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Karai crossed her arms and spun around on her chair, glaring at a painting of the ocean that hung on the wall of her office. Its stillness infuriated her further, chipping away at her forced composed posture. It took a fair amount of perseverance on her part to stop herself from exhaling loudly through her nose, stamping her feet and screaming at the top of her voice. How she wished she could have done that. But she was Oroku Karai and wasn't one to kick up a fuss when things didn't go as planned, no matter how very frequent things went wrong.

Very, very frequent. Her left eye twitched.

She listened to the quiet-but-louder-than-normal footsteps of the Foot ninja retreating, irregular and clumsy. He had taken a beating. It made her deepen her scowl and sink further downwards on her desk chair.

Those worthless good-for-nothing ninjas had failed to destroy the turtles again. It was the, what, fifth time that month? Five times didn't sound too bad but out of the five times they had tried, it was a one hundred percent failure rate. That was a big percentage. She frowned even more.

Karai's pupils shifted to the side of her eyes as she heard her office's door close almost silently. Her stomach feeling like a fist was closing in on it, Karai leaned back in her chair, half-closed eyes studying the plain ceiling. Why were her ninja so useless? They couldn't even destroy four teenage boys. She didn't pay them to get beaten up. She decided to halve their pay check again. How had her father managed to not just give up world domination and become an accountant instead?

He had led Karai so far off the road of honour that she didn't know what to do now. She didn't know what was the path and what was the grass you weren't supposed to stand on. Perhaps she should try and find her way back. She could stop going out of her way to be like the man who had abandoned her. She could open that bakery she had always wanted to open and sell cupcakes.

Karai caught sight of the portrait of her father that hung next to the door. He looked so strong and powerful, with his chin held up high and his eyes staring at her intensely. His kamishimo was skewed to the side. Karai suspected that he had requested a fan to blow on him while he was being painted to make it look more dramatic.

Despite redirecting her gaze elsewhere, she could still feel his canvas eyes burning into her, demanding to know why she hadn't been able to crush the turtles.

"I could ask you the same," she pointed out.

The painting said nothing, regarding her with its cool demeanour.

She rose, striding towards her office's window. It was quite large, occupying nearly half of the wall. Karai stood in front of it, her gaze sweeping across New York. Buildings and roads and cars and lights stretched for miles and miles, reminding her that she was simply one woman. Her attention drifted towards the evening sky. It was red like blood.

She pressed her finger against where the setting sun was. The sun obscured, it looked like dying light was coming out of her finger and spreading like a disease.

Somewhere, beyond where the horizon was hazy and the colours blurred into a mess, beyond the stars that could not be seen yet, her father was out there. Was he thinking about her? Did he ever think about her? He was probably feeling sorry for himself, all alone wherever he was. He probably regretted not killing everyone sooner. She liked to think that he missed her. She missed him.

She owed him.

"I do not know what to do, Father."

Her voice was quiet.

"They are young, yet they have such skill and determination. They will only grow to become more of an obstacle."

Something clicked.

"They are young..."

TMNTNMT

"Oh, Fluttershy, you are adorab-"

"Chaplin!"

Doctor Chaplin quickly switched off his computer's screen, yelping. He turned his head and grinned at Karai. It was rare for her to come down to the Foot labs to speak to him. He was usually summoned to her office so she could complain about something. Not that he ever minded. Chaplin never minded.

"Yes, Mistress?" he asked, putting his white sleeved arm onto the desk and unsuccessfully trying to look cool.

The lab was deserted. Chaplin must have already annoyed everyone else away. A new record.

"Come to my office. I need to speak to you in private."

Chaplin nearly squealed with joy and or horror. Instead, he said in as calm a voice as he could manage, "S-Sure, M-Mistress."

He couldn't stop wondering why Karai wanted to speak to him. It didn't help that she remained silent for the entirety of the journey, not giving away any clues. Nope, the only sound was the tapping Karai's heels made and the squeaking Chaplin's new leather shoes caused. Eyeing them scathingly, she had been greeted with an apologetic smile that made the raven haired woman continue ignoring him.

Chaplin stopped for a moment to take off his shoes in a poor attempt to redeem himself. Karai pressed on without acknowledging him. The now barefooted scientist caught up with her and began playing with his fingers, watching her at an angle.

He hadn't done anything too wrong recently. Well, he had blown up one of the laboratories a week ago and set off the fire alarm by accident while going through a door with his arms full of chemicals, but other than that he had been near perfect.

The elevator door opened and Karai walked out. Chaplin jumped and chased after her. He didn't remember going into the elevator. He could barely recollect leaving the lab. Chaplin was beginning to worry. What if Karai was replacing him? She wouldn't replace him, would she? The Foot was his life. He went to work not so much for the money, though he would never no to a nice pay check, but because it was like a family to him. That and he thought Karai was pretty hot.

The door slammed shut behind him and Chaplin stood to attention. Karai sat down at her desk and stared at him with her fiery green eyes. He felt them penetrate his soul.

"You wanted me, Mistress?" he asked.

"Do you swear that you will be completely honest with me?"

Chaplin blinked. "Uh... Yes. I promise."

Then the strangest thing happened. Her cheeks went slightly red. Chaplin chose to ignore it because she did that when he blushed. And he blushed a lot near her.

"Chaplin..." A clock could be heard ticking. "My father kept me very isolated from people my age. I was home taught, so I did not have many... friends."

He didn't move, trying to keep his face composed.

"I did not know much about females my age, let alone... boys."

Chaplin could feel his face growing hot and he mentally scolded himself. Karai wasn't... She was just... She was... They weren't more than...

"When you were a teenager, Chaplin, what sort of things did you like?"

"What? Oh?" He scratched his chin. He hadn't expected that. It seemed quite personal. Karai had never really cared about who he was behind the whole 'devoted employee that would die a jillion times for your amusement' thing. "Well... uh, lots of things."

She curled her lip. He began to sweat.

"Such as...?"

"Video games... Pokemon cards... homework... writing scripts..."

She continued watching him so Chaplin felt like he had to continue.

"Chess... collecting comics... swimming... writing poems... long walks in the local parks... hunting for bugs for my book... facebook... watching cartoons... reading manga..."

He felt terribly naked right then. More so than usual.

Karai narrowed her eyes and said, "I see. Is this typical of boys that age?"

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and began poking his fingers together, looking down. "Uh... maybe not... I was kind of a... uh... I was different."

"Different?"

She raised her eyebrows interestedly.

"Yeah, maybe... uh..." Chaplin seemed to shrink. "I wasn't... really... cool, you know? The others went out... and got drunk with their girlfriends... and went to the gym and parties and... stuff."

"You did not go out and get drunk, go to the gym, or parties, or have a girlfriend?"

Chaplin was a bigger loser than she originally thought. Then again, she had done none of those things either.

"I wasn't very sociable... I was kind of shy."

Chaplin peeked at her, his head bowed.

Karai titled her head to one side and Chaplin's common sense rushed out of his body.

"It's not like I didn't want any of those things. My old neighbour was kind of pretty but I could never bring myself to talk to her because I thought I would embarrass myself so I just watched her from my window whenever she went to collect her mail."

The mental image of a young Chaplin watching Karai sunbathe in a garden entered the woman's mind.

Chaplin realised what he had just said and his face matched his hair in a heartbeat. And his heart was beating very fast. "I don't do that anymore! I-I was young!"

"I should hope so."

"I mean, I was a teenager and boys can't really help it and she was always wearing her dressing gown only I think and..."

The mental image in Karai's mind got worse.

"Please don't think of me too badly, Mistress, I-I was young." Chaplin forced himself to glance at Karai. "Shall I throw myself out now?"

"There is no need to be ashamed," she told him. "This discussion has been most interesting."

"Do you think worse of me, Mistress?"

"... No. You should not be ashamed..."

She picked up some papers and sorted through them, hiding her smirking face behind them.

"... It is normal for a teenage boy."

TMNTNMT

Karai accompanied the next patrol. It was not something she did particularly often, but she needed to see if her plan would work. Finding the turtles was not difficult; they came to her without any beckoning, assuming that the Foot were on a mission to be evil as the Foot often were.

And so the fight began as it started to rain.

"When will you guys give up?" asked Mikey, yawning as he swung one of his nunchucks. Wrapping it around a ninja's sword, the orange clad turtle pulled his opponent towards him. Mikey yanked the sword out of the ninja's hands and kicked him in the gut.

"They're as persistent as a river," Don remarked, sweeping his bo staff across the ground. He managed to trip over a Foot ninja. "... And as mindless."

"The only thing they have that we don't is number," stated Raph, slamming his fist into a Foot ninja's chest. The man gasped as his body was flung through the air, landing a few feet away with a painful thud. "And we fix that pretty quickly."

"Maybe they have to resort to hiring losers to get their membership back up?" suggested Mikey, kicking an unconscious Foot ninja.

The Elite Foot appeared in a puff of smoke and Mikey found himself on the ground, his cheek bleeding. He narrowed his eyes as Raph and Don appeared by his side, weapons drawn. More Foot ninjas gathered around them, preventing any and all exits.

Meanwhile, Leo was duelling Karai, their katanas cutting the air. The blue clad turtle growled, and seeing that his brothers were having trouble against the Elite, pushed his limits. His movements suddenly became fast and furious. Karai felt her weapons get ripped out of her hands and Leo was soon standing over her, katana blades against either side of her neck. She looked up at him and soaked in the deadly emissions his body was giving out.

So far, so good.

"Call your ninja off. Now."

Karai didn't say anything. She nearly smiled at how serious he sounded. Had Leonardo forgotten that that they were the ones that approached the Foot- not the other way round?

The blades pressed harder against her skin and Leo knelt down, his face closer to hers. She could see the scars that decorated his leathery skin, and she had to remind herself that he was not a merciless killer... he was a boy.

"I'll let you go if you and your ninjas retreat," he said. "You have a choice. You don't have to let it end like this."

She inched her hand towards her pocket, never letting her eyes stray away from his face.

"I must," Karai said stubbornly, inserting as much venom as possible. "In memory of my father, I must."

"You don't have to!" Leo replied, almost sounding sad. "All you have to do is walk away."

Her hand was in her pocket. Leo's eyes flickered towards it and he quickly put his foot onto her forearm.

"Nice try." He smirked. "Did you really think you could use one of your tricks on me?"

Karai looked into his eyes, unnerved. "I have no tricks."

"Then what did you try to take out of your pocket?"

She didn't say anything. Leo gritted his teeth.

"Call off your ninjas now, Karai. I mean it."

Karai noticed that he was using the majority of his weight to keep her right arm planted to the ground. Her left one was free. In fact, both her legs were free. His feet were between her legs. He must have thought it would be discourteous to stand on a woman's legs.

Her knees shot to her chest and Karai's legs lashed out, knocking Leo off his feet. She jumped up, ignoring the searing pain in her neck. She simply placed the back of her hand against it.

The grey on the back of her glove was red. It looked like it was time to retreat and see if her idea worked.

Leo, who had dropped his katana upon landing a few feet away, picked them up and ran towards her. Karai widened her eyes and reached into her pocket...

And threw some black panties at his face.

"What the-?" Leo pulled them off and looked at his hands. His cheeks darkened.

Ruffles. What little of it there was lined with ruffles. How did Karai fit into them? He told his mind off for trying to answer that for him. They were translucent as well. What was the point of wearing panties if you could just about see through them as well? Again, he had to scold his mind for trying to be helpful.

Then, he realised Karai had vanished and kicked himself. What a cheap trick.

"Hey, Leo!"

His skeleton nearly breaking through his skin, Leo stuffed the panties into his belt and whipped around. His brothers had taken care of all the Foot ninjas, who had escaped and left the rooftop in the state they had arrived on it in. Why did his brothers have to be such good fighters? A few more seconds and maybe he could have thought of something...

"Where did Karai go?" asked Don. The younger three brothers began looking around simultaneously in case she was hiding. Leo thought they looked ridiculous. As if Karai was hiding behind an air vent or something equally stupid.

"She fled," said Leo. What? It was true.

"I can't blame her; we are awesome," Mikey commented, punching the air. "When we get home, who wants to have some of my speciality? It's called 'Le Foot Suck'."

"That sounds wrong," replied Don as they walked away.

Karai's head poked up from behind an air vent and she watched them leave. She would have to give Chaplin a pay rise.

TMNTNMT

It was when Leo had returned home that he remembered he still had Karai's panties in his belt. He stood in the middle of his room and held them out in front of him. Leo: the leader, the older brother, the turtle who had learned to spell his name first, simply couldn't let his family find out about them. He had to get rid of them... but how?

Leo could have kept them in his room, but what if someone came in and found them? Panties. In his room. Would that raise any questions?

"Leo? You plan on giving me back my deodorant any time soon? April nearly barfed."

The door of said turtle's room opened and Raph walked in, not bothering to knock or be polite. Or go away when it was obvious his brother was currently elsewhere. Raph instead surveyed the room, entering it further.

Picking at the top of his head, he tried to figure out where someone as organised as Leo would keep his deodorant. If the place had been a mess, he could have started his search anywhere. But no... everything was somewhere.

"Uh..." He looked both ways before opening a drawer full of papers. Raph's mouth slanted as his hand swam in the papers, not expecting to fish anything out. "Nope."

He withdrew his hand and felt something feathery slither down his arm. Raph looked and felt his eyes increase in size at the... thing. The black, poofy... thing that wasn't just a thing but...

After a few moments of stunned silence, Raph grinned. "Blackmail time."

Leo wondered whether he could give them to April as a present.

"Here, April, I got these for you!" said Leo, holding out a newspaper-wrapped bundle. April took it and ripped it open.

"Panties!" she exclaimed. She looked at him sideways. "Don't you think this is a bit... well, perverse? I mean, you buying a fully grown woman panties?"

"I am the mature leader of my clan!" announced Leo, pointing upwards.

April nodded. "That's true." She examined them closely and suddenly sniffed. "Wait." April narrowed her eyes. "These are USED panties."

"What?" said Leo, cowering away. "How can you tell?"

She began sniffing them again and Leo got a full view of her nostrils. "They are used! Hamato Leonardo, how dare you give me used panties! Wait until I tell your master!"

Bad idea. Besides, could Leo keep his sanity imagining April wearing Karai's underwear? No. He couldn't.

Leo scratched his chin. Could he throw them away with the rest of his family's garbage?

"That was easy," said Leo, slapping his hands clean of the dust that had mysteriously appeared on them. He began to whistle and started for the kitchen door, a spring in his step.

"Meow."

Leo paused, glancing over his shoulder. "Oh, hey, Klunk."

Klunk meowed again and began circling the garbage can, his slender tail brushing against it. Leo turned around and watched, arms out and elbows pointing upwards. The cat ignored him, quickening his pace and hitting his tail against the bin more rapidly.

It wobbled with each touch.

"What are you doing?" asked Leo, running towards Klunk. The cat shrieked, darting out of the way at the last moment and causing Leo to fall on his face as his attempt to catch the feline failed. There was a 'clomp!' as his forehead made impact with the plastic bin. It fell towards him and smothered the turtle in leftovers and fluff.

"Klunk? Are you okay?"

Leo twisted his head so he had a better view of Mikey, who ran into the kitchen with his arms flailing. The jade green turtle skidded to a stop and sent some potato peelings flying with his left foot. He blinked a few times at Leo's face, his eyes saucers.

Confused, Leo lifted his hand to remove whatever was on his head. He felt something sinisterly ruffley and didn't remove his fist from the top of his cranium, his face slowly imploding as Mikey's eyes threatened to explode.

Leo shook the image out of his head. So that wasn't the most well-thought out idea he had ever conjured. Surely, surely, there was some way that he wouldn't be forced to keep these panties in his possession for the rest of his life?

Dumping them in the sewers?

"Look what I caught whilst scavenging!" announced Don, entering the lair with a fishing rod over his shoulder and squeaking swamp green boots on his feet. He held up the panties.

"Whoa!" Mikey gasped, prodding them. He blinked a few times before looking directly at Leo. "Eh... are you okay? You look like you've seen a..."

Leo gulped and could feel his cheeks burning. His three brothers widened their eyes and pointed at him as realisation dawned onto their faces.

Burning them?

Leo aimed the flame thrower at-

He remembered he didn't have a flame thrower.

Leo aimed the lit match at the panties. The smoke alarm went off and Casey charged into the room, fire extinguisher in his hands. Foam erupted out of it and drenched everything in the room. Leo coughed, wiping his eyes with the back of his hands.

"Yo, you all right, Leo?" asked Casey. "What happened? Anythin' burnt?"

"No, everything is fine," said Leo. "I was just... uh, lighting a candle."

Guilt appeared on Casey's face like drapes falling. He began shovelling foam into his bare arms, getting it all down his front. "Heh, sorry about the mess..." He furrowed his brow as he felt something that was not foam in his hand and picked out the panties. Casey held them above his head. He squinted at them.

"It's not what it looks like!" Leo told him. "I-I found them! Honest! I was just going to get rid of them when... you won't tell anyone, right?"

Casey lowered his head and shot Leo his best Cheshire Cat impression. Then, bellowing joyfully as if this was the highlight of his life, he staggered out of the room and waved the panties like a flag. "Yo, guys! Check out what Mr. Responsible has in his room!"

Cutting them up?

Leo, who was kneeling on his bed, took a mouthful of the panties with his pair of scissors. He narrowed his eyes, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth without his consent.

"Leonardo!" The door creaked open and Splinter's full body emerged. "I was gardening and wondered how long you would-?"

He stopped. His mouth opened slightly. Leo did nothing but stare back.

Splinter backed away and closed the door.

"Darn you, Karai," hissed Leo as he closed his fist, bunching up the panties. "Darn you."

tmntnmt

Karai clinked her glass of champagne against Chaplin's.