Total Turtle Transformation (TMNT Book 4)

Fighting With Ease

That night, I slept with some difficulty, rolling around in place and tangling myself up in my bed sheets and blankets. It was confusing me! This whole ordeal… Naomi, Shredder, Kraang, that thing in the Mutagen, and, again, Naomi.

So with the whole thinking and rolling around, I didn’t get much sleep. Which sucked, don’t get me wrong. You’ll know after a night of doing that… But I woke up nicely, though. That was the only good thing that came out of it.

I rubbed my eyes with the back of my wrist and yawned. The tiredness creeped along the back of my shell, making me shiver a bit.

“Noooo…” Mikey groaned beside me, rolling toward me and wrapping an arm around my waist. Yeah… in the middle of the night I decided to sleep with Mikey. It did help my sleep a lot, but not a whole ton.

Chuckling softly, I sat up. Instinctively, Mikey rolled away, curling up a little ball while wrapping the blankets closer to him for warmth. I wasn’t sure if he’d remember me coming in to sleep with him or not, but right now I just needed to think…

Getting up, I gave Mikey the rest of the blankets and walked out of the room, stretching and yawning once more. Nobody was in the main room. Yet. So I sat down on the couch and set my head on the back of the couch, staring at the ceiling.

Naomi can be confusing even when she’s gone… I wondered what she was doing. It made me think of Mii-wa as well… I can’t believe both of them are gone. Naomi said she would be back, but it felt like a year ago she left. When would she be back?

That’s when Raph walked in, groaning sleepily. He didn’t notice me at first, because he sat down on the couch a few inches away from me. As soon as he sat down, he put his head in his hands, muttering something I couldn’t quite dish out.

“Huh?” I asked.

Raph looked up at me and scowled. “Nothing you should be wondering…”

I looked at him weirdly, about to question him, but Leo and Mikey walked in. Sophie following, looking like a zombie. Natasha came in dragging herself on the ground, literally. Donnie came in afterward and yawned, making me yawn again.

Leo sat down, Sophie following, nearly sitting down on him before casually scooting over a little, like she meant to do that. Leo looked at her a bit funny but sighed.

“Alright, guys…” he said. “Where are we going to scope out tonight?”

“How about TCRI?” Natasha offered, just now reaching the couch. “Kraang are annoying…”

Shrugging, Leo slowly got up, breathing out. “We haven’t checked on the Kraang in a while. Alright, fine. Let’s go.”

“I’m coming tonight,” Sophie snapped, getting up. “My arm’s fine, and, besides, I’m not missing another night. This one makes me feel something else… Like it’ll be awesome.”

“Like pizza awesome?” Mikey asked.

“No,” Sophie stated simply. “Just, no.”

“It was worth the try,” I said to Mikey softly as Leo and Sophie started heading out. He looked at me and smiled. It made me smile back. Somehow, Mikey could take away the doubt and questioning in my head.

We went up and started going toward the TCRI building when some FootClan soldiers appeared, twirling their weapons around like they were all high and mighty.

“Foot!” Raph grinned, getting out his Sais. “Just my luck.”

Without another word exchanged, the Foot came at us and I grabbed my double Katanas, blocking an attack from one Foot. This guy had a normal Bo staff and he could actually use it about as skillfully as Donnie could.

But I was over-used to staffs by now, so I swung one sword at his head to distract him while I used the grip of the other and jabbed him in the side. He held where I hit him, then I stepped back, jumping up and doing a spinning back kick, sending him flying.

By the time I was done, we were pretty much all done. Raph had most of them out before I had even started with the staff guy. So when there was none, Raph looked around then groaned, “Aw man…”

“Raph,” Leo said, more happier and awake than he was earlier. “If you keep breaking your toys, we’re not gonna buy you new ones.”

“Wait…” I said, trying to think about this. “FootClan are toys!?”

Laughing, Mikey nudged me then walked up like he was searching for something between Foot and said, “Dudes, it’s like we just finished a video game on easy.”

“Mikey, if Master Splinter has taught us anything, it’s that real life combat is not a video game!” Leo said sternly.

“Ooo, coins!” Donnie suddenly spoke up, making me jump a bit.

“Really?” Natasha asked, coming up next to him to help him pick up the coins. I watched them weirdly, then shook my head.

“The Foot haven’t been much of a challenge lately…” Leo observed.

“You think Naomi’s got anything to do with it?” Sophie asked. We all looked at her and she put her hands up in defense, wincing slightly. “I mean, with her mind control and all…”

We looked at one another and shrugged.

“But, you know the one person I wouldn’t want to be?” Donnie asked, standing straight again. We all looked at him as he paused. “The one to tell Shredder about this.”

“Hopefully not Naomi…” Raph shivered.

“She would so get us for this later…” Sophie agreed.