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Talia had never seen such a mismatched group before in her life. They certainly didn't look like your typical killing machines on the hunt, but that didn't make the situation any less scarier. The trio wore cold and hardened expressions, ready to exterminate Talia and her friends like lowly insects.

"Now this is a fabulous surprise," the blonde-haired assassin mused. He probably was around her age— he and his friends probably were— but she couldn't say for sure with the height he stood at. Talia felt like his blue eyes were stabbing her with daggers when his gaze landed on her. "Two of Master Shredder's most wanted have landed in a web with no way out."

"I don't remember you and your Jesus posse receiving an invitation for today." Raph frowned, stepping forward.

The blonde-haired assassin smiled. "But this is North America, isn't it? If it's true that here is a 'free country', then that means I don't necessarily need anyone's permission to go anywhere I want."

"Sorry, dude. I think you and your guys have the wrong school." Mikey chuckled. "You sure you went to the right one on orientation day?"

"It means get lost, Blondie," Raph snapped.

The blonde-haired assassin was unfazed. He calmly said, "No doubt there is a fascinating story behind how a little rich girl landed in the clutches of my Master's enemy clan for protection and went on to discover one of Master Shredder's greatest operations. Perhaps one of you shall live long enough to tell it."

Raph got into his fighting stance. "Fight us first, and then we'll see."

The blonde-haired assassin shrugged. He raised his index and middle fingers and brought them behind his ear, tapping the area twice before his face seemed to glitch and crackle like a hologram. He then proceeded to rip his 'face' off, which Talia had to admit freaked her out a little, only to realize that underneath his face was. . . a face. A completely new appearance. Talia and her friends watched in shock as they were left gawking at a handsomely-defined pale face with attractive features like a straight nose bridge and high cheekbones. His dark hair was slicked back to perfection, with not a single hair out of place.

His friends copied his movements and within seconds, their former 'masks' were nothing more than thin, mesh veils in their hands. Talia stared at the scene before her in horror. What kind of technology could do something like that? How did they manage to get their hands on it? She had never heard of such a thing.

"My code name is 'The Reaper,'" the ex-blonde-haired assassin said, narrowing his cat-like eyes at Talia and her friends, "and I want you to look at this face closely, because it will be one of the last things you'll ever see."

And as if things couldn't get any crazier, The Reaper then used his hands to execute a complicated pattern, which was able to conjure a wall of runny shadows that invaded the little square feet of area he occupied. Then, as if he somehow managed to bend the shadows to his will, all that 'energy' moved to his hand, which curled as if he was holding something that the darkness seemed to craft and forge for him— a blurry outline that Talia could only liken it to a very large toothpick. Once the shadows vanquished themselves, Talia and everyone else then saw that what The Reaper held was, in no way, a toothpick but a sword that mimicked Leo's katana in terms of shape and size.

Whether it was The Reaper's personal weapon or something that was just one of his many weapons he (probably) had stashed in his shadow 'closet', she couldn't say, but the blade itself was stainless and pointy enough that Talia shivered just looking at it. Perhaps its owner saw the sword as its own pet— taking good care of it by giving it enough polishing and sharpening rituals.

"I don't suppose you and Raph can do that exactly," Talia whispered to Mikey.

"Sure, if my dad was into some serious bad voodoo," Mikey whispered back. He then turned to Raph for an answer. "Um, dude, how are we going to fight back? We don't have our weapons!"

Raph cursed under his breath. Talia could tell from the look on his face that he in no way was expecting this, especially on a day like this one. Looking around, he settled for a pair of cymbals and used them like tiny shields.

Mikey clapped his hands. "Ooo! Now you can have your own code name! Yours can be Cymbal-Crusher!"

Raph certainly did not look pleased. "Don't push it, Mikey," he growled.

The Reaper smirked. "Cute. Let's see how long you'll last."

In a flash, The Reaper and his team advanced. Talia and April dashed out of the way, watching as Raph and Mikey— who used whatever instruments were within their reach— to take on the trio. Watching the fight, Talia hoped that despite the fight being far from fair, Raph and Mikey would somehow find a way to turn the tides in their favor and win. But it proved to be a challenge. Shredder's ninjas seemed to be faster and stronger by just an inch; soon, Raph and Mikey struggled to keep up.

When the ex-field runner threw Mikey over his back and raised his fist in the air, Talia spotted a tambourine laying strewn across the floor and used it like a frisbee, soaring through the air and hitting against the attacker's head. The attack itself was harmless, but it distracted him enough for Mikey to pick himself up and knock the field runner out with a well-placed kick.

"Thanks, Tals!" Mikey gave her a thumbs-up.

Talia smiled. "You're welcome— eeek!" She yelped as she ducked to avoid a tuba taking the wind out of her. It sailed across her head like a rainbow and crashed into a set of music stands.

Raph, who was sparring with The Reaper, used the cymbals to protect himself before The Reaper's sword could impale him. He quickly glanced at Talia and said, "Get out of here! All of you!" He referred to April and Mak. Raph managed to push The Reaper back and tried to swipe at his face. "Now!"

Rows of clarinets and flutes scattered to the floor like marbles. There was a sound like glass shattering. Never enough space and too much chaos, Talia thought.

"You don't need to tell us twice!" April tugged Talia's arm. "Come on!"

Talia looked back. She wasn't sure if leaving the boys to fight against a trio of highly trained assassins on their own was a good idea; she wanted to help, but then again, what use could she be to Raph and Mikey? She wasn't trained under a grand Master of ninjitsu for a good chunk of her life. She wasn't trained in anything. It was like stepping into the battlefront of an European war without a suit of armor.

Raph and Mikey fought against Shredder's ninjas before. She had faith they could do it again. That is, of course, without the help coming from their three older siblings.

As Talia and the others fled the band room, she heard a person from inside bark something in Japanese. There was no time to register the foreign words, so all she could do was run to wherever her legs would take her.

As she ran, Talia could feel her thoughts spin into a frenzy. Everything about this situation felt so messed up. An attack on the school? Hiding their true identities behind some kind of facial technology? They knew just what to do to bypass the school and somehow replace the confetti (or rather Mikey's silly string) inside the confetti machines with sleeping gas. . . For how long did they have this attack planned?

Not even a minute went by before someone gasped. It had come from Mak, who looked past his shoulder with his eyes widened. Talia and April did the same, too, and seeing what it was caused a spike in Talia's fear levels. The cheerleader-ninja was sprinting like a cheetah along the wall no problem, like suddenly the laws of physics didn't apply to her. Her corkscrew curls roamed behind her back like a spiraled wave. She was gaining up on them and Talia knew that any second now, she and April and Mak would be pounced on and dragged away like fresh kill.

WHOOSH! Talia felt something fly past her. It felt like a small whiz of air. And then it happened again and again. Only too late did Talia realize the cheerleader-ninja was bombarding her and her friends with arrows. Talia was motivated to run even faster. Then. . .

WHOOSH! But this time Talia felt pain explode in her shoulder. She was itching to see it, but getting distracted would surely ensure her death so she only clutched onto her shoulder while moving her little legs.

Talia and Mak followed April into a door that led to a set of stairs, granting them passage backstage. Talia was already out of breath when she closed the door. She wanted to believe that she and the others got lucky and outran the cheerleader ninja and lost her. She wanted to believe she would never find them here.

Mak leaned against the wall, bending his back forward with his hands on his knees and trying to control his wheezing. April closed her eyes and frowned, wincing as she shook her head.

"She's coming," April warned. "We have to hide."

Although Talia still couldn't understand how April could hear something she clearly couldn't, she knew she had to give her best friend the benefit of the doubt and heed her warning. But as she examined the dressing rooms, woodshop, and laundry area, she realized there wasn't really anywhere she and the others could hide without the cheerleader finding them. Nowhere else except. . .

Talia then crossed to the stage and saw the silk black sheets hanging from the ceiling on stage— the same ones the dancers use to practice their aerial skills— and felt her brain light up. She remembered how Leo and his siblings used the black tablecloth to cover themselves and her and April up to avoid being detected by Foot ninjas after the fight. Maybe she could use that same method to save herself and the others.

"I have an idea," Talia announced. She looked at Mak. "Cue the lights," she told him.

Mak looked confused, but he did so anyway and immediately, it was lights out for backstage and the auditorium itself.

"Taly," April said, "what are you doing?"

Talia didn't answer right away. She was busy remembering how she also had to take off her shoes. "Remember the night Raph and Mikey and the others saved us for the first time? And then right after that—"

"—Oh, right. Right. They hid us in a way we wouldn't be found," April confirmed, her memory jogging back. She kicked off her sneakers. "But it worked for them cause they're ninjas. How will we know it will work the same way for us?"

"It will," Talia insisted. It has to. "All we have to do is stay as silent as possible."

Talia heard April sigh reluctantly. Without forgetting that Mak was with them, Talia placed her hand on his shoulder (or rather she hoped it was his shoulder) and said in the darkness, "I know you might feel confused and probably scared and we don't really know each other, but I'm asking you to trust me when I say that you need to take off your shoes and hide in the sheets. Please?"

Talia knew Mak had no reason to go along with what she was saying. She thought he was going to call her crazy, but seconds passed before Mak said shakily, "Alright."

Without wasting anymore time, Talia and the others scurried to each hanging sheet and wrapped themselves up the best that they could. Talia tried to remain still and hold her breath. She waited and waited and waited.

There was only silence, but Talia knew that meant nothing; there was a chance the female assassin was already here, trying to sniff them out. She wondered if April could already hear her using her 'super-hearing' powers or something.

Talia then felt her stomach coil and twist. Her fingertips ached to fidget with her necklace, but she stopped herself and cradled her hands together as if she wanted them to comfort each other. She wasn't sure how quiet or loud she was right now. Weren't ninjas trained to hone their five senses? Couldn't they detect the slightest movements? The slightest of sounds?

All of a sudden Talia felt like a swarm of spiders were crawling up against her skin. Her heart beat faster as she stared into the endless darkness ahead of her, feeling like it wanted to consume her until there was nothing left but her shadow. She tried to steady her beating heart, but at the same time she also tried to concentrate in keeping pressure on her shoulder wound. She could feel her hand already soaked and warm.

After a failed anticipation of an attack or the sheets being pulled back, Talia felt her body loosen up. Her heart no longer palpitated abnormally. She couldn't believe the black-tablecloth method actually worked! Now she was—

There was a shift in the atmosphere. Every light in the auditorium powered back on simultaneously. Fear clouded her mind. No, no, no. . .

When the last light flickered on, Talia froze in place and covered her mouth with her hand. She clenched her other hand into a fist. What course of action could she possibly take? What about April and Mak? Hiding in these black sheets was now fruitless!

Her fear doubled when a powerful force like someone yanking her backward caused Talia to slam into the wall. When Talia tried lurching forward, she realized she couldn't because her jersey was pinned to the wall by an arrow. She was lucky the arrow didn't ram through her skin and create a new wound.

Next to her, Talia heard two distinct yelps. April and Mak had also become pinned to the wall, with April trying to dislodge the gleaming metal missile from the fabric.

A figure— who turned out to be the cheerleader—jumped from above and landed in a pose Talia thought every superhero in TV shows and movies had done at some point. Except this cheerleader was no superhero. It was bizarre seeing a Foot assassin in a cheerleading uniform while armed with a quiver of arrows and a bow, but Talia couldn't laugh. Not while staring into those sharp and low brown eyes and plump lips that drew a deep frown across her pretty round face. She had a curvy figure and a nose stud.

"So you are the one Master Shredder keeps talking about," The cheerleader ninja said flatly, staring directly at Talia. Her accent sounded African. Her espresso skin shone like a glossy pool of chocolate when she stood directly underneath one of the overhead stage lights. "I do not see what is so special about you."

"Let me go. Please," Talia pleaded. Her shoulder slightly burned. She caught in the corner of her eye April tugging her jacket sleeve to free herself. "You probably don't want to kill me. If so, you wouldn't have missed and aimed for my shirt."

"Oh, I assure you; she never misses," Talia heard The Reaper say. He and the third Foot assassin joined their comrade, with him (The Reaper) looking awfully delighted. Talia's breath hitched. If The Reaper and his friend were here. . . then that meant Raph and Mikey. . .

"You both shall be taken alive back to the Master, where he will personally interrogate you," The Reaper explained. "If he deems whatever information you have to say to him is useful, then he will allow you to embrace a swift and painless death. If not. . ." He smiled like he could already picture the best torture method to subdue his victims', ". . . well, I hate to break it to you but it's not going to be an open casket."

That accent. . . Talia took a few seconds to place where and when she heard it and, finally realizing it, choked out, "You."

As if knowing what she was talking about, The Reaper nodded calmly. "Yes," he confirmed. "Me."

Talia was too frightened to speak that the sound of fabric tearing entered one ear and out the other.

The Reaper chuckled and turned to the ex-field runner. "Sedate them."

Talia gasped. Right after, she saw a flash of movement. It had been April, who finally pulled her sleeve free and launched the arrow at The Reaper.

The ex-field runner put himself between The Reaper and the arrow and used one of his wooden batons to block the attack, swatting the arrow to the side.

The cheerleader acted quickly, too. In under one second, she fired a volley of arrows— aims of fatal accuracy that Talia knew no amount of luck would save her best friend from.

It should've been the end for April. It should've been the end for every innocent person in that room, but then something indescribable happened. All Talia heard before she lost track of everything was a shrill female voice screaming, "NO!" and then freezing. She couldn't blink, talk, or move. She felt something. . . weird in the air. The energy in the room flipped on a switch, which seemed to be sucked inward like someone was vacuuming it up.

Glancing sideways, she thought she would end up seeing her best friend's body plopped on the ground full of arrows, but what she saw instead. . . no, what she thought she saw because there was no way it could've been for real. . . was April, alive and standing and unscathed. Where the arrows were. . . what they were doing. . .

The arrows were millimeters from puncturing April's chest, but it was like an invisible force had stopped the arrows from advancing any further; they stayed in place. But April. . . something was different about her now. Her fiery red hair rose up like a torch, as if someone were grabbing it. And her eyes. . . her pupils had completely disappeared, leaving only her scleras— which were now yellow and glowing.

April raised her hand like she was going to swat someone away, but what came out as a result was nothing like Talia— or probably anyone else in this room— had ever seen. When she swiped her hand down, she opened her mouth and released a scream— a distorted, mechanical scream that sounded anything but normal; it sounded inhuman. Accompanying that scream, a mighty force like a shockwave sent her and everyone else flying. The force was so intense that it made Talia roll across the stage and slide off, ending in her falling on her side underneath an auditorium seat.

Everything went black after that.