Seven. Eight. Nine.
Song: My Immortal by Evanescence
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The streets were empty and dismal. The buildings were crumbling all around, from the smallest apartment complex to the towers of the GM building, which no longer glowed blue in the night, where the stars shone sadly on the city below. A small fire flicked hungrily on the sidewalk, fed by the ash that surrounded it.
A black boot fell over the flames, snuffing it from oxygen and killing the light. The girl the boot belonged to squatted low to the ground, half hidden in the shadows.
"Des, is it safe?" A deep voice whispered from the behind her, completely obscured from view.
The girl stood straight, her wild green eyes flicking around across the landscape with an anxious light. Her wavy brown hair, which held a black streak in her bangs, was a knotty, dirty mess, so much so that the black wolf ears that were perched on the top of her head were just barely visible. Three jagged scars ran down the left side of her face, and she had a matching set on her waist and right shoulder, with smaller scars crisscrossing her arms. On her back was perched a set of sleek, black wings that were 7 feet long each, giving her a 14 foot wing span. Her black wolf tail lashed nervously, but she begrudgingly gave a nod to the voice behind her.
"I believe so. But keep close. We're almost there. The Detroit River is right there. I can fly us across, and we'll be safe. Finally." She promised, turning to her partner.
Out of the shadows stepped a mutant turtle, standing only a bit taller than the mutant wolf-raven, his sapphire blue eyes glinting as he grabbed the girl's hand, squeezing it firmly and lovingly. He wore a tattered blue mask over his face, as well as knee and elbow padding, a belt around his waist, and sheathes on his shell that held his only remaining katana.
"We're almost there. We're almost safe. For them." He whispered, a smile crossing his face. He gently pulled the girl to him, connecting their lips in a loving kiss. "For our brothers." He whispered as their lips parted a few seconds later.
"For our sisters." She nodded.
"For our father."
They walked down the sidewalk, sticking to the shadows. Leonardo kept his hand filled with shuriken, while Destiny kept a hand on the hilt on her bùjú. She could see it, she could see the glistening water. She could see the glowing skyline of Windsor just across the way. Right there, just outside the concrete jungle, no longer patrolled by national guard, is where they could rest, treat wounds, and finally grieve for their lost family.
It took only a mere second for it to go to Hell.
A whizzing sound pierced the air long before Leo could hear it, but Destiny could. With cat-like reflexes, she slashed the projectile out of the air with a growl, taking a protective stance in front of her boyfriend.
"Well, we got us a couple of fighters." A deep, yet feminine voice sneered.
"It does seem that way, Luana." Another, lighter, female voice agreed, and out of the shadows, two figures stepped into view.
Holding a metal blow dart in her hand, a fukiya, Destiny recalled, was a Polynesian girl standing a few inches shorter than the wolf-raven. Her thick, wavy, mocha hair stuck up in all directions over her shoulders and down her back. Her skin was smooth, only a shade or so lighter than her hair, but dirt covered it, hiding it's beauty. Her eyes were a chocolate brown with green pigment surrounding the pupils, and they glinted with malice as she smirked wickedly. Her clothes were covered in dirt and were tattered as well, and she had a sash wrapped tightly around her left shoulder and the right side of her waist, which seemed to contain purple tipped darts for her fukiya.
Next to her was a shorter girl that was caucasian in ethnicity, her skin naturally tanner with a southern European skin tone. On her nose were the remnants of freckles, hidden beneath the grime built up on her skin. From what Destiny could see, she was riddled with scars as well, the most visible being a deep scar down left side of her face, and four jagged claw marks on her right shoulder. Her wild mess of dark brown hair flowed unevenly down her back and over her shoulders, like a ratty lion's mane, and her pale blue eyes were cold and calculated. Her clothes, unlike her partner's, seemed to be stained red, covered in dry blood, and she had twin onos hanging at her sides.
"Mutants?" The first girl laughed, spinning her fukiya with her fingers absentmindedly. "Not many manage to make it this far. Most of the trespassers we catch are people. I thought Shelby here was the only mutant left." She said, elbowing her partner playfully.
"Please," Leonardo said as he stepped forward, his hands in front of him defensively, "we're just passing through."
"Well, we can't give you any special treatment." The first girl, who must have been Luana, chuckled, shaking her head. "We don't let anyone pass through our turf. Last time we did, the group turned around and took three of us out."
Shelby nodded, her eyes flashing momentarily with grief. "We were the only two left." She added, her voice hoarse.
"Left here to rot by Master Shredder himself. His forgotten soldiers." Luana muttered bitterly, gripping her weapon tightly in her fists.
"They're Foot." Destiny whispered to her boyfriend. "We need to move now."
"Oh, don't leave so soon." Luana growled, her sarcastic, teasing facial expression falling into a serious scowl.
Destiny's fur and hair began to bristle. She didn't want to fight, not when they were so close. Her wild green eyes locked with Shelby's pale blue irises. "Please, we've been through so much already." She whispered, licking her chapped lips. "We've almost made it. Have mercy."
Shelby stared at the wolf-raven, and after a few moments of skin crawling silence, the sinking realization that her plea was falling on deaf ears caused Destiny's stomach to churn, and her strained muscles to shake.
"I have no more mercy." Shelby decided, her eyes flashing an icy blue before an ear splitting snarl cracked through the air. The temperature of the evening atmosphere dipped drastically, and Shelby dropped on all four, her skin sprouting pure white fur, her limbs contorting and snapping into a different anatomical shape. Her eyes seemed to frost over with an icy veil, and she snarled, her canines bared as she stood tense, frost crawling out from underneath her paws.
Destiny barked a warning, instantly morphing into her hulking black wolf form, her wings spreading out and making her appear absolutely massive. With a giant flap of her wings, she shot forward at the white she-wolf, the two shifting mutants locking into battle.
Luana watched them as they wrestled with each other, before her hazel eyes locked on Leo, and she pursed her lips. "Let's dance, turtle." She muttered, running at the mutant. Leo unsheathed his katana, meeting her halfway.
The two she-wolves tore at each other viscously, their claws tearing at the other's fur, their teeth gnashing and sinking deep into the stratified squamous tissue. Destiny was easily double her opponent's size, but Shelby was slippery, quick, and was dangerously calculated with her blows. She often managed to trip Destiny up by getting under her feet. Still, one good hit from the black wolf, and Shelby lost valuable seconds recovering.
Destiny managed such a strike, catching Shelby with her wing as the she-wolf attempted to avoid Destiny's fangs. Shelby yelped as the wind was knocked out of her and she skidded across the cement, violet blood staining her white fur.
Destiny hovered in the air above her, ready to make the final strike, her teeth bared, when she found her wings were faltering. Panicking, she landed clumsy on the ground, morphing back to her humanoid form in confusion. She stuck her arms out, observing the lacerations covering her body. The wounds weren't bleeding, like Destiny had expected; they were frozen over, frost covering the surface of the bite and claw marks, making the skin around them raw and red, while the tissue below was turning blue and purple. The wolf-raven stared in horror at her injuries, before glancing up at her opponent, who was now slowly collecting herself, no longer in her wolf form, but not in her original human form that Destiny had first seem her in. It was a sort of half-shift form, similar to Destiny's normal appearance, although Shelby's looked more like some sort of ice demon.
"You're a monster." Destiny spat through her teeth, straining her muscles to move forward and maul Shelby, but she could feel herself freezing from the inside out, and it was sapping all her energy. Shelby seemed unfazed by Destiny's response, as if she had heard that same sentence too many times to feel any bite from the words.
Perhaps, she had. She simply turned her head away from Destiny, her eyes locking on the battle between Luana and Leo. Destiny eyes shifted there as well, her stomach churning in knots as she gritted her teeth in effort to keep herself breathing.
Leo swung his katana with purpose, all the movement with his blade natural and simply muscle memory. However, all his combat skills seemed void against Luana, who dodged the blade effortlessly by ducking, pivoting, and leaping out of reach. Sometimes, she would just deflect Leonardo's katana with her metal fukiya. Neither the mutant nor the human seemed to be tiring; it seemed they could have gone on like this for hours.
"Luana," Shelby called, her voice hoarse as she lashed her tail, "we're done here. Let's go before anyone else wonders over. I want to sleep." She stated dryly, crossing her arms over her chest.
Luana glanced at her partner, and gave a curt nod in response. Quick as lightning, she spun and kicked, striking Leo in the head with well aimed force. Destiny didn't understand what was happening. Leo had been the only one truly fighting the whole time; why was Luana just know putting an effort into her actions?
The gears in her head connected the dots all too late. In one swift motion, the Polynesian spun her fukiya once, loaded it quickly with a dart and turned to the stunned turtle. With a forceful blow into the tube, the purple tipped dart buried itself in Leonardo's neck.
A distraction. Luana was simply a distraction, keeping Leo from helping Destiny with her deadly opponent. Once Shelby was done, Luana could finish too.
Leo placed a hand on the dart, and yanked it from his neck, causing blood to well onto the surface of his dark green skin. The purple tip of the dart was gone, dissolved into Leo's bloodstream, the artery in his neck allowing instant passage to his brain. Destiny scrambled forward desperately as Leonardo began to shake, his katana clattering to the ground. He fell to his knees in convulsions just as the wolf-raven reached him, her skin slowly turning a sickly pale color, her lips already blue.
"Leo!" She cried, tears welling in her eyes as Leo choked in her arms, fighting his own body for his next breath. Shelby joined Luana a mere five feet away from Destiny, but the wolf-raven payed the duo no attention now.
"Baby, please, stay with me! You can't leave me alone here!" She shrieked, clutching him close to her. "We're gonna make it! We will, just stay! Stay, damnit!" She screamed in a shrill tone, making Shelby's white wolf ear draw back in pain.
Leo locked his dimming sapphire eyes with Destiny's green irises, his hand finding her's as a trail of blood dripped from his mouth. He squeezed her hand, his lips moving with the last bit of energy he had.
"I... Lo-ah!" He grimaced as he struggled to speak. "Love... You." He finished with gritted teeth.
"No, Leo, please don't! This isn't the end!" She pleaded, but it was no use. Within seconds of his final words, his grip on Destiny's hand loosened, and in an instant, he was completely limp.
"No." She whimpered quietly, curling into his side and wrapping her wings around them gingerly. He was truly gone. She was the only Hamato left. She couldn't get him across the border to Windsor.
She had failed him.
"You got her good, Shelbs. She'll die in a couple hours. Come on, let's go get some shut eye." Luana suggested, wrapping her arm around Shelby's waist gently and guiding her to the nearby building, the one they called home.
As nice as sleep sounded, Shelby couldn't help but sneak one last look at Destiny. The grief. The sobbing. The tears and whispers of regret. It was all too familiar to her.
"Actually, Luana, you go ahead. I'm be in in a minute." Shelby decided, halting where she stood.
Luana glanced at her in surprise, searching the mutant's eyes questioningly, but nodded, grabbing her hand and squeezing it lightly. "Okay, don't be long." She whispered, before continuing into the building.
Shelby turned back to Destiny, making her way over slowly. Destiny didn't seem to notice, keeping her face buried in Leo's shoulder as she sobbed.
"How many?" Shelby asked suddenly. Destiny's wolf ears perked, and she lifted her head, her eyes red with tears. Her veins and arteries were turning blue and purple under her paling skin, making Destiny look like the undead.
"Excuse me?" She managed to choke out.
"How many did you lose?" Shelby pushed, her eyes void of emotion as she spoke. No anger, no guilt, not even joy. It made Destiny sick. This mutant had been like this a long time. The wolf-raven doubted she could act even remotely human now.
"Eight." Destiny whispered, looking to Leo's face. It had been seven. She was supposed to keep it at that number. She had promised Raphael on his deathbed. Leo and Destiny would live.
Silence settled over the two girls as Destiny continued to stare at Leo's face, gently caressing his cheek with her shaking hands, her fingertips turning blue.
"Two." Shelby whispered suddenly, catching Destiny off guard. She glanced up at her enemy, and her eyes widened in shock at what she saw.
Tears.
Tears had collected in Shelby's eyes as her lower lip quivered. "I lost my two brothers 4 months ago. Both of them. Gone in mere seconds." She squeaked, gritting her teeth as she wiped her tears away angrily. "Like they were nothing."
Destiny watched in her awe, emotions and thoughts fighting for dominance. She wanted to despise Shelby. She wanted her to burn on a stake. She wanted to be happy that Shelby was grieving too.
But she wasn't. Not one bit.
"I'm sorry." She muttered, looking back down to Leo sadly.
Shelby looked up, collecting herself by taking a deep breath. She then grabbed one of her onos that had been sheathed at her waist, spinning it once. "I lied when I said I was merciless."
Destiny had gone to lift her head in confusion, but she didn't even have time to look Shelby in the eyes before the ono was buried in her forehead, her body going limp.
Shelby pulled out her weapon, sniffling. "I hope you find your family." She whispered, flicking the crimson blood from the blade and sheathing it, before shuffling away, leaving the corpses to lay in the glow of the beautiful city lights of Windsor, the only witness to their demise being the moon shining brightly in the sky above.
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