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.

In the end, Michelangelo wins two out of their three sets. April wipes sweat from her forehead, tessen quivering in her other hand, and Casey hollers his encouragements as she recovers her breath.

"That's my girl! You kick ass!" he hoots. He adds in, with another whoop, "I love you!"

She rolls her eyes as she smiles, returning to the lineup.

Destiny launches to her feet and moves to the centre of the floor, Raphael coming to a stop in front of her. They both adjust their footing, Destiny's hand hovering near the hilt of her uchigatana as Raphael's fingers waggle near his sai.

Her wings quiver, tucked close to her back. Raphael grins.

"Ready to lose?" he asks.

"I was about to ask you that!" she retorts.

"Hajime!" Splinter shouts.

Destiny is usually the first to make an attack. When she's in her human form, her speed is her greatest asset, but Raphael changes that. He likes attacking first too.

She whips her blade out just as his sai come down. She deflects and hops away, flexing her fingers on the blade as she smirks. He tried to catch her blade between his prongs, a surefire way to break the sword itself or at least twist it from her grip, and she relishes in the annoyance that crosses his face in the split second when he realizes that his plan failed.

It's her turn. She lunges, adding in a strong flap of her wings to boost her forward, and drives the pommel into his stomach before he can recover. He grunts, winded, and she goes to sweep his legs out from under him. He jumps, twisting away from her, and lunges back in.

This continues for a while, a dance with the partners bouncing back and forth, ricocheting off of each other. Raphael works at close range, using brute strength and force, but Destiny is good at mobility and speed above all else. It's not a well-matched fight, but a challenging one all the same.

For all their words before the match began, their actual fight is devoid of much chatter aside from muttered curses and grunts of pain. Destiny is struggling, but she's having fun. Splinter and Leonardo have been helping her add her wings to her fighting style. They found that, if she's not up against a sword, she can easily use her wings to block smaller attacks.

She's still hesitant in using them as a shield. She still remembers how much it sucked when she broke her wing after Shredder's downfall and the weeks of literal grounding that followed. To compromise, she uses them to boost her attack power and give her momentum where her physical strength just doesn't cut it.

She deflects again and he dodges her kick. Their moves are a blur to the onlookers, so fast that to the untrained eye it would look like a mess of desperate measures, and Destiny grits her teeth as her wild eyes lock onto Raphael's. She has to end this. If she can just—

She aims her uchigatana and lunges, bringing the blade to his throat just as his sai whips out. They freeze, breathing hard, her blade nudging his jugular and the prong of his sai pressed hard to the dip of her throat. For a second, they both tense, ready to break the stalemate.

"Ya mae!" Splinter barks. Their eyes swivel to Splinter, weapons still poised, and he smiles. "I'm calling it a tie."

"What?!" Raphael demands, his arm dropping as Destiny lowers her blade. "No way! We've got to finish this!"

"And you will," Splinter replies, "but first, you must rest. Destiny, come, drink."

Destiny blinks, only then realizing how dizzy she feels. She's drenched in sweat and her entire body is still tingling with adrenaline. She feels like she just ran a marathon while simultaneously fending off an army of Foot bots. How long were they going at it like that? She must look awful if Splinter is calling the fight.

"H-Hai," she croaks. Her throat is caked in saliva, leaving her mouth with the uncomfortable sensation of dehydration.

She stumbles back to the line-up as Leonardo hands her a water bottle. She sinks to the floor and drinks gratefully, laying down flat on her back as her wings spread out. She idly wonders if wings can bruise, because it sure feels like it.

"Leonardo, Donatello," Splinter says.

The pair gets up and moves to the floor, leaving Destiny with the other spectators. Raphael sits down at her side, careful to avoid her wings, and he exhales.

"Nice job, wolfie," he says. She lets her head roll to the side, taking him in, and he smirks. "Maybe someday you'll beat me, fair and square."

"Is that a challenge?" Destiny asks.

"You bet your ass it is!"

They bump fists, grinning. Nearby, Taylor crosses her arms over her chest and huffs a little.

"I was waiting for him to show off for me," she mutters.

Annalise and Casey both stare at her. "Uh," Annalise says. "What do you think that was?"

"He never goes that hard unless you're around," Casey adds. "Or if he's in a certain mood."

Taylor blinks. "Oh." She bows her head. "Then I'm just muy unobservant." When they snicker, she shoots them a glare and shoves Annalise into Casey. "Oh, shut up!"

Destiny doesn't beat Raphael that day, but one tie game is still a step up from losing.