Dragon Lore
By Kali Gargoyle
Chapter one: A new player
***
"Mikey!"
If one had blinked they would have missed the green and orange blur that streaked across the room, followed by a green, red, and pink blur.
Leonardo looked up in time to see Michaelangelo dive behind his chair. The turtle leader looked up at Raphael, who was very angry, and very pink.
"What happened to you?" Leo asked, returning his attention to his book.
"Mikey rigged a bucket of paint above my door. Move so I can kill him."
Leo sighed as he heard Mike giggle. "Just leave him, Raph. You should go clean off that paint before it dries, or it’ll itch like crazy."
Raph just grumbled as he headed for the bathroom. There would be plenty of time later to get his revenge on Mike. Michaelangelo, meanwhile, left his hiding place and patted Leo on the shoulder.
"Thanks, bro."
"I wouldn’t be here when he gets out if I were you."
Michaelangelo thought this over for a minute. "I’m gonna go get take out. From that place Raph likes." He turned and bumped into Venus on his way out.
"Oops, sorry babe."
Venus narrowed her eyes. "Don’t call me ‘babe’!"
"Uh, right, bye."
Leo only shook his head and set his book down. "Hey, Venus, what’s up?"
"I’m not sure. I felt something strange while meditating. I have a bad feeling that something is going to happen."
Leo shrugged off Venus’ premonition. "It’s probably nothing," he told her. When the look on her face didn’t change, he added, "At least nothing we can’t handle."
Venus did not look convinced at all.
***
A lone figure sat up in the shadowed rafters of the room. The room below was elaborately decorated. Fit for royalty. The figure shrank back into the shadows as the door to the room opened and a cloaked figure walked in.
"I must have those turtles!" The Dragon Lord ranted to his sidekick.
"We will your majesty," Wick replied.
The Dragon Lord turned. "We?"
"I…I meant you! Only you, your majesty!"
The Dragon Lord went back to pacing. "They must have a weakness."
The figure in the rafters smiled and faded away.
***
(Later that night)
"Let’s move, guys! The system shows dragon activity nearby," Donatello called from his workstation. He grabbed his bo and headed out to the garage. The others jumped up from their various activities and headed for their vehicles.
"It's Green Time!"
***
"Okay. This is a first."
Leonardo surveyed the alleyway. He counted five Rank soldiers, which was not surprising. The shocking part was that they were all unconscious.
"Dudes, someone beat us to it!" Michaelangelo exclaimed.
"You think?" Raph snapped.
Donatello scratched his head. "Well, something happened here."
"There's no trace of whoever did this," Venus said.
"Let's go, guys," Raph said, heading towards his motorcycle. Mike and Donnie jumped up into the Hummer.
"Hold it!" Leo said. "We need to find whoever did this. They could be trouble."
Raph rolled his eyes. "Yeah, for the Rank. Anyone who can take out five of those losers is okay by me."
"I agree with Raph, Leo," said Don. "I mean, this is the Rank. You know, the enemy of my enemy."
Leo sighed and looked at Venus. She was looking at one of the fallen Rank soldiers with a distant look in her eyes.
"Venus, are you alright?" He put his hand on her shoulder.
She jumped. "I'm having that feeling again. Whatever did this is very powerful."
"Dangerous?" Leo asked, narrowing his eyes.
"I don’t know."
They headed back to the Hummer, unaware of the dimly glowing red eyes watching their every move.
***
The Dragon Lord could not contain his rage as his defeated soldiers stumbled into their headquarters.
"Let me guess. The Turtles' interfered."
"No. A human. In black."
"One human!" he screamed. "Seven against one and you could not defeat one human!" The minion barely managed to dodge the fire blast from the enraged dragon.
***
Donatello watched his screen with interest. The turtles were all accounted for in the lair, even Raphael, for once. The Rank showed no real activity. However, he watched a smaller blip blink. First it was one place, then it would disappear and appear someplace else. This had been going on for the last fifteen minutes or so before he decided to go check it out.
He found Leo and Raph sparring. "Hey guys, something weird is going on. I'm gonna check it out, wanna come?"
Leo blocked a punch from Raph. "Weird how?"
"Well, I've picked up an unidentified blip but it keeps disappearing."
"So? Maybe your computer's got a bug," Raphael said.
Donnie rolled his eyes. "I already did a diagnostic scan. Nevermind, I'll see if Venus and Mike want to go."
The two sparring turtles shrugged and went back to fighting.
***
"Over here." Donnie moved silently down an alley holding a portable version of his tracking system.
"What are we looking for?" Mike asked, again.
Venus shushed him, then whispered, "Anything unusual."
Donnie looked down the street. "I think we missed it. I'm not picking it up now. There's only some human waiting for a bus."
Mike looked at the human. "The buses stopped running this line two hours ago."
"Maybe he doesn't know," Venus said.
"Well, then maybe we should - hey! Where'd he go?" They all looked back to the bus stop, but no one was there.
"Was that unusual?" Mike asked.
"I can't see where he went," Don mumbled to himself.
Venus shivered. "I have a bad feeling about this. Like when the Rank was attacked."
"Could this be the guy?" Mike asked.
"I'm not sure."
***
Back pressed up against the fire escape ladder, an invisible figure looked down upon the three turtles below. They were starting to suspect. That could be trouble.
The female turtle looked up. Oh my, can the Shinobi see me? The figure chuckled at the thought.
It didn't matter, since the other two dragged her away. The figure caught a glimpse of their thoughts as they left. No, they would be no trouble.
***
"Three more soldiers gone!"
Wick backed up. "Unfortunately, yes, my Lord."
"That is unacceptable. Three nights since the first attack and not a night has gone by that I don't lose soldiers!"
"Apparently, this person doesn't like you very much."
The Dragon Lord clenched his fist. "It cannot possibly be a human, nor is it the turtles. We must find this assassin and destroy them!" He thought for a moment. "Bring me Quease. Perhaps one of his machines can help me."
***
"Okay, here's what we know. Someone's been taking on the Rank," Leo stated.
"And winning," Mike added.
"And winning," Leo continued. "There's no trace of whoever did it. Donnie's picked up a new blip on the tracking system, which is probably our suspect. And since they show up, they aren't human. But we can't find the source because it keeps disappearing. And then there're Venus' premonitions."
"That's it?" Raphael asked.
"Unfortunately, that's all we have to go on," Don answered.
"Could it be Bonesteel? I mean a dragon'd go for a lot of money," Raph suggested.
"No," Leo answered. "Our suspect's not human, remember? Besides, he's not this good."
"It's someone with magical abilities," Venus said. "I sense that they are very powerful, but I don't think we're in any harm."
Raphael bit back a comment about how reliable Venus' powers were. Instead, he replied, "For now. Maybe they'll come after us when they're finished offing the Rank."
"No, I don't think so," Venus argued.
Leo interrupted whatever Raph was going to say next. "We don't have enough to go on. We'll keep doing what we've been doing until we get some more information."
Suddenly Venus snapped her head up. "Someone's here." Everyone got into ready positions, waiting for whatever was intruding upon their home.
After a moment, Donatello relaxed. "The security system would have detected something."
"Let's search," Leo commanded. They all went in separate directions to find whatever Venus had detected and the security system had not.
***
Splinter was awakened from his meditation by a loud crash. He left his room. Right outside the door, several items were scattered on the floor, with Michaelangelo sitting among them.
"Michaelangelo, my son, are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine. Venus says there's someone here, but Donnie's computer didn't pick up anything. We're searching."
"I will join you," Splinter said, helping his son up. They walked by Venus, standing in the doorway to her room.
"It's here," she whispered. They entered the room and looked around, but could see nothing. There wasn't really a place to hide in the small car.
"Shut the door," Splinter told Michaelangelo. Just as the turtle moved to shut it, a blade whooshed by his head and embedded itself into the doorframe. There was still no sign of the intruder.
Michaelangelo moved to shut the door again, but something slammed into him, knocking him flat on his face. The attack made the intruder visible and they fled out the still-open door. A shadow in black. Venus couldn't even make out the basic figure, they were moving so fast.
"Stop!" Venus yelled. The intruder ignored the command and leapt into the main room. Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael, who had been alerted by the sound, rushed into the room, weapons ready.
"Hold it!" The intruder stopped centimeters from Leo's katana, now aimed at her throat. The intruder jumped backwards onto the couch and used it as a trampoline to sail over the turtles. She landed gracefully and barely paused before sprinting towards the exit.
"After him!" They all took off after the black-clad thief, although Mike fell behind because he hadn't quite recovered from his encounter with the floor.
Raphael was right behind the intruder, and catching up. He saw the shadowy figure turn a corner and followed.
BAM!
Raphael rubbed his beak. "Damn it! Who put this wall here?" Wait. A wall? A dead-end? There's no way that guy could have escaped him.
"Where is he?" Donnie asked as the rest of the team finally caught up. "I thought I saw him come down here."
"I'm sure he did," Venus said.
"He didn't just disappear!" Raphael yelled at the wall.
"He could have," Venus said. "He was invisible until he hit Mikey. He could have used magic."
"How do we find him now?" Mike asked.
"We go back. Maybe he left a clue," Leo said. "At least we can found out what he was doing in Venus' room."
***
"I'm fine dudes," Mikey complained as Donatello checked him for injuries.
"It's not like he hurt anything he uses," Raphael chuckled. Michaelangelo shot him an unamused glance and shoved Donatello away. Venus wandered in with a confused look on her face.
"What's up, Venus?" Mike asked. "Did ya find anything?"
"That's just it. Nothing's missing, and everything's exactly how I left it. Neater in fact."
"Huh?" Donnie scratched his chin. "Then what was he after."
"I'm afraid," said Splinter as he entered the room. "That we will find out soon enough,"
***
On an abandoned street a manhole cover slowly scraped against the street as it was slid out of the way to let someone through. After looking around, the figure replaced the cover and retreated into the shadows.
They climbed silently up a nearby fire escape and crawled into a window on the top floor. As soon as feet touched floor, the figure pulled off her mask.
"That was easier than I thought," the thief chuckled. She pulled a small camera from the pouch on her belt and set it on the table.
***