Song: Mother Murder - Hollywood Undead

Being tied up in nets does not give us an advantage over Karai. In fact, it is probably the worst thing that could happen to us. Rolling around to dodge Karai's sharp bites is nerve-wracking and humiliating. The four turtles and I look like a set of helpless sausages.

    Karai seems to be focused on Leonardo the most. Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo and I aren't afraid to use our weapons on her, but Leonardo refuses to cause her any harm. He only uses moves of defense rather than offense. It works well at first, until Karai gets the best of him and pins him to the floor.

    "Leo!" Donatello shouts in horror. Just in time, he launches himself into the air and crashes into Karai. As they skid across the floor, Donatello's net somehow gets caught between her teeth. It rips and the purple-clad turtle rolls out of the tangled mess, triumphing in freedom.

    "Bro, little help?!" Michelangelo whines. Karai has turned her attention on him and is about to bite him. One dose of her venomous teeth, and the freckled-turtle is done for.

    "Stay away from my brother!" Donatello yells as he charges at Karai, the blade on his bo-staff extended. She tries to slither out of the way, but his sudden freedom catches her off-guard. Donatello's weapon cuts right into her side, causing her to cry out in agony.

    "Donnie, no!" Leonardo shouts, thrashing against the net containing him. Developing a moment of sense, he whips out his katana blades and starts to free himself. Raphael follows suit, his sais ripping through the net like it's made of paper.

    Taking advantage of Karai's distraction, Michelangelo cuts himself loose with his nunchuck blades. He leaps out of the rope's hold and charges to Donatello's aid as the purple turtle fights off Karai.

    "Hey, Mikey!" I call. "Mind cutting me loose?"

    Michelangelo detours and does just that. "There ya go, dude!"

    "Thanks," I breathe a sigh of relief as I scramble to my feet. "Remind me to start keeping somethin' sharp in my pocket."

    Raphael gives a single snort as he rises beside me. "Keep something sharp in your pocket."

    I shoot him a glare. "Thanks, pal."

    "Don't mention it."

    With all five of us free from our jails, we begin to draw some attention. Tiger Claw is standing off to the side, blocking Rahzar and Fishface from interfering. He must really want to watch Karai destroy us herself, though that's to be expected from a low-life like him. He is no better than the Shredder.

    But I don't have time to worry about that. Even though Karai is injured, she advances on us fast. She forces us to step back with every strike she makes, and it's impossible for us to counterattack. She is just too quick- like a cornered animal.

    It doesn't help that Leonardo isn't fighting back. All he does is avoid attacks and beg her to listen to him.

    "Please, Karai!" the blue-clad turtle gasps as he takes yet another step in reverse. "It's us! We're your brothers! You have to snap out of it!"

    "It's not working!" I tell him sharply as her teeth narrowly miss me. I smack her head away with my baseball bat, but she isn't fazed by it. Instead, she turns her attacks towards Donatello, who is already starting to wear down from the continuous fighting.

    "I healed your abdominal wound, and now I have to inflict you with pain," Donatello grunts as he uses his bo-staff to bat her away. "It doesn't seem right."

    Just as Donatello finishes speaking, something unexpected happens. Karai flicks her tail forward and it heads right for the purple-clad turtle's shoulder. It creates a deep cut down his arm and he cries out in pain.

   "Donnie!" Michelangelo shouts. He turns on Karai with a rare, dangerous look in his blue eyes. "You. Hurt. My. Bro! BACK OFF!" he shrieks in her face.

    Karai responds by spitting yellow saliva into his eyes.

    "Ahh!" Michelangelo yelps in agony as he stumbles backwards. He collapses onto the ground right next to Donatello, vigorously rubbing his eyes to clear them.

    "Not cool, serpent girl!" I snapped as I jump in front of my injured friends with Raphael at my side. "You're gonna pay for that!"

    "Big time," Raphael adds threateningly with his teeth gritted in rage.

    "No, you can't hurt her!" Leonardo protests as he stands beside me. "She doesn't know what she's doing. She's mind-controlled."

    "What the heck is wrong with you?" Raphael retorts. "She took our brothers down and didn't bat an eye! Karai is gone, Leo."

    Leonardo flinches at his harsh words and drops his gaze to the ground. He shuts his eyes tightly for a moment, and when he opens them they burn with a renewed fire. "You're right," he sighs deeply. "But we can't beat her. She's too quick for our recent lack of training. We have to find a way out of here."

    Raphael and I nod. That sounds more like the leader we know and love.

    Taking a deep breath, the three of us hold our weapons out defensively. Karai lets out a vicious hiss and lunges again, but we are ready. We fight with no mercy as the mutant tries to break the barrier we formed. We move as a unit, kicking and swiping in time with each other.

    Our movements are so tight that we manage to break Karai. Slowly but surely, she begins to wear down. Her wound hasn't stopped bleeding, and her sudden movements were only making things worse. However, her stubborn spirit carries on. Though tired, her movements are still vicious and deadly. Her lack of precision means nothing as her slashes increase in aggression.

    Through the bloody haze of attacks, my eyes travel the room and spot a small hole nearby my injured friends. Pale light glows through it just enough to reveal that it leads to the outside world. My heart leaps with relief as I realize we might survive this mess after all.

    No time to be discreet. I shove Donatello and Michelangelo towards the hole and yell, "Go! Now!"

    As the pair make their escape, I turn around just in time to receive a slap from Karai's tail. My jaw cracks painfully and I feel blood trickle into my mouth. A small flick of my tongue shows that it's not broken, however, and I quickly return to the fight.

    "Get out of here!" Leonardo waves to Raphael and me as his katana soars right passed Karai's nose and grazes her forehead. She hisses and shrinks back momentarily, before lunging for the blue-clad turtle's throat.

    "Oh no you don't!" Raphael snaps as his sais connect to her neck and push her back. The turtle and the serpent lock into a steadfast battle, their equal muscle strength pinning them into one place. They stare at each other angrily, both gazes full of hatred.

    I seize the opportunity to dive through the hole in the wall. I pop out on the other side and see Donatello and Michelangelo making a run for it.

    "Come on!" Michelangelo calls over his shoulder as they rapidly limp for safety.

    "Go ahead, I'm gonna hang back for the others!" I respond as I spin back around and wait.

    Seconds feel like hours as I stare at the small, dark hole. My stomach churns as I picture the worst: Raphael getting flattened and Leonardo ripped to pieces. Regret floods my shoes like flood water. I shouldn't have left them behind. I should have made them go first. I should have-

    Just then Raphael pokes out of the hole, rapidly pursued by Leonardo. "Move, move, move!" Leonardo shouts as he runs with his katanas stuck out behind him.

    A new voice rings out among the chilly air. "This way!" April is standing in the shadows with her hair tied back and her ice-blue eyes blazing. Her tessen is fanned out in front of her as she scans the five of us suspiciously.

    As the five of us bolt towards the red-head, her suspicion fades to concern. "Where's Karai?" she questions.

    I skid to a stop beside her and place my hand on her shoulder. "I'll explain later, Red. Right now, we gotta make a break for it!" My lungs burn from the lack of oxygen I've taken in.

    "Where's Luce?" Raphael demands as he pauses on April's other side.

    "She's at home," April explains. "I made her stay back."

    Raphael lets out a low growl as if her answer isn't good enough. "So she's safe?" he snaps.

    Just then, the wall behind us explodes. Brick and stone scatter around us, hitting the ground with loud clanks. I spin around to see a Karai-shaped hole in the wall just before the serpent rushes at us, fangs glinting in the starlight.

    I cross my hockey sticks into an "X" shape to block Karai as she lunges for my face. "Agh!" I gasp as I fall flat onto my back. The wind gets knocked out of me momentarily and I lay dazed as she goes for another attack.

    "No!" Leonardo kicks the mutant away and stands between us with his katanas drawn. He towers over her as she lay on her side. "Karai, don't hurt him. He's on your side."

    Karai lets out a nasty hiss and whips around him. In a flash, she has Leonardo smacked into a wall and pinned with her tail. She curls her lip as her tongue slithers out of her mouth like a snake hunting prey.

    Michelangelo pops her on the back of the head with his nunchuck. As she is stunned for a moment, Leonardo and his younger brother dart towards a building. "Come on!" Leonardo orders over his shoulder.

    We pursue the blue-clad turtle down the street, over sidewalks, and around street lamps. My feet begin to ache from how forcefully they bounce off the concrete, but the heavy breathing of Karai on our tails encourages me to keep going.

    "Faster, team!" Leonardo yells over the freezing air slapping his face.

    Our pace gets quicker and more desperate as Karai gains on us. The dry, winter atmosphere is suffocating as I suck it into my lungs. My chest burns as my muscles push themselves into overdrive, and my eyes sting with cold tears. I can just make out the shape of a tall building through my blurry vision. We are almost there...

    "Leo, wait!" Donatello grabs the turtle just in time to save him from falling into a manhole. The remaining four of us trip over each other and stumble as we skid to a halt, panting and gasping for oxygen and wishing it was warmer as it hits our throats.

    Michelangelo sighs with relief. "That was a clo-" The orange clad turtle gets cut off as Karai body slams him. She wraps her tail around his throat and lifts him off the ground, her jade-green eyes glaring into him as if she can see his soul. The turtle hangs in space with his legs flailing as he grasps at her tail. His cheeks puff out as he tries to retain his breath.

    "Oh, no you don't!" Raphael snarls and leaps at the serpent. He pushes his body between her and his brother. Using his sais, he pushes her arms behind her back and stomps on her tail. She lets out a yowl and releases Michelangelo.

    "Mikey!" April rushes to his side. "Are you ok?"

    "I'm good, dudette," Michelangelo responds hoarsely, but his smile is just as wide as usual.

    "I got your back, Raph!" I announce as I jump in to assist him. Taking out my baseball bat, I whack Karai across the muzzle and send her sliding backwards with a whimper. Raphael rushes at her to give her one last shove for good measure. Unfortunately, it's a shove too far.

    Just as Karai begins to regroup, we watch as she hovers in midair over the manhole for a second. Then she plummets.

    "Karai!" All six of us cry out in unison. We rush to the edge and look down just in time to see a swarm of zombants overtake her.

    "No!" Leonardo yells, and we have to hold him back from jumping down into the sewers.

    We watch in horror as the zombants scratch the serpent mutant all over. Blood trickles down her scaley frame, and she cries out in anguish. She struggles to break free from the claws and teeth, but she is too distracted by the pain to make any progress. Her head disappears into the massacre of growls and snarls and she is no more.

    As the zombants clear out, I can make out an unmoving shape in the shadows. I can just see the outline of Karai's figure, which no longer seems to be a serpent. It's not even human. Before my eyes, she turns into a pink blob with long, black claws and sharp, threatening fangs. Her body pulses with veins that look as if they're about to burst. As she opens her eyes, I see nothing but black pits of nothingness staring up at me. She lets out a blood-curdling cry and swipes at us hungrily.

    "She's gone," Michelangelo murmurs sadly. "Dudes, why'd it have to be her?!"

    "Maybe because she was attacking us!" Raphael shoots back sharply, his green eyes glaring with frustration.

    "It wasn't her attacking us. It was the mind-control serum," Donatello points out. "She had no recollection of her actions."

    "Whatever it was, she's got a taste of her own medicine now," I snort as I cross my arms, though my heart feels a pang of regret.

    Leonardo fixed each of us with a stony stare. "She's a part of our team," he reminds us, almost angrily. He looks like he's struggling to keep his cool. "Like Donnie said, she didn't know what she was doing. She didn't deserve for us to fight her, and she definitely doesn't deserve to be one of those things. Have you all forgotten how much we've tried to do for her? We healed her, fed her, and trained her to talk again. We took her under our care because she is one of us. We do not let one of us die!"

    We exchange uncertain glances. "It's not like she's done anything for us, though," April comments.

    Leonardo grits his teeth. "We do not do kind things to get something in return. We do it because it's the right thing to do,"

    Before the argument can continue, Donatello pulls out his antidote from the back of his shell. "I can attempt this," he says thoughtfully.

    Just then, shouts sound behind us. It's easily to recognize Tiger Claw's loud snarl and the stomping of his henchmen.

    "Quickly," Leonardo nods impatiently, taking a step back to give the scientific turtle some space.

    In one swift moment, Donatello whips out a needle full of a blood-orange serum. He extends a metal pole from it and lowers it into the sewers. It takes a few seconds, but he is able to dodge Karai's swats and jab the antidote into her neck. He pushes a button and the orange liquid disappears into her body.

    Karai seems to be dazed. She pauses in her vicious swipes to take a dizzy step backwards. She spins around in an unbalanced circle, stumbles to the side, and stops moving completely.

    "Did it work?" I whisper as hope rises like a flame in my chest.

    Then just as a shooting star in the night sky, Karai snaps back to normal and continues to throw her claws at us. She snarls and scratches at the walls even more angrily than before.

    "She looks normal to me," Raphael sneers, earning himself a nudge in the ribs from April's elbow. "Ow!"

    As I glance over my shoulder, I see Tiger Claw and his henchmen racing toward us. A quick glance around proves to me that we cannot take another battle; not with the sudden grief sweeping over us.

    "Guys, we gotta go," I say as I grab Leonardo's arm, who is newly depressed, and start dragging him towards the heart of the city. "Let's get outta here!"

    The others shake themselves out of their trances and jump back onto their feet. The sudden urgency to get to safety replaces their sadness.

    "You will not escape this time, turtles!" Tiger Claw yowls and he steadily gets closer to us.

    "Think again, furbag!" Raphael spits and throws a ninja smoke bomb down. Purple smoke fills the air, giving us time to grapple to the roof. We leave the mutants blundering in confusion below, which I can't help snickering at.

    By the time we are skimming the rooftops for a safe spot, Donatello has come out of his failure trance. Leonardo quietly keeps pace beside him, acting as the confused turtle's foundation. Meanwhile, I use packed snow to help Michelangelo with his cuts.

    "S-so cold!" Michelangelo says happily. His whole face glows with joy as he skips around the rooftop. I just shake my head in amusement.

    Within a couple of minutes, Donatello has mostly recovered from his shock. He eyes have taken back on their intelligent light. He still appears discouraged, but at least he is back to reality

    "You ok, Don?" Leonardo asks with concern in his voice. His lips are tainted with an anxious frown.

    Donatello nods. "I should've known my calibrations were off. I used a nucleotide transfer based on human DNA instead of mutant chromosomes. I wonder if that had anything to do with it," he mumbles nonsense to himself. "Back to the lab."

    April plops down beside him. "Hey, you'll figure it out. You always do," she reassures him.

    Donatello glances at her and gives a small smile. Then he turns to his leader. "I'm sorry, Leo. I know it's hard to watch something you worked so hard on get destroyed. I face that daily with Mikey in my lab."

    "What's that supposed to mean?!" the orange-clad turtle questions, more puzzled than offended.

    Leonardo ignores the remark. "We don't know that all my efforts went to waste. We'll just have to get her back to normal." Though he seems upset, it's less grief than usual. It's almost as if he's used to losing people by now. First Master Splinter, then Elizabetta, and now Karai. A small shudder creeps up my spine. Have we really come to the point that the loss tallies are too high to affect us anymore?

    Donatello sits up straighter. "Hey, I have good news," he changes the subject as he removes something from his sash. "I stole a map from the Shredder's lair. I think it shows the hot spots where they're planting the bombs."

    Leonardo snatches the map from his brother and gazes at it in awe. "Donnie, you're right! You're a genius!" he exclaims.

   Donatello gives a weak smile as I slap his shell in a friendly way. "I know," he murmurs.

    "Whoa guys," Michelangelo whispers as he peeks at the map over Leonardo's shoulder. "They're gonna blow up the park!"

    My heart practically leaps out of my chest. "What?!" As I lean over, I realize that he is right. My stomach suddenly feels sick. "I need to get down there right now!" I gasp.

    Leonardo looks at me as if I have grown two more heads. "We will get down there, Casey, but we've got to-"

    "No, you don't understand." I am breathless with worry. I start pacing back and forth to calm myself down, but it doesn't work. "I have to get down there now. I know someone that visits it every night, so I have to warn her!"

    To my surprise, the turtles and April exchange puzzled glances. "Uh, a ton of people visit that park every night," Donatello points out. "Especially on New Year's Eve with the fireworks show. It's one of the most populated places in the city tonight."

    "Yeah, but this is different!" When they just continue to stare blankly, I turn and head down a ladder on the side of a building. "Just go ahead to the other locations! I've got this one myself," I call over my shoulder.

    "Mikey, go with him," I hear Leonardo's voice echo off the rooftop. "We can't afford to leave each other alone. It's too dangerous."

    "Got it!" In an instant, Michelangelo is on my tail as I race down the sidewalk. As we charge through the crowds of people, I can only think about what will await me at my destination. I'm sure I can't handle watching another one of my close companions be destroyed by my enemies.

    I hope with all my might that she isn't there.