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This is not how Karai had imagined her day going when she woke up this morning.
Several feet below her is the same tank of mutagen that stripped her of her humanity all that time ago, and tied to her back is the hotheaded turtle, Raphael. It seems he hasn’t woken up yet, still taken out by whatever drugs were in the darts they got hit with. How they got captured is still fuzzy, and she doesn’t even have time to think about that right now. Below her, Tigerclaw and the mutated forms of Bradford and Xever battle it out with the rest of the turtles, Stockman– human once more– tapping away at a screen connected to the mutagen tank.
The lab is run down and dirty, the outside of the tank having been unmaintained since the last battle that’d been fought here. Stockman was forced to abandon the place after Karai’s mutation, and it definitely hasn’t been touched since the battle with those alien dinosaurs. The chains that bind her to the turtle are rusted and old, and she’s getting nervous about their ability to hold their weight.
Karai feels around for a kunai or her wakizashi, but their enemies weren’t so foolish as to not do an in-depth search of their unconscious bodies before tying them up. She looks down and spots Leo attempting to reach the catwalks, but Xever kicks him hard with his robotic legs, sending him flying back to the ground.
“Leo!” She shouts, then hears a groan from the turtle behind her.
“Huh– What the– What the shell?” Raphael immediately seems to panic, kicking out his legs and making the chains rattle.
“Knock it off, meathead!” She hisses at him, skin beginning to turn white and pale as panic sets in.
“Karai? What happened?”
“I don’t remember, and that’s not important right now! We have to figure out how to get out of here!”
Karai watches the battle below, thankful to see the turtles actually seem to be gaining some ground. Donatello and Michelangelo are teaming up against Bradford while Leo somehow manages to defend himself against Tigerclaw and Xever. Those two must be out of practice.
She loses her hope when Tigerclaw shouts, “Xever! Now!”
The fish doesn’t respond, simply leaps up onto the catwalk in one massive bound. Leo attempts to give chase, but Tigerclaw grabs him by the foot and slams him to the ground. Xever leaps onto the chain above them, causing them to swing over the mutagen.
“When I get my hands on you, you slimy son of a–” Raphael's threats are cut off by a click, quiet yet somehow deafening.
“No!” The turtles shout in unison as Karai and Raphael plummet into the tank of mutagen.
The ooze suffocates and burns as it fills her mouth and her nose. The mutant behind her struggles, muffled screams barely audible over Karai’s own. Her bones contort and her flesh sloughs off in sheets like her snake shed. Then, suddenly, the agony is increased tenfold. She feels limbs that are not hers, phantoms that thrash about and slam into the glass of the tank. Karai feels as though she weighs as much as an elephant and eventually she’s pressed up against the glass of the tank until it cracks and shatters, unable to hold their mass. The mutagen rushes out of the tank and over the floor before a roar shatters her eardrums. She turns to the source of the sound and sees the head connected to her at the shoulder, green speckled with silver scales, a sharp beak open in rage with white eyes narrowed. The humanity in the other turtle's eyes seems vanquished to an extent, overcome by the fury that had always boiled beneath his skin. Karai feels it too– she's not sure if it's his rage or her own, but it doesn't matter. There are monsters who need to pay for what they have done. Shredder's mutant minions will not get their revenge, but Karai will have hers.
Karai’s eyes find a target at the same time Raphael’s do.
“They must– pay.” Raphael growls.
“Sssuffer!” Karai hisses, her three heads each launching at one of the mutants– her left at Xever, her right at Bradford, and herself at Stockman. It seems Raphael had the same target, and the turtle's head slams hard into her own.
“Idiot! He’sss mine!”
Raph just roars then turns his attention to Tigerclaw. They all look like ants from up here, and Karai focuses on her attacks instead of the idiot she is now a part of. She slams her snout into Stockman, knocking him over with ease– she could swallow him whole.
She pulls her head back to slam it into the human but her attention is dragged away when she hears a scream of terror from none other than Tigerclaw. Karai watches in horror as Raphael slams one of his– their three-fingered hands into the mutant, knocking him out of the air and into the floor back first, seemingly destroying his jetpack. Then the turtle picks up the tiger by the foot and throws him into the air, catching him in his open mouth. It seems they’d had the same thought, but he actually acted on it.
Karai’s tail lashes about and, suddenly, she feels something hit by it. Turning around she finds Leo, grabbing onto the holographic scales.
“Leooo– go!”
“I’m not leaving you guys here!”
“Get out, now!” Raphael roars. It seems the turtle is in control of their locomotion, since the arms and legs once belonged to him, and they’re sent barreling forwards after Rahzar. Blinded by rage, Karai slams her left head into Stockman. He tumbles to the floor and can’t get up in time– he’s crushed beneath the mutant's foot.
Rahzar yelps, ears pinned back as he tries to flee, but it barely takes two strides to cross the warehouse in this new form. Karai snaps one of her mutated teeth into the mutated dog's flesh, eliciting a pained yelp, before dangling the mutant over Raph’s snout. His mouth opens and she drops the stupid dog in. He should have stayed dead the first time.
“Fishface!” Raphael screams, so low it reverberates.
Karai looks around, but all she sees are the turtles fleeing and casting backwards glances in their direction.
“Find him.” Raphael growls.
Justice. Revenge. Mercy. All the lives the Shredder and his goons have ruined, all the lives she once helped to ruin. Oroku Saki fell to Leonardo’s sword but his goons remained unpunished, one still worshipping his shattered memory. Killing them is a mercy, a release. Xever will be punished, yes, and since he will not see the gift he is being given, the gift of release from his mutant form, Karai will see it given to him. Then, perhaps, they too will be worthy of that gift. A matter for another time.
“Fffind him.” Karai concurs.