— SERPENT HUNT —

~BATTLE FOR KARAI AT THE DOCK~

"Let. Her. GO!" Leo yelled, his dual ninjato drawn as he leapt from the shipping container.

Ally joined him, drawing her own ninjaken, a wordless battle-cry hurtling from her mouth as she sailed through the air right beside him.

The other Turtles all burst out behind them, ready to rain down hell on their enemies below.

~DURING THE BATTLE~

Shredder backhanded Leo, catapulting him into a green shipping container.

The blue-clad turtle slammed against it painfully. Groaning, he sheathed his swords, collecting himself.

Ally growled, raising her ninjaken, her narrowed eyes trained on Shredder. She charged at him in anger, slashing his silver arm with one of her swords. She lashed her foot out in a kick aimed at the part of his knee that was less protected by armour. Despite the effort, the lizard's attacks seemed to do little effect. She pummelled the Shredder with punches, the latter of which blocked with his arms. There was little strategy to Ally's strikes; she just needed to distract Shredder so Leo could get to the almost-unconscious Karai. With the rest of the Turtles facing off against the rest of their enemies – Donnie outsmarting Zeck, Raph facing off against Steranko, and Mikey taunting Rahzar – there was only Shredder and Xever between the Reptiles and Karai. Ally knew Leo could handle Xever by himself, and she wanted to make things as easy as possible for this mission, so she decided to take care of the big boss.

The lizard recruit did her best to dodge and duck and block whenever Shredder struck at her, managing to evade his furious attacks. She parried his hand-blades best she could, feeling the bite of pure steel shudder down her ninjaken with every impact, vibrating the bones in her arms. Regardless, she did not let up, determined not to let herself fall.

But behind her enemy, she saw movement: a familiar flash of green and blue. For a split second she was distracted, and glanced up, taking her eyes off Shredder.
Leo crouched beside Karai, holding her serpentine head tenderly in his hands.

Alaina faltered.

Shredder saw his opening. He viciously barrelled fist into the lizard's stomach, sending her flying back-first into a storage container right next to the corner edge of the dock. The one-two impact on Ally's torso winded her, and her swords dropped to her sides as the dizzy caused her to lose her grip.

The lizard wheezed, angry and annoyed at herself as she caught her breath. "Get up!" She hissed, trying to regain her balance as she collected her ninjaken. 

She realised that cursing herself was the only break she would catch: Xever, now known as Fishface due to his mutation. came from the side to land in front of the lizard, drawing his switchblade. Apparently, he had grown tired of Leo, and now that the boss was free, he decided to have some fun. "It will be fun fighting you, Senõrita," he quipped.

Thinking quickly, Ally pointed over his shoulder. "Look! A hot brunette!"

Fooled – or perhaps simply responding to a knee-jerk reaction – Xever turned his head to look. 

Alaina wasted no time, adrenaline fuelling her legs as she ran and sprang up, roundhouse-kicking the mutant in the stomach. The magenta fish-mutant skittered over the dock with a cry, up-hauling a splash of seawater and becoming a problem dealt with for the moment.

"Too easy, tuna salad," she sighed, feeling proud of herself.

Further into the fray – up ahead of her, where the others were fighting – there was a cry of outrage that drew Ally's attention once more.

"My daughter!"
Shredder.

"She's not. Your. Daughter!" Leo yelled, widening his legs and pressing his weight down, taking a defensive stance. Behind him, Karai was slowly pushing herself up from the ground.

"I raised her," Shredder argued, about to pursue. "I cared for her. She is my daughter!"

In a practiced movement, Leo withdrew five smoke bombs from his pouch and hurled them at his adversary. 
The Shredder raised his arm to block what he thought would be shurikens or kunai, and the bombs detonated on contact.

Purple-black smoke exploded out of the eggs-turned-incendiaries, clouding the battlefield. Once the smokescreen cleared, the Reptiles were gone.

"What?!" Shredder yelled, whipping around to face every direction, hoping to catch the movement of a retreating shadow or a tail darting out of sight. But there was nothing; even Karai had managed to escape in the distraction.
With a growl, Oroku Saki accepted defeat and turned to his captives: Zeck and Steranko.

~AFTER THE BATTLE~

"What happened back there? We had her!" Raph scolded, climbing out of the cold salt water and onto the deck.

The Reptiles had emerged from their cover on the opposite side of the docks, well out of sight from Shredder and his allies. Raph had stayed back momentarily, making sure their disappearing act worked to throw their enemies off their trail. He returned now to the others to let them know that they were safe.

"It was too dangerous to bring her back," Donnie replied as he helped Mikey up from the water onto the docks. "Besides, she does need to lay low for a while."

"But Karai could be anywhere by now," Mikey added, brushing the water off his skin. His baby-blue eyes were wide with concern for his sister. "How on earth are we supposed to find her?"

Leo, who had already clambered onto the deck, spoke up. "She did give me a clue where to meet her," he said, letting his friends know that all was not lost. He cast a thick finger out towards the city. "She pointed east and said, 'Comet'."

Ally had emerged from the waters after Leo, and now she stood near to the leader, close to the other brothers. She stayed quiet, fidgeting with one of her smoke bombs as she stared after where he had pointed.

The desperation and hope underlining Leo's words settled underneath the lizard's skin, irritating her for a reason she couldn't place. It elicited the same feeling she'd had during the battle, when she was fighting Shredder. When she saw Leo talking with Karai, and she... what had happened to her?

She hesitated, Ally knew that much. But why? Was it because she had seen Leo acting so gentle, so caringly, with another girl? If that was true... did that mean she got distracted because she was jealous?

Shell no. Ally was a warrior, a ninja; she didn't have time for petty emotions such as envy.

"You good, Ally?" Mikey asked her, knocking her out of her thoughts. Though the youngest typically danced to the beat of his own drum, he was surprisingly perceptive when it came to the well-being of his loved ones, and he had probably realised from Alaina's silence that she was deep in thought, pondering something.

She looked up to the others, regaining herself. "Yeah, fine," Alaina answered plainly, pocketing the egg contraption, which reminded her of another thing that happened during the battle. "Good move with the smoke bombs, Leo," she complimented half-heartedly.

The turtle in question shrugged the praise off, smiling at her. But when Ally folded her arms and looked around instead of smiling back, Leo's face fell.

"What's eatin' ya?" Raph asked his lizard teammate, concerned.

"Nothing."

Donnie raised his eyebrow, sharing a glance with Mikey. Leo's brow furrowed, his head tilting just slightly as he looked his friend over.

Uncomfortable with the unsteady silence, Alaina unfolded her arms. "Come on. We should probably be heading back." The lizard then moved towards a shipping container, jumping and climbing to the top. 

In truth, Alaina knew what she was doing. She was covering, badly. She'd been caught in her strange behaviour, but she couldn't talk about it with the turtles until she knew herself what she was dealing with. So, she ran.

She had only gotten to the top of the container when the rest of her friends broke the "we-know-something's-up-but-we-won't-push-until-you're-ready" silence. 

"Oh no you don't, miss," Leo chided playfully, attempting to lighten the situation. He set his hands to another container, hoisting himself up. "I do the leading here."

"Guess you'll have to try and lead, then!" Ally called back as she didn't slow down.

The others took after her, confused and defeated, but optimistic and hopeful as well as they returned home.

The truth was, they hadn't succeeded their mission to rescue Karai; but at least they had another chance to.

They just had to decipher what Karai meant by "comet", and exactly which region of the east she was talking about.

<~>

– ONE SHOT/SHORT –

Alaina was in the dojo.

This was were she spent most of her free time these days, training more often than she had done before. When she was Master Yinto's student, she stuck to a regime of equal parts combat training and meditating in the forest she called home – but that was back before the lizard actually had enemies.
Back before the Kraang, or the new mutants that threatened her family.
Back before the Shredder.

So Alaina was sure Master Yinto wouldn't have minded if she tweaked her regime just a bit to allow for more time spent training than meditating. Alaina wanted to become the perfect fighting weapon – a force to be reckoned with, like the red-clad turtle brother she enjoyed bantering with so often.
And the only way to do that was through practice.

The lizard concentrated, gripping the hilt of one of her ninjaken with both hands (paws? Even after all these years, she still wasn't too sure), aiming at an invisible enemy. She exhaled, concentrating. She dodged to the left, then blocked a pretend strike from the right, parried in front and whipped her sword upwards in a wicked manner that would have certainly dislodged a long-weapon from a mediocre opponent – or an opponent that underestimated her – and effectively disarmed them.

The lizard acted quick while her 'enemy' was still getting their bearings; she threw a hook kick to get distance between them, sheathing her sword at the same time, and withdrew a couple smoke bombs from her pouch when she landed. About a second after Alaina hit the ground again, she smashed the egg contraptions at the dojo floor and disappeared in the purple distraction.

She was quick to run under the cover, and when the smoke cleared she was among the brown branches of the dojo's great tree, panting. Thank goodness for her lizard sticky scales; though they weren't wholly functional, they certainly aided her in climbing.

Falling back against the branch, Alaina armed away sweat from her forehead with the back of her paw, taking deep breaths. She felt like she probably should have integrated a few more fighting techniques before making an escape; the more things she practiced, the better.

The sound of footsteps prompted Alaina to open her eyes. She could make out two different gaits – one heavier and one lighter, but both similar. It sounded like they were coming towards the dojo.

She was about to leap back down to the floor when something inside her made her halt. She was fairly sure at least one of the sets of footsteps belonged to Master Splinter – maybe he was about to impart some wise, old fighting rat wisdom to one of the turtles, or April or Casey? It was something the sensei did a lot, but so far not with Alaina, and she felt like she wasn't getting far on her own.

So, instead of jumping down, Alaina climbed up further into the darkness of the tree, unseen in the branches' shadows. 

Peeking through the leaves, she watched with intent as the door to the dojo opened and Master Splinter walked in, followed by Leo.
Leo?
Doubt began to cloud the lizard's scales. Maybe I shouldn't be here...

Splinter walked up close to the tree, causing Alaina to try and tuck herself more into the branches for fear of being spotted. She held her breath, but her concern went unneeded as the rat father turned and knelt, his back now to the tree.
"Leonardo," Splinter began.

Leo knelt down in front of his father, composure respectful and mature. "Sensei," he replied in greeting as he bowed his head.

"You seem distracted, my son," Splinter continued. "Is something the matter?"

I shouldn't be here, Alaina decided as regret splotched through her system.

The blue-clad turtle sighed, looking up at the rat mutant. "It's just... Father, I'm... I'm worried for Ally," he admitted, a little shyly.

They're talking about me. Alaina's grip on the bark tightened. I definitely shouldn't be here.

Unbeknownst to Alaina, Splinter's features slightly raised in surprise. "How so?" He asked.

"Well, I'm worried that she might not have the proper training for... the enemies we fight," Leo elaborated. "I think our missions might be too dangerous for her. Especially since we're facing the Kraang now..."

He's worried for me? Alaina was surprised.

Splinter took a breath, almost sighing. "My son, you are becoming too caught up in your concerns, like Donatello. You have to remain sure of yourself." He placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Alaina will be all right. She received training from one of my – from a sensei almost as good as I," the rat corrected himself with a little joking smile at the end statement.

Leo nodded, smiling. "Thank you, Father."

Splinter smiled warmly at his son, before standing. "And if you are that concerned about our newest recruit... you could always aim to fit in more training sessions with her," he suggested as he began walking away.

Leo's eyes widened, startled, and he turned his head to watch his father leave. Slight warmth pooled on his cheeks. Did Master Splinter mean something by that?

As Master Splinter left the dojo, he smirked at the reaction he had gotten from his son. 

Meanwhile, Alaina was still rooted in place, essentially grafted onto the dojo's tree as another one of its branches. The dark scales on her cheeks also felt warm as she pondered the whole conversation – especially that end part.
Wait, what was Master Splinter about to call Master Yinto? 'One of my –'? 

Before Alaina could wonder about this further, Leo looked up at the tree, straight to where the lizard was hiding out of sight. 

"I know you're there," he said plainly.

Alaina went rigid. Ah, sewerapples.

"Ally, come down," Leo invited.

Without a word, the lizard obeyed; descending the limb to the part where the tree trunk split off into branches, then jumped down in front of Leo. "I'm really sorry," she began, her face wholly warm now. "I don't know why I listened in, I know it was wr–"

"Don't be," Leo shrugged, standing to his feet. "Trust me. If I knew you were there, then Master Splinter definitely knew you were there."

Alaina's tail draped around one of her legs, something she always did when she felt embarrassed. "Right," she said, looking at her feet.

Leo smiled smally. "It's fine, Ally."

The lizard breathed deep. "You don't have to be worried about me, Leo," she said. "I can hold my own – and besides, you have enough on your plate as it is."

Leo sighed. "I know, but you haven't... it's just... you don't know how our enemies operate," he tried. "I don't want you getting caught off-guard."

Alaina smirked. "Then I guess Master Splinter was right – you'll just have to teach me how they operate with more training sessions."

Leo grinned at her. "Sounds like a plan to me," he agreed.

Alaina took a step forward. "Thanks for looking out for me. My hero," she smiled, saying the last part with a joking tone – but she wasn't joking.

The two looked each other in the eyes with matching grins and light blushes dusting their cheeks.

"It's my pleasure, my lady," Leo bowed.

Alaina laughed, causing the blue-clad turtle to laugh too.
"I know we just talked about more training, but I'm beat," the lizard admitted. "Wanna watch Space Heroes?"

Leo's genuine smile was enough to warm Ally's heart. 
"I'd love to."

<~>

— FOLLOW THE LEADER —

The Reptiles were running, making a tactical retreat from Karai's new playthings.

They grunted as they jumped rooftops, the Foot bots hot on their heels.

"Guys, remember King of The Mountain?" Leo called, referring to the training game they had played earlier.

"Yeah, so?" Raph answered, glancing over his shoulder.

"Follow me!" The leader in blue descended to the children's public playground – luckily there was no one around at nighttime. The Foot bots followed them.

Leo yelled "whoop-whoop-whoop!" as he hurtled one of his nintajo into the air, then whipped around and heaved his other one. It nailed a Foot bot straight through the head. Leo then caught his first sword and parried another oncoming Foot bot.

"Oh, I get what you're saying: be unpredictable!" Donnie realised. He looked around and made some quick calculations.

"Do our thing!" He grinned as he withdrew three shurikens and three kunai in each hand. He flung them at a skip, and they rebounded off the skip onto the backboard of the basketball hoop, bounced off there into a manhole cover, and pinged off there to reach their destination: three Foot bots. Purple sparks lit up from where the ninja weapons hit them, shutting them down.

"Didn't see that coming, didja?" Donnie celebrated.

"Yeah boyyy!" Mikey whooped as he swung gymnastics-style from the bar holding up the swings, kicking and blocking attacks from the Foot bots trying to attack him.

"Woohoo!" Ally cheered as she jumped in the air, spun fast and threw out her tail with all her might. The lizard smacked the two Foot bots running after her with her powerful limb, throwing them into a wall. When she landed, she spun a fast circle, doing the same trick again but on the ground. The result was slightly modified: the remaining two Foot bots that were pursuing her were tripped up as their feet got swept out from underneath them. Ally then had no problem slicing their robotic heads off.

~LEO'S BATTLE WITH KARAI~

Leo had caught Karai by surprise. He threw a mean uppercut to her head, throwing her backwards off the rooftop.

Crying out, she managed to grab onto a line strung between two buildings for decorative lanterns to be hung onto. Karai smacked into a hanging lantern, losing her grip. She fell with a cry and hit the ground hard, groaning. 

Leo was in front of her two seconds later, brandishing his ninjato at her face threateningly.
"Shredder is lying to you!" He told her forcefully. "Splinter would never hurt an innocent!"

Karai stared at him, remaining silent. She looked conflicted, as if some side of her believed him.

With a metallic shing as his blade caught the air, Leo lowered his sword. "Your grudge is with me. Stay away from my brothers, my sensei, and my friends. Understood?"

He waited for a moment, making sure he had his point clear. Then the boy sheathed his ninjato and turned, making his way back to his family.

He hopped onto a fire escape, and gave Karai one last look.

"Believe me, Karai," Leo warned, and maybe some part of his voice was underlined with silent pleading, like he genuinely wanted this bad blood between them absolved.

He climbed onto the rooftop and then he was gone.

<~>

— THE KRAANG CONSPIRACY —

The Reptiles ran out of the room filled with toxic gas, collecting themselves.

"It was some kind of replica!" Donnie exclaimed in-between coughs. "A fake April!"

Alaina shuddered as she remembered how convincing the April android had been. She – or rather, it – had maintained its cover until the mutants were trapped in a dead end. It had bided its time, waiting until it had the perfect opportunity to dispatch them. And it strung them all along until the very end. 

If the Kraang were capable of coming up with that kind of trickery...

"But she looked so real!" Mikey added, coughing. "Like tofu bacon!"

"Come on," Leo piped up, pausing to cough, "we gotta find the real April!" He began sprinting away.

Alaina was behind him a second later, expelling the last of the toxic fumes from her lungs.

Donnie nodded and ran after him, trying to quieten his coughing.

Raph did the same. "And tofu bacon does not look real," he commented on Mikey's comparison before following his brothers.

"It tastes real though!" Mikey called, following Raph.

He only made it several paces before the aforementioned red-clad turtle stopped the youngest with his arm, his gaze to the ground.

Mikey followed it and saw a tiny circle of pink light moving across the ground, coming to a rest at his toes.

No sooner had the pink light sensed an obstruction of the white floors it knew so well than it sent a barrage of Kraang lasers in orderly fashion towards the said disruption, aiming to dispatch it.

Mikey yelped as he hopped from foot to foot to dodge the lasers.

Once the lasers ceased, the Reptiles found the source of the pink light: a tiny black roaming sensor protruding from a small stem on the ceiling. Below the sensor was the steel door to the next room.

"I bet whatever's behind that door is preeeetty important," Mikey observed.

The pink light began roaming again, another disruption brought to its attention. It shot at Leo, the latter moving, diving and rolling to avoid the stinging lasers in a rapid manner of sophisticated acrobatics.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Alaina sighed at the advanced display from her friend. In one fluid motion, she produced a shuriken from her belt and threw a clean shot at the sensor. The shuriken embedded itself into the metal, and the sensor sparked as it shut up with a meek powering-down noise.

The turtle brothers turned to her.

"You're welcome," she shrugged, sharing a smile with them.

Leo grinned at her before moving forward and swiping the Kraang card that Kurtzman had given to him across the scanner on the door's panel.

The sensor up above retreated into the ceiling, a slate sliding shut behind it.

<~>

— FUNGUS HUMOUNGUS —

Donnie was a pro, protecting April from the oncoming sentient mushrooms and shredding them with the blade at the end of his Bo.

Until one caught him by surprise.
Leo called out a "behind you!", but it was too late.

A mushroom leaped at the purple-clad brother, dousing his green skin in the yellow dust the team had grown to hate.

Even though Alaina was up to her eyes keeping the mushrooms at bay, she could see the moment Donnie's face cracked with disbelief and horror. The mutant fell to his knees, the abject terror and heartbreak flashing across his features tugging at the lizard's heart.

"She hates me!" Donnie cried. "April hates me!"

The lizard's morale drained and dropped, and she channeled her frustration into her technique, hacking and slashing every mushroom that tried to tag her with her ninjaken. She did her best to ignore the genius brother's further cries as she defended herself, but she couldn't help feeling her heart break for her fellow mutant.

Both Donnie and April took off, each lost in their own horror dysphoria nightmare. 

At this new development, a crack of despair flashed through Ally like lightning. We're the last ones standing. We're all alone.

"Wait! Come back!" Leo yelled after them. His moment's distraction allowed for a mushroom to break through his defence, tagging him with the yellow dust.

"Leo!" Ally cried in dismay for her friend, and like had been done a few seconds earlier, a mushroom got her by surprise. 

No!
How could she have let this happen? Not only did Leo get caught, but she got distracted, and now she was under, too. For a bone-clattering moment, a dizzying fury of emotions swirled around Alaina's chest, crashing through her sensibility, as potent as the mutagen that had changed her life: I've failed everyone.

And then, after a total of two heartbeating moments, the dust broke through. The mutants' visions were totally clouded, settling on their skin, getting in their nose, dotting their lungs as they breathed it in. The two remaining members of the team staggered back, coughing, and shock rang inside Ally when her foot did not contact solid ground again. Unbalanced, she was unable to stop as she fell backwards, and the dark air stole her cry of surprise.

Alarmed, she suddenly realised she and Leo had backed up to a chasm in their confusion – and now they were falling.

Their cries echoed throughout the sewers as they tumbled a free-fall into black space.

A bed of dark cyan met them at the ground, breaking their falls. Fortunately, this substance was thick and spongy, and it caught the reptiles like a vigilant hand to prevent their pain.

Alaina shook her head, giving herself time to recover as she tried to gather her wits.

"Where... are we?" She heard Leo ask as he did the same, getting to his feet.

Alaina followed him a moment later, and the two of them looked around. Most of this place was obscured by darkness, illuminated only by yellow and blue glowing mushrooms growing sporadically throughout the cyan ground.

But then Ally's eyes made it to the most obvious and most worrying new addition: the back wall of this cave was home to one huge blue eye.

Thanks to Ally's lizard DNA, she could see clearly the shape surrounding the eye: it was a gargantuan mushroom, big enough to completely fill the cave wall.

Leo's eyes trailed down its structure until he saw a familiar broken canister stuck inside one of the mushroom's pores.

"Mutagen," he growled, the tone in his voice saying "I should've known".

"Oh no," Ally lamented. It was all she could say at the moment; truth be told, she was still reeling from the sight of each of her friends being broken by the mushrooms, and now she was standing face-to-face with the main perpetrator behind it all.

"Taste... fear..." the huge mushroom spoke slowly, in a deep, raspy voice. "Feed... fear... taste... go forth and feed..."

We have to beat this! Ally thought, only to hear a dark laugh crack through her head.

She groaned, her fingers coming up to touch her forehead.

"Alaina... Sachari Yinto is dead. There is no where else to go," the voice – the owner of the laugh – taunted her.
Ally couldn't make out the voice. It sounded vaguely familiar, but not like anybody she'd ever heard.

"They'll never accept you," it continued, not only matter-of-fact but lilting, as if it enjoyed sadistically teasing her with its truth. "You're going to die alone, because you're weak."

Alaina tried to fight the delusion by grounding herself in fact, but to no avail. The mutant began to sink to her knees in defeat.

"The team will never see you as one of them. You're not good enough, and you will never be good enough."

In her mind's eye, and thanks to the hallucinogen of the mushroom dust, the lizard could see her friends, her fellow mutants – the turtle brothers, complete with her new sensei as well. They rose up to glare down on her, but their faces were as stoic as stone, as if they were sentinels carved from rock. There was no familiarity in their gazes; they regarded her like a total stranger.
No, worse – like an enemy.

"I was right – there is something wrong with you!" Raph cried accusatorially at her.

"You're nothing but a pretender," Donnie spat.

"I thought you were different. But you're not cool, bro," Mikey shook his head in disappointment.

"You bring danger to myself and to my family!" Master Splinter hissed. "I made an error when I invited you into our home!"

Ally squeezed her eyes shut, but she could still see them. Dread reared up in her chest like an uncoiled snake, growing bigger with each remark made about her. Pangs of despair rolled over her as the hatred in her friends' faces chased her no matter where she looked.

And then Leo was baring down on her. "You're a curse," he said, his voice familiar, and yet some faraway part of Alaina's mind told her that there was something wrong with it, with his eyes. "I should have never trusted you. You will never be part of this family. We will never love you."

Alaina grit her teeth. "No..." she whispered.
But the dread that came with her friends' voices was already seeping in. The cracks that had come with seeing each of the turtles succumb to the fear were now allowing jets of dejectedness to dampen her spirits.  

The disappointment and anger in Leo's eyes looked so real...

Ally's hands went to her head, clutching her temples. The panic and the horror and the fear of the fact that her family hated her...

But Sachari Yinto is dead. Where else can I go?
I love them, I can't lose them.
What do I do now if they decide to leave me?
I can't let them leave me, I thought they loved me too.
Please please please please please don't hate me. Please don't leave me alone...

Too many thoughts too many different thoughts on different wavelengths in different lanes and trains zipping by and past and through each other, it felt like Ally was having a panic attack. She couldn't breathe, all that existed was the vitriol in her friends' glares.

It was too clouding, too dizzying, too heavy too big too much...

And then all of them collided in the middle, creating one echoing decision:

No!

She knew what she was being shown wasn't true. The faces of her family didn't look right. She knew it wasn't them.
And then she came back from the oblivion, remembering the enemy they were fighting: the Fungus of Fear. 
Of course it was a lie. Ally was being lied to!

The lizard scraped together all the strength she had, her mind fading into white. "I've gotta... get... up!"

Alaina opened her eyes and rose to her feet, drawing her ninjaken. And at the same time, so did Leo.

They both called battle cries, and ran forward into the onslaught of the mushroom army.