Together As Mutants (Book Six)

Chapter 19: Stalemate

For a second, Destiny thought that today's training session would be normal, or of course, as normal as it can be when she lives with four mutant turtles and a hyper-intelligent cyborg. She expects nothing, so when she walks into the dojo to see Taylor and Annalise sitting on the sidelines with Casey and Sarina, she does a double-take.

"Huh?" she asks.

"Hi, Des!" Annalise says, waving rapidly. "We're spectating today!"

Casey grins, shooting her a wink and two finger-guns. "Consider us your personal cheerleaders."

"I'm only cheering for Raphael," Taylor says, idly checking her nails. She slowly looks up at Destiny, letting an equally slow smirk curl her lips. "Lo siento, lobo."

Destiny's tail lashes as she bares her pointed teeth in a half-smile. "Oh, get ready. I'll wreck Raphael just to piss you off," she warns.

"You won't be wrecking anyone!" Raphael retorts from the other side of the dojo, leaping out of his stretches to aim a finger at Destiny. "I'm still better than you!"

"Bring it, Raph!" Destiny retorts, thumping her palms against her chest.

"Geez," April whispers. Leonardo shakes his head.

"Save the fighting words for the actual battle," Sarina calls, focused on typing something onto her tablet. While she's no martial artist, Sarina has established herself as Splinter's second set of eyes, and her analysis of their fighting styles has become just as vital as Splinter's input.

Destiny lifts her hands in slight surrender, giving her wings a shake as she stretches her neck. She can already tell this is going to be strange. Sparring today can go one of two ways. One, Raphael uses Taylor's presence to boost his performance and becomes even more of a beast to spar with, or two, he gets way too excited and his performance drops because of it.

Two extremes, but Destiny is ready for either.

"Ya mae!" Splinter calls as he emerges from his room. The turtles, Destiny, and April scramble to kneel in position as he settles himself in front of the spectators. "Remember, while we have some extra guests here today, this is no time to show off. This is about improvement!"

"Hai, Sensei!" all six say together. Leave it to Sensei to acknowledge what they're all thinking.

Destiny's tail wags, her fingers flexing against her thighs. Usually, when April is here for sparring, Splinter pairs the two of them together. They're the closest in skill to one another, after all, and both know just how fierce is enough.

When April isn't around, Splinter shifts Destiny around. More often than not, she ends up paired with Michelangelo and Donatello, as she consistently practices with Leonardo and, as Splinter has said, he wants her to be more rounded. Raphael is the one turtle she rarely gets paired up with and she decided long ago not to dwell too much on Splinter's reasoning. It would just make her angry.

Destiny is okay with how things are, usually. Not today. Today, she wants a challenge. Today, she wants to fight Raphael.

"Good," Splinter says. "Michelangelo, April, you two are up first. Second, Raphael..." He pauses, ears flicking. "...and Destiny."

"SHELL YEAH!" Destiny howls, letting loose with a few excited barks as she thrusts her fists into the air. Raphael grins wickedly.

"Um, Sensei—" Donatello starts. Leonardo elbows him in the side, making Donatello wince and shoot him a glare. Leonardo shakes his head.

"Third," Splinter continues, his tone slightly more edged, "Donatello and Leonardo."

Michelangelo and April's fight goes well. April's fighting is tenacious yet calculated and she uses her size to her advantage. She's smaller and slimmer than the turtles, making her slippery and hard to pin down. Michelangelo's erratic fighting style makes a challenge for her, but she does her best.