deal with human anatomy. You should really do something about that.” He’s clipped as he speaks, focus completely on the screen in front of him. “You nearly died, actually. Probably would have if Shinigami hadn’t called me, and I didn’t get medicinal mutagen into your system to boost your healing factor in time. You are a very, very lucky snake, Karai.”Karai experimentally shifts her lithe body around, and finds a tightness around her midriff. She feels bandages and are likely to be stitches in her side. Her six eyes move back to Donnie, as she carefully gets into a sitting position- or rather an approximation of one. She closes the eyes on her secondary heads, feeling too off-kilter to stomach the triplicate vision at the moment.“Thank you,” Karai says, once she’s upright and not seeing the room spin. “I’m guessing I owe you my life now?”“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Donnie says, a hint of humor in his voice despite the tiredness around his eyes. “I’d say a new coffee maker and some nice instant grounds would be good.”Karai makes a mental note to purchase the nicest coffee maker she can find, as well as the most expensive, high quality beans to go with it.“Where are your brothers?” She asks, looking around her room. There’s only the two of them at the moment.“Where I sent them,” Donnie replies, turning his computer around to show the screen.On it is maps and video feeds; heat signature cameras trained on a building and the few bodies within it; a running list of data in the corner that’s in a number of languages.Karai lacks eyebrows in her current form, but she feels her look conveys the expression regardless.“He got away, didn’t he?” Donnie says, turning the computer back around. He resumes tapping as he continues. “And we couldn’t have that. So I tracked him down through the traffic cameras and his paper trail, and now Shinigami and our brothers and your men are in the process of dragging him back here. You can do what you want with him, just let Leo and the others get some hits in before Shinigami starts pulling out his entrails.”“…I don’t know what to say,” Karai says quietly.“Saying thank you again would be a good place to start.”“Thank you,” Karai says, and she feels a tad overwhelmed as she does. She’s been fighting the assassination attempts off this whole time, briefly helped by Donnie’s list a few months ago. It’s a bit of a surprise to have so much support all at once; she’s used to doing things on her own, or just with Shini.Donnie shrugs, like it’s nothing really. “You saved out shells just a little while ago. It’d be poor form for us to let something like this slide. And besides, you’re our only sister. I don’t think any of us want to go back to being a total sausage fest.”“…that’s an interestingly roundabout way to say you care about me,” Karai says, a smile finding its way onto her thin lips.Donnie hums innocently. “Could say the same to you, seeing as I just happen to keep finding the exact parts I need every time I go scavenging. How do you even know which ones I need, anyways?”“April O’Neil is a wonderful woman who has a potential career in a certain line of work I know of. Also an excellent source of entertainment to set Shini on. I don’t know how you missed the grand makeover Shini’s been attempting to enforce on the girl; trying to pry April out of those clothes of hers has been like putting a cat in the tub.”“Is that why April was setting dresses on fire the other night?”“I’d assume so.”“Huh,” Donnie looks thoughtful for a moment. “If you’re setting Shinigami on April, could you find someone I could set Mikey on? And Leo and Raph, too? I can only take so much prodding before I feel like drugging their food.”Karai nods solemnly. “I’m sure I can find a few people.”She and Donnie share something akin to understanding in that moment, about people you love but sometimes don’t have enough energy to deal with, and it lasts until Donnie receives a call from Raph that they’ve got the would be assassin in Foot clan custody.—-Karai personally bites the neck of the already horrible beaten man, sliding deadly venom into his system without a hint of mercy. She then has her soldiers dice him into easily transportable pieces, and mails a piece of him back to each person who orchestrated the whole ordeal.A list has already appeared in her phone at that point, of each one of those people who attempted to kill her, and a bottle of mouthwash is left on her throne the night she kills the assassin.The night following she sends the coffee maker and coffee beans- ones that were apparently shat out by some rodent in the south, worth more than the coffee maker itself- right to the lair in the arms of a Footbot.The Footbot returns a few days later tuned up and carrying a brand new sword in its arms. Karai takes the sword in her hands, checking the balance and length. It’s a perfect fit in every way, and she’s briefly amazed that her brother knew her weapon type simply from observation.She calls Mikey over the next time she’s got new recruits to whip into shape. It’s good experience for them, setting on them a fully trained war veteran with very little compulsion control about using dirty tricks. He brings with him a box that he tosses carelessly towards her, heading straight for the tatami mats of the Foot clan dojo and smiling very, very toothily at the young men and women inside it.Karai opens the box, and finds a new pair of scythes for Shini inside it. Who, at that moment, according to a text Karai has just been sent, is busy finally getting April into some fashionable clothing, thanks to Donnie telling April she could hide so many more knives on her person if she wore a suit jacket.Karai smiles to herself as she hears Mikey’s joyful taunting behind her, and listens pleasantly to the cries of dismay from her recruits as he puts fear of the devil into each and every one of them.—-Karai starts sending a new kind of ethnic meal down to the sewers once a week; giving her half-siblings a taste of what the world really has to offer, outside cheap takeout.Her Footbots always return fully repaired and reprogrammed better than ever; often times also with a collection of notes to improve their designs or another aspect of the Foot’s security.April continues to wear the clothing Shini manages to cram her into, and starts showing up to spar with the other woman on the nights she feels like doing so. Karai continues to hint to her that April’s presence in the Foot clan would be welcomed, and the young psychic continues to play coy.But, Karai can tell April is at least considering the idea, especially since she seems so happy after Shini and Donnie collaborate to get April into fashionable and functional armor. Weapons do make the woman, after all, and April O’Neil is shaping up to be a very scary one indeed.Karai finds jobs and missions for her three rowdier brothers, and calls them up whenever she feels like extra muscle is needed, or gets hints from April that Donnie needs some extra space at home. It gives the rest of the world the impression she can summon demons to her aid, and gives Donnie some nights to himself alone.He typically sends an invention as thank you, or gives her systems another cleaning and update without her say so.A small rebellion starts in a Japan faction of Karai’s clan, and she finds soon after that the shell companies of those factions have suddenly suffered catastrophic stock plummets. How unfortunate for them, since it deprives them of the necessary resources they needed to even stand a chance against the Foot clan.Karai purchases a memory foam mattress and another shipment of the ridiculous rodent coffee beans. It’s delivered by Leatherhead, who is much stronger than the Footbots and easier to instruct to be careful with the bedding.He returns some hours later carrying a collection of bottles in his large hands. The soap inside them eases the itchy dryness Karai has been suffering as winter draws closer, soothing all over her scales as she applies it.Karai sends heated blankets and a new television, as well as a few bottles of good sake.Donnie sends yet another list of possible threats, and this time adds a secondary list of good targets for hostile takeover.“Stop trying to one up me,” Karai says, the moment Donnie picks up.“I’ll stop if you stop first,” He replies, and Karai can just hear the grin in his voice.“You little shit,” Karai huffs, grinning despite herself.Donnie laughs over the phone line, and Karai thinks she couldn’t have found herself a better brother if she tried.—-A clan that’s always rivaled the Foot clan in strength starts muscling in on Foot territory, back across the sea in Japan. From the sounds of things, Karai will need to be there in person to fully put the budding war to rest.She decides bringing some extra help along would make things easier.Shini follows her as they waltz into the lair, their footsteps drawing the attention of everyone in the room. April sits up from her slouch on the couch, looking interested. “Hey, you guys looking for me?”Karai shakes her head, even as Shini starts towards the other woman. They’re not here to tempt April
(exclusively) into semi-criminal activities. “No, not tonight, O’Neil. I’m here to see my brother.”Leo sits up straighter, and then gives her a confused look as Karai passes him by. Karai stops in front of Donnie, who is fiddling with some sort of grappling hook contraption in his lap.“What would you say if I offered you and our family a trip to Japan to crush an entire crime ring?” Karai asks, putting a hand on her sword as she does.“I’d say I hope you have a private jet and a lot of tranqs to keep them asleep on the way there,” Donnie replies, a smile starting it he corners of his mouth.“How fast could you ruin their digital banking and stocks from the same city?”“Faster than I could here, but that wouldn’t be by much. I’ve done a lot of upgrades to my tech, I could take them out easy just from the lair,” He glances up, taking his eyes off the spring coil he’s adjusting. “Why the half a day flight and god knows how long stay across the sea?”“Don’t families take vacation sometimes?” Karai asks, smiling innocently.“Yes, but they usually don’t include hostile takeovers or small wars,” Donnie points out.“We’re going on a WHAT?” Mikey interrupts loudly.“We’re getting involved with a what??” Leo echoes in a concerned voice.“Finally, I was getting tired of staring at the same tunnels every day anyways,” Raph adds.“Dude does this include plus two’s?” Casey questions.“It better,” Is April’s reply.Shini just cackles and Karai smiles down at her brother.“So? How about it?” Karai asks again. “See Japan, crush some insolents, maybe have a family dinner…”“If we do… you better be ready for a long, long flight,” Donnie says, nodding his head at their increasingly excited siblings and friends.Karai smiles, fanged and delighted. Donnie smiles back, toothy and too wide for human jaws.“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Karai says, as the chaos around them both mounts. After all, as she’s come to learn, that’s just how family is.
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Never mind that most of their trip has been a disaster of one type or another- eight young adults of varying danger levels and inhumanity released on a small country does not go smoothly- the quiet moments in between the explosions and espionage are downright peaceful.Such as, one by one, the whole of their group gathering in Karai’s main base’s media room, and turning it into an impromptu slumber party.They’ve all drifted into a cluster together, a sort of closeness Karai has never experienced before. It’s warm and comfortable, and with a G rated film playing in front of them all, it’s a lulling kind of happiness. Karai vaguely hears Shini and April chatting with Mikey- something about the uses of necklaces and how to make them with garret wires- and a murmured conversation between Casey and Raph. Leo and Donnie are quiet, similarly to Karai, and simply enjoying the atmosphere.Karai breathes in, and sighs contently. She’s so comfortable, a part of her wants to just stretch out fully and change into her snake form. Curl up nice and cozy in the blankets and pillows they’ve amassed between them all.Donnie is beside her, drowsing on and off. He’s always skipping sleep in favor of inventing and experiments, the silly nerd he is. It tends to catch up to him whenever they’re not in the heat of things.Karai thinks that she’s feeling a bit sleepy herself, and closes her eyes as Porco Rosso continues to play out a calmer scene, complete with sweet music and soft conversation.She’s only had her eyes shut for a moment, when she realizes there’s a noise filling the air that’s not coming from the movie. Karai opens her eyes in confusion, and raises her head off the pillows to look at the mutant beside her.Donnie is mostly asleep, and… seems to be purring.Karai raises her eyebrows. Well.“Oh my god,” April whispers from across the couch. Everyone is looking at Donnie with varying levels of humor. “He’s doing it again.”Mikey barely muffles his giggling, and the other boys are no better with their snickering. Shini looks over in interest, leaning away from her and April’s pile.Karai turns her head to glance at Leo on her other side. “Does he do this often?” Karai asks quietly.“Nope,” Leo chuckles, giving his brother a fond look. “Only when he’s really comfortable and relaxed, which is pretty much never. I think it’s been a good couple months since the last time.”Karai looks back at Donnie, who is continuing to purr little clicky sounds in the back of his throat as he naps.“Well that’s just plain adorable,” Karai says. The rest of her family laughs, and then shushes each other so Donnie will stay asleep and keep making the sounds. Karai considers things for a moment, and then decides that if they’re all letting their individual weirdness be an obvious thing for tonight…“Move over,” She says, and then stretches out.Much more comfortable, all stretched out and loose. Karai hasn’t had time in the past couple days to really change forms, not for longer than a few minutes here and there, and it’s like massaging a cramped muscle as she does.There are a few token protests and complaints about her hogging the couch/pillow pile, and Karai ignores them all. Donnie barely stirs as Karai winds her way around his portion of the pile, but she makes sure to not disturb his area regardless.She’s gotten even larger than when she first mutated, and her body loops over the cushions and under the blankets. There are feet and legs shuffled around to make room for her length, and Karai feels a couple of those legs come back down to rest on top of her long body. She finds she doesn’t mind much- it’s warm and these are individuals she trusts. That’s still a novel thing to her, and she’s come to appreciate whenever she can experience the squishier benefits of her family relations. Like slumber parties and her being able to be a giant snake in plain view.Karai ends up curling the closest to Donnie, now able to hear/feel the purring even better as a snake. Her triplicate vision checks him over, assuring he’s still sleeping, before she shuts all six of her eyes for the rest of the movie.Donnie keeps purring, Karai decides a nap still sounds like a good idea, and their family around them snickers and takes photos.Karai keeps the best ones on her phone, sent to her by the others, and she knows Donnie does as well.
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Somewhere after April nearly dislocates a very rude man’s arm, Shini realizes this American girl is exactly the sort of individual she’s been looking for since her previous girlfriend.Sure, April doesn’t bathe enough, tends to wear the same t-shirt three days in a row, and spends majority of her time with boys who do the same- but, when she cleans up, April looks pretty darn good.Like she does now, dressed in the suit Shini had hand tailored for her, and glaring at the man who’d tried to harass them both. April’s hair glows in the neon lights of the club district, and her displeased aura shines similarly.Shini eases out of the casual defence stance she’d taken, and nearly sighs as April- small as she is- shoves the wannabe offender away without effort. He’s making all sorts of pained noises, and Shini smiles pleasantly. His arm will be fine, so long as he receives the appropriate medical care.Which they won’t be assisting him with, obviously.“Ready to go?” Shini asks, sliding her arm around April’s.The other woman looks up at her, blue eyes still alight with anger. And she smiles toothily, doing so many things to Shini’s heart.“Ready if you are,” April replies. Then, glancing after the man she’s sent running, “We should also probably leave before the police get here. Can you run in those heels?”Shini scoffs. “Can I run in these? Oh April, I kicked your pretty little self all over a roof in ones twice as high, the first time we met. These are nothing.”“I’m fairly certain I still owe you for that.”“Well, how about a race to settle it? First to the next club is declared winner,” Shini leans close, near April’s ear and whispers, “and that winner will get whatever they want. Are you game?”Shini thinks about April being out of that suit, and smiles, brushing her lips just along the shell of April’s ear.April’s ear goes satisfyingly red.Shini smiles wider.“Oh you are on,” April proclaims.Shini laughs, and impulsively presses a feather-light kiss to April’s cheek. The resulting blush is just so endearing to see, and Shini takes off running.April snaps out of her daze. “Hey- hey that’s cheating!”“All is fair in love and war!” Shini calls back gleefully.They race through the streets, Shini’s titanium heels holding up just fine under the strain. She opts to swing up onto the roofs, leaving April behind as she races to beat her date to their destination.Of course, as a representative of the Foot clan as well as it’s second in command, this would be the perfect moment to ambush her. As such, just that happens.Shini slows, seeing figures creeping out of the shadows towards her. She’s alone on a rooftop, in just her heels and lovely black number. The most she has is her clutch purse, and a cellphone.“Tsk,” She says, adding up all her enemy’s numbers and getting an even twelve. “It’s very rude to interrupt someone’s date, I’ll have you know.”Her enemies say nothing, and they rush her. Probably either to assassinate her or take her as hostage to use against Karai.Why does everyone think that just because she’s not wearing armor, she’s defenseless?And why does everyone always underestimate the worth of high heels?Shini puts the razor tip of her heel through the opening of one assassin’s armor, and relishes in the resulting scream.Honestly. It’s like no one knows how deadly a pair of heels really can be. Or how many uses a purse can have.Shini disembowels three men- poor armor choices on their part- slits the neck of two- again, poor armor choices, and she does so love her purse’s hidden knife compartment- and simply tosses the others off the roof.She huffs to herself, straightens her push up bra, and steps over the pool of blood around her. “I told you,” She says to the men as she walks away from them. “It’s very rude to interrupt someone’s date.”One of them gurgles at her.She puts her heel through his hand, and walks away as he screams.Shini arrives too late to beat April- shame, she’d had such a lovely plan in mind. April sees her the moment she steps out of the dark and lights up victoriously.Well, that is as good a second place prize as any.“I won,” April says, tilting her chin. “That means you have to do what I want now.”“Oh? And what would that be?” Shini says, stepping closer to April. With her hair tied back like that, and just the slightest hints of eyeshadow, April looks utterly kissable.April grins cheekily. “I can think of something. Come here.”Shini bends, and lets her shorter date pull her into a kiss.Oh yes. This is an excellent second place prize.“But this isn’t it,” April whispers, breath tickling Shini’s lips. “I have another idea, for later.”Shini raises one eyebrow. “How much later?”“I think some dancing before we head home should be enough of a delay, then it’ll be later,” April smiles coyly, and has a wicked gleam in her eyes. “And you’ll have to do whatever I say.”Shini grins; she does so like how this girl thinks.“Now that, I think I can agree to,” Shini replies in a low voice. April giggles; her mask of seduction breaking into blushing again, and Shini’s heart does so many things at that sight.Shini later finds April looks even better without her stunning suit.It’s an excellent discovery, and she presses a flurry of kisses all over the scars that dot April’s body. There’s so many, April’s done and seen so much in her life. It’s incredible.Shini needs to know the story of each mark, and she tells April so between kisses.“Only if you show me how to hypnotise people,” April replies.“That can be arranged,” Shini says with smile.April then laughs as Shini pulls her into another embrace, rolling them across the large bed they’re sharing. Shini ends up with the smaller woman on top of her, staring up at the halo April seems to have.In the low bedroom light, just like in street lights, April glows. It’s glorious to see.“I’m so lucky I didn’t kill you,” April says, staring down at Shini. “That would’ve been awful.”“You’re also lucky I didn’t kill you,” Shini replies, reaching up and cupping April’s cheek. “You left your right flank open the whole time.”“Think you could cover that for me from now on?”“I think that can also be arranged…”April leans down, and they stop talking for a long while.
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Karai isn’t sure what she’s expecting as she throws on a housecoat over her tank top and sweats, marching out of her private quarters and towards the main greeting room for Foot allies. Why any of her brothers would come calling at this hour of the morning- nearly completely light out, hours before any of them would dare rising to the surface- is beyond her. All she knows is that she’s three kinds of annoyed and five kinds of pissed off, because like them, she is very nearly nocturnal and she’d been sleeping, dammnit.Karai all but kicks open the door into the lounge, and storms inside to turn her scathing glare on--Donatello. Donnie. Who hardly seems to leave that lab of his, and tends to keep to his own lane unless it’s necessary. They’ve gotten closer lately, yes, but not so close he’s entitled to interrupting her downtime like this.“Explain yourself,” Karai snaps, and Donnie gives a tired shrug.“My family are a bunch of assholes,” He says in a flat tone, and hefts a crate. “I brought beer. Can I stay the day?”Karai nearly snaps again, and then hesitates. She eyes the crate, which has tall bottles sticking out of it as well as cans.“Is that red wine?” She asks.“It is if you’ll drink it with me.”“Give it here,” Karai commands, and takes the bottle her brother hands her. One room swap and two glasses later, Karai is lounging on her favorite loveseat while Donnie continues to brood in silence; draining his third beer and exchanging it for the glass of red wine he’s still nursing.“You shouldn’t mix like that,” Karai comments as he downs the last half of it. “It ruins the taste of both. A chugging everything doubly ruins it.”“I’m here to feel sorry for myself and possibly get very tipsy, not be pretentious about how I drink,” Donnie snidely replies, and seemingly to spite her, reaches for another beer can. Karai clicks her tongue in disgust and sips her glass.Karai waits for further explanation, but gets none. Donnie just slouches in his seat, glaring aimlessly around Karai’s private living room, and honestly, only one of her siblings is allowed to pull that act at a time. And last she checked, Raph hasn’t taken to smiling unless under duress.“Spill,” Karai says, drawing a narrow look towards herself. She gestures around them. “You’re camping out in my secret base, so the decent thing would be to tell me why.”“I gave you wine, that’s payment enough,” Donnie says irritably.Karai rolls her eyes. “Come on, Donnie. We both know you wouldn’t risk going aboveground this time of morning unless it was important. Tell me if I should be worried about some impending disaster while you drink yourself into a coma.”“I’m a mutant, I don’t know if I can actually do that with my metabolism,” He says factually. Karai raises one eyebrow, fixing a glare on him. Donnie meets it for a long moment, and then flops his head backwards with an almighty sigh.“Fine. I had a fight. With my brothers. And now I’m not speaking to any of them because they’re all unappreciative little shits who don’t understand half of what I’ve done for them over the years. Raph accused me of having it easy. Easy, he said. Easy how? Just because I wasn’t getting myself punished all the time for starting fights didn’t mean things were easy for me.”He stops to take a drink of his beer. Karai takes the pause as a chance to pour more wine for herself; she can already feel this turning into a lengthy conversation.“So… you had a fight. And that’s new how?” Karai is familiar with how much her half-siblings bicker and quarrel amongst themselves. If they’re not working together like a well-oiled machine, they’re stuttering along like a broken jalopy. There’s no in between for them.“It’s not, that’s the problem!” Donnie says empathetically, gesturing sharply. “We always fight about the same things and we never get anywhere. Just keep going in circles trying to- to one up each other, or shut someone down, or just can’t. Can’t something. I don’t know.” He takes a long sip of his beer, glaring at the wall. “They don’t respect me.”“No?” Karai asks, because from the outside perspective she doesn’t see why they wouldn’t. She’s seen some of the toys Donnie produces in that lab of his, many of them incredible and highly dangerous.Karai’s own weaponry department still can’t hold a candle to her brother’s accomplishments, much to her occasional chagrin. The tech her brother scrapes together out of literal garbage is nothing short of miraculous, and underestimating that tech has usually backfired spectacularly on their enemies.“Nope,” Donnie drawls angrily. “and I know I deserve it. Maybe I’m not the leader, or- or a natural fighter, but I work hard, dammnit. I don’t have to be a genius to know that without my inventions and medical knowledge, one or all of us would be dead right now.” He slouches further into the chair, curling up on himself. He looks less angry, more sadly frustrated. “I’m not asking for much, but would it kill them to just… thank me? Admit I do more than tinker all day? Sometimes… sometimes it just feels like they only give a shit when I’m doing something for them, and then… they just forget to say thanks, or even acknowledge I did anything. It pisses me off.”Karai watches Donnie as he sits and feels miserable for himself, idly taking sips from her wine. Then she sighs.“You know, I used to feel the same way. About the Shredder,” Karai admits, and she feels palpable surprise from her brother. She looks at him. “What, you think he was father of the year? He started training me in ninjutsu soon as I had the mental capability for it. I was already being groomed as heir by the time I was five.” She tilts her head; giving a wry, somewhat bitter smile. “The Shredder wasn’t the sort of teacher who accepted anything less than the best, you see. So I couldn’t ever be anything but that.”Donnie is quiet for a moment, giving Karai an unreadable contemplative look. Then he leans forwards in his seat, setting his can on the coffee table between them.“What was it like?” He asks, tone cautious. “Being raised by… the Shredder.”Karai looks down into her red wine, which is about the same color as the blood she’s seen spilled over the years. Most of it by her own hands, or her adoptive father.“It wasn’t all bad,” She distantly hears herself saying. “But… not always good.”Donnie silently listens to her, and Karai, probably because of the alcohol in her system, finds herself talking about things she never really has before. “I usually enjoyed it. Winning tends to make you feel like you do. The few times I trained with other apprentices and students, I was top of the class. Better than anyone my age, and usually better than anyone years older. Though it’s not like anyone tried particularly hard against me; I was the Shredder’s daughter. No one wanted to risk crossing him. That way laid discreet disappearance if you were lucky, or being made an example of if you were not.”“I’m not bad at ninjutsu, but I just never managed to be great compared to my brothers? I think too much, or think not enough of the right stuff? I mean- I built half our kitchen and living room and bathroom appliances from scratch, and I still didn’t get as much praise from our father. It wasn’t ninjutsu, so I guess it wasn’t as impressive to him. Would’ve liked to see how he coped without the modified hairdryers I gave him; maybe then Splinter would’ve felt more appreciative of my inventions.”“I don’t remember if I wanted to do it or not. All I remember is that he wanted me to, and expected me to, and so did everyone else. And if I hadn’t… I don’t know. He never physically punished me, but I suspect if I hadn’t executed that woman, I wouldn’t have been allowed back home for at least half a year. Isolation was usually how he opted for reprimands. No contact with my few friends deemed worthy, and no admittance to the main base. No contact with him, either.”“Either I bend over backwards to solve all our problems at once, or I’m not doing anything useful. Maybe my experiments look like I’m sitting in one spot for days in a row, but that level of mathematics and science takes concentration! It’s not as flashy as fancy katas, but it’s just as valuable in the long run. More so, in fact! My brothers don’t get that. They’ve never gotten that. If it doesn’t go boom, then it’s garbage, right? Never mind half of the work I do is just keeping us safe from humans. It took me months to finish a program that would delete only footage of us from the city’s CCTV system, and they never even said thanks.”“Admittedly, and don’t you dare ever tell anyone this, I used to actually be… quite anxious. It got easier the older I got, but also worse, sometimes. The Foot Clan is highly prestigious, even with the damage Shredder did to it in his later years. Before all that… we were a powerhouse. Indomitable. I couldn’t ever slip up in front of allies or enemies, or I’d risk embarrassing us all. An heir can’t look incapable, and he never, ever let me forget that. Imagine being a scrawny preteen, and never being allowed to make a mistake under any circumstances.”“If I screwed up, usually it meant someone might die. They never say so much as thank you, but in the moment they certainly put on the pressure. If our getaway vehicles choked, we were fucked. If a smoke bomb didn’t have the right balance of ingredients, it wouldn’t go off correctly and we’d be fucked. If any of the mechanical gear I’ve made over the years quit working right mid-battle, we were fucked. And if by some miracle we lived through the disaster, they’d blame me.”“Honestly, I think he stopped hugging me around ten. Maybe nine. About the time he started giving me exclusively weapons for gifts and praise only when I fucking killed someone.”“I don’t remember the last time my father hugged me, actually. Or the last time he paid attention to my work instead of how distracted I was during training. Hard to be focused when I haven’t slept in three days, you know?”“I loved him, sort of, but it turned into respect for his authority after a while. He couldn’t even manage real familial love as a father in the end. Bastard.”“I loved him, yeah, but I don’t think he ever really… liked me for who I am? We never really connected like that, honestly.”“I was his favorite, but only because I was the best, and the last piece of my mother’s legacy. Likely for nothing else.”“I wasn’t his favorite, and I don’t know how I feel about that, even now. Wish he’d at least tried to show interest in what I loved.”“I’m sorry.”“I’m sorry.”“You shouldn’t have had to deal with that.”“You deserved better than that.”“We both did.” Somehow, they end up on the couch together, slumped on either end of it and feeling… better, actually. Mutual complaining about their imperfect families/family, as it turns out, is quite cathartic.Wine and beer helps, too.Karai sets down her glass on the coffee table a final time. She’s not drinking any more, not today. She might be more than human now, but the tipsiness is really starting to get to her. Donnie seems to be done as well; holding a glass of his own that’s been empty for ten minutes now.“…you can’t ever tell anyone what I said today,” Karai says quietly, but firmly. “If you do, I’ll-”“Have my shell for it?” Donnie rolls his eyes. “You used that phrase enough times when you were still trying to kill us.”“Tch. How you four wiggled out of that every time, I’ll never understand.”“Honestly, neither will I.”Karai laughs, the morbid humor of their former relationships actually funny with the wine sloshing around in her. She leans drowsily on her palm, smiling to herself.“You know, I’m glad I didn’t,” She says absently. “Things would’ve been a lot different if I’d shuc-succeeded.”Donnie snorts at her slip of tongue. “Well, same to you. I wasn’t exactly holding back, either. Woulda sucked if I killed you ‘fore we figured this- blood feud stuff. Yeesh.”Karai turns an eye on her brother, and raises an invisible glass at him. “Cheers to having not accidentally on purpose killed each other because of our fath-father’s fighting.”“Cheers,” Donnie replies, raising his actual glass at the empty air of Karai’s. His fingers slip around it and it falls, hitting the carpet with a dull thud. Karai doesn’t even care; she’s too wrung out and she can always buy more anyway, if it broke.“You know what?” Donnie says suddenly. Karai raises an eyebrow, too tired to do much else. “You’re… not as bad as I used to think you were.”“No?” Karai chuckles, because similarly, her opinion of Donnie has improved with time as well.“Nah. I mean, you’re still kinda a- a bitch to people-”“Oh really, now-”“-but yeah. Coulda done worse for a sister.”Karai shakes her head. “I used to try to murder you,” She says dryly, though his words make a softly warm spot in her chest. She’d never had any family besides the Shredder, growing up.Donnie shrugs. “In this family? Still could’ve been worse.”“Well, then I’d like to say I could have done worse for a brother,” Karai says seriously, blaming the alcohol for her sentimentality.“Given your pool of choices here,” Donnie says with a smirk. “I’d pick me, simply ‘cause I manage to be the most polite half the time, and always bring alcohol to the party.”Karai snorts in an undignified fashion and kicks his shin. He kicks her back, slurring snark at her as she does at him.They keep talking, even though they nearly fall asleep mid-conversation. It’s the horribly familial kind of setting Karai never got to experience as a lone clan heir, and even though her sleep schedule is ruined and she’ll likely have a hangover, she finds it’s a weird touchy-feely experience she wouldn’t mind repeating.