Total Turtle Transformation (TMNT Book 4)

Grab to Mutate (Naomi POV)

Dogpound and Fishface finally came back without the cylinders of Mutagen. I knew that they had them transferred to an abandoned warehouse. Reiley had already came back and was with Lilly.

Shredder had Dogpound and I bow down before him and explain, “The plan is nearly complete. We just need a volunteer.”

My mind quickly thought of Pulverizor. He had joined the Foot not to long ago, and he still wanted to mutate. So I offered, “What about Pulverizor?”

Both Shredder and Dogpound looked at me suspiciously. Shredder growled, “Fine… Grab the fool known as Pulverizor along with Kyoto.”

Kyoto… Him… The one with the staff as a weapon. His mind is a jumbled and confusing mess that I hardly wanted to enter. It had mostly anger and pain. I could tell he was always made fun of and abused. He usually came to me when he wasn’t on patrol to teach him some moves. Shredder knew that him and I were close, so he wanted to break me down.

I noticed that Shredder welcomed me with open arms just to tell him information about Splinter, but he knew that I knew nothing, which, of course, was a lie. Then he began making me feel welcome like anybody would. Now he was starting to break me down, piece by piece to make me suffer for some reason… It all started with Lilly, though…

So as Dogpound and I stood up, Reiley came in with Lilly. She looked older. Much older. She was at least four or five years of age when I was training her, but she was quickly growing to a seven and eight year old. Now she looked like an eleven or twelve year old.

Her green eyes looked around and her bandana that she had finished braiding after the practice I had with was slowly starting to fit her. She even had a weapon: double bladed fans. Somehow, she had them changed in color and design.

The spikes that were the blades were still silver, but the handles were navy blue. And then the fabric that helped the fan unfold were black. One color for each Turtle she has met. Of course, the black was the greater color, so it made me somewhat happy.

But they both came in and I looked away, growling. Shredder noticed and chuckled, knowing I was in pain. Reiley was closer to Lilly than I was… It wasn’t right…

Turning around, I left the chapel, running across the roofs to Kyoto’s place. I would grab him, because I knew Dogpound wanted Pulverizor. After a while, I sighed and just sat down on the roof, looking at the sky.

Silence crowded over me, and I closed my eyes in thought. My body was worn and felt unsure of itself. The cuts and bruises I’ve received while staying with Shredder were healing, if not gone. The cut above my left eye was long gone, but the cut in bandana just felt apart of my body. Wind didn’t bother me anymore.

My mind was pained because I haven’t used my mind reading as much as I would usually use in the lair. Shredder’s mind was blocked off from me, so I just gave up after the twelfth time. But I kept my mind open to Karai, Reiley, Dogpound, Fishface, and a lot of the Foot.

Now Lilly’s mind was smart. Maybe she learned, or maybe it was just coincidence. Her mind was mostly blocked off, but the times that it wasn’t, which was when she was sleeping, had images of Reiley and occasionally me. Sometimes the words of a story Reiley told to her rolled through like music.

When I heard someone jump up behind me, I didn’t move. Instead, I slammed into their unblocked head and noticed it was Reiley. Silently, I scowled and said, “Reiley…”

“Thought I would find you,” Reiley said, coming up to me and sitting down beside me. “Now why aren’t you grabbing Kyoto?”

“I was about to, till you showed up…” I growled.

“You’re angry with me, I know… But it was Shredder that told me to get close to her. I never wanted it, but be grateful you get to teach her--”

“She’s almost done growing…” I sighed, opening my eyes finally. “In a few hours, she’ll be fifteen…”

“It was your choice to do this,” Reiley pointed out. “You could’ve easily just stayed with the guys and--”

“Reiley,” I snapped, turning to her. “I know. But just because I make decisions, doesn’t mean they’re right… Everyone makes mistakes.”

We were silent for a few minutes before Reiley asked, “Why did you do it?”

I knew what she was asking. My own head replayed that one time… That one, and very dangerous time… “I didn’t know it would wind up like this… If Raph hadn’t followed me, I would be in the lair still…”

Reiley turned to me. “So why didn’t you stop?”

“You wouldn’t understand how it felt…” I looked away, blushing a little. “But it leads to dangerous consequences…”

“Like now.”

I nodded. “Like now.”

A door opened below us and the familiar form of Kyoto came out of his house. He was an African American with dark skin, but that didn’t change my attitude toward him. He had a great sense of humor when need be, and when he wasn’t in his FootClan uniform, he always had headphones on, listening to music.

“You have to do this,” Reiley said, nudging me.

“Yeah, yeah….” I growled. “Besides, he’ll have a better future with this…” I jumped down and muttered, “Sorry, Kyoto…”

“Huh?” he said, turning around slightly. For once, he didn’t have headphones on. Gritting my teeth, I raised my staff and whacked it against his head, only hard enough to make his pass out.

He fell, but I quickly grabbed him, slinging him over my shoulder. I looked up at the roof, “Reiley! Come on! We got some mutating to do!”