Golden Angel

“Gentlemen, the name of the game is Ninjitsu Stealth and Heightened Senses.”

“Or, as we like ta call it…”

“Hide and Seek!”

The three human girls seemed amused at that, following the turtles across the rooftops for their game.

Artemis grinned, flipping over her lover and grinning.

“Bet no one can find me!”

Don looked around in surprise at the empty rooftop, sharing a glance with his girlfriend…

“So…I guess this means we’re ‘it’…”

The two went off to search, and Artemis grinned from the shadows.

‘Little cheaters…’

She followed them silently as they found the others, and jumped down behind them without a sound.

“BOO!”

Both jumped, whirling around to see her grinning face.

“ARTIE!” The pair whined, trying to calm their racing hearts.

“What? It’s not my fault you two didn’t find me.”

Mikey grinned.

“Even against night-vision goggles, Artie is the QUEEN of Hide and Seek.”

“Thank you, thank you!”

She mocked a bow, coming up with a flourish.

“Can’t find me when I don’t want to be found.”

However, Raph was pretty eager to hurt Don for cheating…

Kasai got between them, looking pleading.

“Beating him up won’t help, Raphie. Just…don’t.”

That seemed to cool him down, and he huffily crossed his arms over his plastron.

If it had been anyone else, there would have been an argument, and then, in most cases, a fight, but with Kasai it was simple.

Just ask him not to and he’ll stop.

She seemed to calm him easily, just looking at him with those large doe-eyes colored a strange gold.

Don’s Shell Cell began ringing, and he answered it only to get a strange ringing sound.

“Another wrong number…” He mumbled a bit irritably.

“Somebody keeps trying to fax me or something.”

Helicopters started flying over them, making Chi cringe at the sudden loud noises as Mizu followed them with her eyes.

“What the SHELL?”

The eight teens headed off to follow the flying vehicles, seeing them over something in the park.

“Police copters?” Mizu suggested.

“Something’s going down in the park…” Leo muttered.

“I can’t quite make out what it is…Whoa.” Don mumbled, binoculars to his eyes.

“Triceratons?”

Everyone’s eyes widened, and Mikey reached for the binoculars.

“Uh…Don?”

Helicopters lifted the destroyed spacecrafts into the air, and Mizu bit her lip.

“Some kind of Foot activity, probably…”

“Let’s check it out.” Leo stated.

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“It’s some kin’ ‘a salvage operation…” Chi mumbled.

“Look at all that alien tech they’re grabbin’…”

“Something’s not right…” Leo muttered.

Artemis couldn’t argue, eyes narrowing.

Kasai fidgeted, still feeling uncomfortable in the shadows, as Mizu watched everything closely.

“Yeah…They’re cleaning everything up.” Don muttered.

Artemis shook her head, looking up at the trees as a familiar pressure built under her shell…

“No…Something’s just not RIGHT…”

Taking the hint, Chi lifted her hands as Foot ninja surrounded them.

“Foot ninja. Good, I could use a work out!”

Mizu brought water out of the trees to her aid, and Kasai held up her hands as she watched the ninja warily.

“We’ll be lucky if we even break a sweat!”

Artemis spun, knocking two bladed chains off-course and jumping up to deliver a roundhouse kick.

Mizu whipped the water around, slapping ninja across the faces and knocking others off their feet.

Chi seemed to be doing rather well herself, moving the earth to disturb her enemies balance, bringing up columns to smack them in the wrists or back, and even palming some in the chest when they got close enough.

Kasai seemed to be purely on the defensive, weaving around blades and chains and limbs in almost inhuman positions.

She was fast, moving among them like a flash of red, when one managed a lucky kick to her face.

Flinching at the pain as a bruising cut formed on her cheek, she tried to catch her breath as the ninja raised a naginata above her.

Closing her eyes and expecting the familiar pain of a blade entering her skin, the Firebender was surprised at an angry roar and Raph tackling the ninja sai-first.

“R-Raph…”

“Are ya ‘kay?”

“Y-Yeah…”

She wiped at her cheek, immediately jumping to her feet and kicking a ninja in the face.

“Th-They just caught m-me off-guard…”

Chi ‘watched’ that with a bit of curiosity, but moved away when she realized Mikey was in danger of having a tree branch smack into his shell.

Moving him out of the way easily enough, she brought up earth spikes to stop the ninja from advancing.

“Is it just me, or are we breaking a sweat?” Don asked after being kicked to the ground plastron-first.

Mizu brought up an ice-tipped whip, spinning around to keep the ninja back as she drew more water from the ground.

“They’re better than they were before…” She admitted.

Artemis jumped up, landing on a tree branch and pulled her hands up.

‘Let’s see how this works…’

With a sweep of her arm, a huge root smacked into five unsuspecting Foot soldiers, and another moved up to stop shuriken from striking her.

One tried to come at her from behind, but she whipped around, air smacking him away with a mighty gust.

Kasai spun, fire barely escaping her fingers, and the ninja jumped back as she darted through the smoke, landing swift punches and kicks.

“Uh, guys!”

She stopped, fire still on her skin…

“I’m sweatin’ now!”

The red-banded turtle was surprised when a burst of fire knocked the katana-wielding ninja out of the air, and watched Kasai as she snapped the chain after it heated under her palms.

“Are you okay?”

Stutter gone now thanks to the adrenaline, she looked up at him with a fire in her eyes as the chains slacked and fell free.

“I’m fine…”

‘An’ ya look damn HOT.’

That thought surprised him a bit, since it was unexpected, but he was soon back in reality as the ninja continued to attack.

“Whoa! These guys are a LOT tougher than I remember!”

“Better trained, too!” Don added.

Chi knocked two ninja back, catching the ‘chucks as they flew from their hold.

“Then ya better try ‘arder, squirt.” She returned, throwing the orange-banded turtle his weapons back.

Mizu froze the ground under some ninjas feet, and brought it up like snow in order to freeze them down.

“This is taking longer than it needs to!” Artemis agreed, bending trees to guard herself and her brothers from shuriken and weaponry.

“They’re fighting style seems awfully familiar…” She muttered.

The sound of helicopters caught everyone’s attention, and everyone disappeared once they returned the clearing to a more normal state.

Lights danced across the grass, and Artemis crouched in the leaves, eyes narrowed.

“Since when do police choppers patrol Foot operations?” Mikey asked from the safety of a bridges underbelly.

“Uh, guys? Can someone please tell me what the SHELL that was all about?”

Mizu shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Maybe they were protecting the site…”

“Maybe…”

Artemis jumped down to join them, eyes narrowed a bit angrily.

“But something’s…OFF…”

“Two words. Alien-Technology.” Raph stated.

“Tons of it is lying around after the big invasion…But why would those ninja want alien technology?” Kasai asked curiously, obviously confused.

“The Shredder’s an Utrom-.”

“With the hots for Artie-!”

SMACK!!!

“OW!!!”

SMACK!!!

“OW!!!!!!”

“-Who wants to either control the world or get OFF this planet and control the galaxy.”

“And wants Artie to be his sex toy!”

SMACK!!!

SMACK!!!

BONK!!!

“OW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“When I hit you once, SHUT UP!”

“I bet he’s got all the paperwork…” Mizu muttered.

“When ya got ‘nough money, ya’d be surprised at what ya can get…” Chi muttered as the group jumped down a grate into the sewers.

‘Well, I hope he’s not planning on getting anything else…’

“Whatever the Shredder’s up to with that alien tech, it can’t be good…” Leo noted, holding his lover’s hand comfortingly.

She often didn’t show it, but Artemis was always a little rattled by anything even closely related to the Shredder, and would require comfort.

“The question is, how can we stop it?”

“The old wooden clog in the machine. Sabotage.” Don answered.

“You mean break stuff?” Mikey asked hopefully.

“NOW yer talkin’ words I understand!” Raph stated.

Chi smirked, closing her eyes.

“This shouldn’t be hard…”

“Those copters we saw were heading towards the waterfront.” Mizu informed.

“Let’s check it out.” Leo ordered, and everyone sped up into a run.

They spotted the downed tri-base surrounded by Foot, but Chi refused to swim.

“I can’t see in the damn water.” She explained, brow furrowed.

“Just go ‘head wit’out me, Mike. If anythin’ happens, just call.”

Kasai seemed equally uncomfortable, but didn’t object.

“I-It’s just…”

She looked away in embarrassment…

“I-I don’t kn-know how t-to swim…”

Artemis smiled softly.

“That’s alright. I didn’t think Bishop would teach you. But you can stay on Raph’s back until we get there.”

The red-banded turtle was about to ask why SHE didn’t, but she beat him with the answer.

“You’re stronger than I am, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

She quirked an eye-ridge at him, as if daring him to challenge her logic, and he huffed a bit at that.

“Artemis, 1162, boys…0…”

“I know the score.” He grumped as Kasai climbed onto his shell.

“Can we GO?” Mizu asked impatiently, and the water beneath the pipe swirled a bit.

“Calm down, sweetheart.” Don soothed, a hand on her arm.

“We’re ready.”

They jumped in, and Chi closed her eyes, settling down for a long wait as she heard them move farther away…

Once closer to the tri-base, Mizu managed to still the water around them.

“The Foot are already here…”

“Let’s see if we can slow down their salvage operation…”

“Permanently…”

Artemis grinned.

“OH, am I going to enjoy this…”

Kasai prayed that her inner fire wouldn’t go out, what with her unnatural closeness to water, and held her breath as the others swam down to get up inside the tri-base.

The Firebender was happy enough to pull herself onto relatively-dry ground, and breathed deeply as the others followed her.

“Come on, darlin’.”

Grateful, she accepted the held as the group trekked through the topsy-turvy hallways.

“Everything’s upside down in here…” Artemis muttered, trying to stretch her senses.

Her ‘sight’ through Earthbending was becoming more acute, but that sense didn’t have a very wide radius.

“Elevator going down!” Mikey exclaimed, using his ‘chucks to speed down a ‘pipe’.

“MIKEY!” Mizu scolded, barely dodging his flying feet.

Said feet were grabbed by an irritated jade-skinned she-turtle, and she glared at her youngest brother.

“Do I have to tell you we’re not supposed to make noise? Because WE’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO MAKE NOISE!”

“…Got it, Artie. Crystal clear. No noise. Clear as day. Can you let me go now?”

After a moment, she did so, and his shell smacked against a door before he fell down.

Mizu used her Waterbending to get ice between the two tightly-closed doors, and managed to force them open.

Boxes of explosives were inside, and Kasai wondered how they hadn’t blown up beforehand…

“Whoa…Check out the armory. We can have a heck ‘a a Fourth ‘a July with THESE fireworks.”

“Know what I think? We just found a way to keep the tri-base tech out of the Shredder’s hands.” Leo stated.

Moving further down the shaft, they looked down at a strange glowing object, surrounded by…

“Foot.”

“Industrious little monkeys, I’ll give ‘em that…”

“So that’s what they’re after…” Don muttered, and Mizu looked a bit confused.

“What is that?”

“The tri-base power core.”

“Doesn’t look so dangerous to me.” Mikey stated.

“You can’t judge things by how they appear.” Artemis scolded lightly.

“As a ninja, you must see beneath the underneath.”

“There’s enough juice in that thing to wipe out the entire city! …Most of New Jersey, too…”

The power core was being lifted into the air by ropes and wires, and Artemis narrowed her eyes.

“All the more reason to stop them from taking it…”

“We can take ‘em out easy. They’re not ninja, just flunkies.”

Raph jumped down, and the others soon followed.

Those ‘flunkies’ sure were good with chains…

“You were SAYING, tough guy?”

“Don’t start, princess…”

“They sure don’t fight like flunkies!” Mizu noted, bringing water up to defend herself from a katana before pushing it towards her opponent and knocking him off the beam.

“No! They fight like Karai!”

Artemis almost flared, kicking one roughly in the chest and jumping up to kick him across the face.

“Wait, you’re saying KARAI trained these flunkies?”

Mizu stopped the chainsaw after it cut through Don’s Bo staff, and concentrated before pulling it apart.

Kasai was jumping across beams, dodging chains and katana blades, and turned around mid-jump to throw a burst of fire at her pursuers.

“I guess she’s still working for the Shredder…” Artemis grumbled, spinning to make a small hurricane.

“Lucky us…” Raph replied.

Leo cut the suspended power core so it would fall back where it had originally been, and there was a loud sound as it slid into place.

“Do you need to do that any louder?” Artemis teased, jumping down.

“Hey, careful with that thing! Unless you want to vaporize everything within a hundred mile radius!” Don scolded.

“But what can we do to keep them from coming back for it?” Artemis asked, a hand on the strange pyramid of jade.

“We’ll need something to short out it’s circuitry…Something like…”

A drop of water hit the open glowing interior, and sparked.

Mizu jumped down to join them, and both Waterbender’s shared a look.

“We should’ve known…”

“We’re going to need a lot…” Don muttered.

“You have two master Waterbenders to help. I think we can manage.”

They headed back to the shaft and started pulling out explosive charges.

“A few well-placed charges should open the floodgates and cover the power core.”

“By the time we’re done, there won’t be any alien tech left to salvage.” Leo agreed.

Once all the explosives were in place, Don set the timer.

“I set the timer for one trigon. About ten minutes, by my calculations…”

“Plenty of time for us to get out.” Leo noted.

A strange noise, and everyone looked up.

“Or fer someone else ta get in…” Raph growled.

Three strange robots walked in through the hole in the wall, and Artemis narrowed her eyes.

“They look like Karai…”

Water started rippling under her hands, but she clenched her fists, smirking.

“I’m going to enjoy this more than I thought…”

Mizu took a step back, and water came up to her waiting hands at the sight of the large robots.

Kasai had jumped, and fire had come to her hands in her anxiety.

“Well…this is something new…” Don noted.

The three robots charged, katana, naginata, and chain raised for combat.

The damn robots were good, Artemis would give them that…

Dodging the attacks like the wind, she dug deep into her training and jumped up, doing a hurricane kick.

Air reinforced her attack like a blade, going straight through the chest.

Mizu was having troubles of her own, trying to avoid that nasty chain as it tried to catch around her neck and choke her.

Water moved around her in octopus tentacles, knocking the weapon away and slashing at the robot.

Kasai was trying not to get run through, and grabbed the naginata as it threatened to slash open her side.

The metal began to melt under her heated palms, and the robot tried to kick her away.

Jumping over the metal limb, she snapped the softened weapon in half and managed to stab it through the robots neck.

“We REALLY don’t have time fer this!”

“We noticed!” Artemis replied.

“Guys, follow me!” Don shouted, moving up the wall.

“We need to get the shell out of here before those explosives blow!”

Mizu stopped a robot from cutting her boyfriend’s head off, breathing heavily.

“You guys go first. We’ll hold them off.”

“But-!”

“GO!”

With ice, she pulled the robot down and smacked it into the ground.

“We’ll be fine.” Artemis promised, grabbing a chain and pulling on it harshly.

The robot couldn’t hold its ground, and she kneed it in the face.

Artemis stood back, calling for her friends.

“Stand behind me!”

She brought up a wall of earth before the explosives went off…

“RUN!” She ordered, throwing the rock at the three advancing robots.

Everyone was doing just that, trying to get out of there before the whole place burst into flame.

Water was racing after them like a flood, but Mizu slowed its advance with a wall of ice.

Unfortunately, the wall wasn’t strong enough, and even the robots were swept away in the current.

Kasai struggled to keep her head above water, and was grateful when someone caught hold of her.

They were back with the power core, and the room was steadily filling as everyone gasped for breath.

“You guys alright?” Leo managed.

“Fine.”

“We’re swell.”

“I’d feel a WHOLE lot better if we could get out of this stinking tri-base!”

“For once…I agree with Mikey…” Artemis admitted.

“Come on, up here!” Mizu called, already starting to climb up a beam-made structure to reach the hole in the ceiling above.

“It’s the only way out of the chamber!”

“Hurry up! Before the water fries the power core!”

“Thanks for the words of encouragement, DONNIE!”

“Sorry, Artie…”

Smoke and steam rose after them once they at the top, and it made everyone speed up the pace.

Unfortunately, the robots were there to try and stop them…

Artemis took care of them with an Airbending Slice, and everyone jumped up.

Two robots splashed into the water, and the jade-skinned turtle ground her teeth.

‘Time to fly…’

A crack that still brought pain up her spine, and her wings unfurled, sending her into the sky.

Whistling loudly into the night air, calling her Sky Bison, she was startled when the last robot jumped at her from behind.

“Get OFF!”

She panicked, wings flapping as she tried to hold up the sudden extra weight.

Leo jumped up, digging his katana into the robot’s back on instinct.

Even if it had been the real Karai, he wouldn’t have hesitated.

Real or not, she was threatening his mate, and he wouldn’t stand for it.

Artemis stabilized as the robot fell free, hitting the steaming water, and caught hold of Leo.

“Thanks, love…”

“It’s alright…Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

But he saw the slight bruise on her already-bitten shoulder from the blow, and the scrapes that were beginning to bleed…

“We have to get the others.”

“Let’s go, before we find ourselves going down with the ship!”

Everyone jumped up and out of the hole, and the gold-banded turtle managed to help them into the shaft as her wings folded.

The base was tilted more, but the group tried not to let it hinder their progress.

Unfortunately, the two robots they’d thought were down were working perfectly fine…

Suddenly, the robots sparked, falling into the open room of explosives…

“It’s about time we caught a break!”

“Are you out of your shell?! Those sparking Karaibots just fell into a room of Triceraton explosives!”

A dome of fire surrounded them as Kasai’s eyes widened.

“RUN!”

Everyone ran, the force of the explosion sending them faster as the heat was held at bay, and they jumped out into the open air.

Artemis spread her wings, swooping down to catch Kasai, as the smoke and heat came out in a pillar.

Flying quickly, the crimson-eyed turtle looked back as the tri-base sank under the rolling water…

“WHOA…”

She swooped down as a speedboat came up to the others, and Kasai clung to her back as the boat stopped, showing Karai.

“Karai, what is that status of the turtles?” Shredder’s voice said over her intercom system.

Artemis stilled her belled tail from bristling, and narrowed her eyes as a challenge.

“…No, my lord. I’m afraid they got away…”

She drove off, and the jade-skinned turtle relaxed as Mitsukai flew towards them, Chi on her back.

Lifting the others onto the shaggy back, Artemis kept passing glances to where the older kunoichi had gone…

‘Maybe she’s not SO bad…But I still don’t like her…’