warning: not intended for munchkins. Adult situations, violence and nasty language follow.

Chapter Three: Cat and Mouse

Cause we're brothers, brothers, brothers
I don't approve of anything you do
Cause we're brothers, brothers, brothers
Cain and Abel and me and you...

They've done nothing, Isamu rehearses in his head. Let them go. You only want me and my mother. If they're lucky, Satoru won't go through their things, won't make the Hamato connection. But only if they're lucky...

"But it looked like the Foot," Karai repeats.
"Yeah," Raph says.
"And you've had no trouble with New York."
"None for a year or so, and that was with a splinter group..."
She frowns. "What kind of trouble?"
"They were looking for Oroku Mgume," Don says. "They should... no longer be a problem."
Karai scans their impassive faces and wonders what they're not telling her.
"Look," Leo says impatiently, "if you're right, then Japan's been looking for Isamu for a long time ... this may just have given them the break they needed."
Don asks, "Why would Japan want him?"
"What do you mean?" Karai is as good at hiding her reactions as they are.
"Satoru's in charge of Japan, correct?"
Karai nods.
"He's the eldest; he has a clear line of succession, he's evidently a fairly good leader... what kind of threat is Isamu?"
"Isamu isn't a threat, in Satoru's eyes. He's an insult."
Don leans back a little. "What kind of insult?"
"To his father; to his father's honor. Satoru and his sister were legitimate heirs of the noble families of the Foot; Isamu... is different."
"Doesn't seem worth killing him," Mike says.
"You don't think the way Satoru does."
Something in the way she says it tips Leo off. "You..." He stands up. When he finally speaks, his voice is somewhere between bewilderment and rage. "You told him, didn't you?"
Karai doesn't say anything; her gaze shifts from Don to the bag at the end of the training room.
Leo stands up. "You told him..."
Don, Mike and Raph look at each other nervously, no longer part of the conversation, no longer even acknowledged.
"It was a gamble," she says coldly. "I was trying to get some time... I bet, and I lost."
He puts his hand to his temple, pulls it back across his head. "You told him, so he could decide to... what was it, Karai?" He spreads both his hands out to her. "What did I do, that I was the only one-- in Japan-- who didn't know he was my son?"
"If you had known," she asks, "would you have left Japan without him?"
"Never," he says without hesitating.
"Then why are you asking?" She looks up at him and their eyes meet. "We both knew it would never last, that something was going to come between us... do you really wonder? I had already lost a daughter... do you think I wanted to risk losing my son?"
Mike takes a deep breath and looks out the window; Raph pulls his sai out of his belt, balances the point on his fingertip. Don frowns at him.
Leo's hands sink back down. His mouth moves, but he doesn't say anything.
"Don," he says finally. "You must need a cigarette by now..."
"Yeah," Don says, and gets up to join his brother on the fire escape.
"Too late to go out now, unless we use the sewers," Mike says. "We know he wants Isamu as bait... what will he do with the others?"
"He'll keep them alive," she says. "He'll want them as bargaining chips."
Raph asks, "Are you sure of that?"
Karai shakes her head. "But it's what I would do... and what his father would have done."

What's going on?
Nothing. Go back to sleep.
Dad, I know--
It's nothing that concerns you, Keishi. Go back to sleep.
"Nothing," in his father's words, translates to a girl who seems to be his age and three older kids, trapped in the electronic restraints of the interrogation room. Keishi knows he's not supposed to be in the interrogation room, but he's never seen anyone so young in there before... Dad must be really mad at them.
He goes up to the youngest girl.
"What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," Ookami hisses.
"You must have done something bad," the boy persists. "Dad wouldn't have brought you here if you hadn't done something bad."
"I was walking down the street with my brother--"
"Hey," Isamu says softly. "Satoru's your father?"
"Yeah," the kid says, turning to face him.
"What's your name?"
"Keishi."
"I'm your uncle," Isamu says. "Satoru's my half-brother. That's why they're here...'cause they were with me. Your dad's mad at me..."
Keishi squints up at him. He does look a lot like his father... "Why?"
"Because... because your grandmother made him angry."
"But..."
"It's a long story, Keishi. Look, do you know what your father's planning to do with them?" Isamu tilts his head toward his cousins.
Keishi shakes his head.
"Your dad and I don't get along, but that doesn't mean we couldn't be friends, right?"
"I don't know..."
"Well, it's not going to hurt anything if you find out, right?"
Keishi shakes his head again.
"If you hear anything, will you come back and tell me?"
"I... I don't know if I should."
"That's okay Keishi. If you do find out, and you want to tell me, I'd be really grateful, but it's all right if you don't."
"Oh... okay."
Keishi scampers off.

"What kind of trouble did you have?"
Mike frowns at her, confused.
"You said you'd had trouble with the Foot, some splinter group--"
"They busted in on a party of ours. Killed a couple people."
"Anyone--"
Mike nods. "Don'd been livin' with a guy... what was it, seven years?"
"Longer, Lupe's eight now..."
"Musta been eight years, more or less."
"I never figured that out, why they left that note... Leo always figured they were plannin' on hittin' us again, getting us scared, but..."
"Yeah. I know. Still seemed like... a waste."
"You can say that again," Raph says darkly.
"So where is she now?"
"Who?"
"Kir-- Oroku Mgume."
"The Girl of a Thousand Aliases?" Mike shrugs his shoulders. "Ya got us. She stops in once in a while, makes sure we're still alive. But as for her day-to-day location..." he shakes his head. "We figured we were all better off if we didn't know that."
Karai snorts. "We all would have been better off had the Oroku family never existed."
"Raph," Mike says, but he's already too late--
"Seems to me," Raph growls, all but leaping across the table, "that you oughta start watchin' what you say."
Mike jumps up to help her, but she's already striking at Raph's face. Raph snarls at her, catches her chair with his leg so her body slams to the floor with him.
"Raph," Mike says, "come on--" He can hear the window shutting.
"What the hell--"
"Body's movin' faster than his brain," Mike tells Leo.
"I still don't understand." Karai moves back a little, keeping her eyes on Raphael.
"You'll figure it out soon enough, after that..." Mike gestures at the pictures on the wall. "One a those is Carlos with his sister... go ahead, take a look."
Her gaze scans across the photos, finally lands on a photograph. After a moment, her eyes widen. "No," she says softly. "I would have seen that... knowing the daughter, especially. I'm sorry, Raphael. I didn't realize."
The anger on Raph's face transforms into concern. "You think... will Satoru see it?"
"I hope not."
"We gotta find them," Raph says. "And we gotta find 'em soon."
"But during the day..."
"Don," Raph says. "He tried to rape her mother, and when he couldn't have her..."
Karai looks up at Leo in shock. "What?"
"Wasn't any point in telling you," Leo tells her.
"Wasn't any point?"
Mike darts between them, puts a hand on each of their shoulders. "Look," he says. "We can argue, or we can try to keep our kids alive. Which do ya wanna do?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Isamu leans back in his bonds, trying to stretch his arms. "How long you think..."
"Gotta be hours," Angela answers him. "Must be daytime, now... what do you think he's doing?"
"Getting us tired, weakening us. Waiting for my mother..."
"Will she come?"
Isamu nods. "He knows that, too."
"You think she'll find--"
"Depends. If she thinks she can get help, she will."
"What about the yakuza?"
"Depends."
"Depends on what?"
"If there's an alliance, she won't be able to jeopardize it. They'll consider it to be between her and Satoru."
"And he'd know that."
Isamu nods again.

"Security system's down," Don says into the transmitter. "I'll shut all the other electricity, other vital systems down as I get to 'em."
"But we ought to get started," Leo says. "We know the floor plan, we know where we think things are... that's as good as it's gonna get, guys. Let's move."

"Shadow, come here, help me, Raven--"
"Mom?"
"Call 911. We need an ambulance. Now."

"Isamu," Satoru says. "It has been a long time since I last saw you. I almost hoped I would not see you again."
"Brother," Isamu says softly, remembering suddenly the reasons he loved him, the games they used to play...
"You're not my brother."
"We share a mother."
"What does that slut matter?"
"Well," Angela says, "actually in Jewish culture, most things are passed through the mother..."
"I don't remember asking you," he snaps at her.
"I don't remember being asked to be strapped to the wall, but..."
Satoru's glare silences her. He turns back to Isamu.
Angela hears the faint sound, like something being unplugged almost... she moves her wrist within the shackle. No crackle. She glances over at Carlos, doing the same thing. They nod at each other.
Satoru strikes his brother across the face. "Your blood is tainted with that creature's-- "
Ookami whispers over to her cousin: "What's he saying?"
"He's saying 'cause he's Leo's kid, he's not really his brother," Angela tells her. "What bull..."
"Why? 'Cause Leo's a turtle?"
"Yeah."
"Not even human," Satoru snarls.
"Hey," Ookami calls out.
"'Kami," Carlos murmurs through his wounds. "No..."
"He's not human 'cause he's he's part turtle?"
Satoru turns toward her, and Carlos rips his wrist out of the socket. He's lucky; no pop. Angela watches him grimace, asks in Spanish, "Should we try it?"
"Only chance," he says, ripping the wound on his mouth apart by the action.
"Sorry," she says to Isamu, in English She closes her eyes, tries to block out the pain. Her right wrist is free, now for the left...
Carlos manages to put his wrist back in, grimaces with the effort.
"Then he's not the only one in here," Ookami hisses.
Satoru turns to stare at her. Carlos and Angela freeze. "What in the name..."
He leans down, closer to her face, and Carlos takes the moment to free his other wrist. "Ready?" he asks Angela in Spanish.
"Can't kill us both," she answers. At once anyway, she adds to herself.
Ookami spits at him, hard, and it hits the bridge of his nose.
He wipes the spit away with one hand, slaps her with his right... and his eyes show a glimmer of recognition. He tilts her chin up to his face, holding her mouth closed. "That whore," he whispers, almost to himself. "I wasn't good enough for her..."
"Ahora," Carlos whispers. Now. He leaps for Satoru, and Angela dives across the room to Isamu. She takes a few seconds, scans the controls, finds a manual release.
Just in time by the sounds; she can hear Carlos cry out. The restraints click open, and he smiles at her gratefully.
"Lot easier than the way you guys did it."
"Worked," she says grimly, and turns her attention back to Satoru-- and Carlos, over in the corner, the pain showing across his face.
"You little bastard--"
"Stay away from my sister," Carlos threatens, but his voice is shaky.
Angela asks in Spanish, "How good is he?"
"Too good."
"Merde."
"You get her out," Isamu says. "I'll do what I can."

"Tell me," Karai says, holding her katana at one of the ninja's throats. "Where are you keeping--"
"Karai-san?"
"My son," she growls. "Where is he?"
"Isamu's here?"
"Yes," she bluffs. "The new prisoners..."
"That's why he wouldn't let us see them," he says.
"Where are they?"
"I--"
"Tell me where they are, Daichi."

The world is darkening...
Should have known he'd lose. Should have known... no weapons, only people he's fought against are his mother and her yakuza goons, and Mom's not getting any younger... His cousins have been yelling at each other in Spanish, trying to find the way out, he guesses. He hopes they make it...
Then the youngest one's yelling, screaming...
They're attacking Satoru--

"All at once," Carlos says again in Spanish.
"Si," Angela replies, turns around. They stalled almost too long; Isamu's hardly even conscious.
Be easier if we had any weapons, Angela thinks to herself, dodging the blow from Satoru's sword but feeling the air swipe by her.
She hears the door crash open behind her.
Great, she thinks with her uncle's cynicism. Just what we need. Reinforcements...

Karai's in first, running to her son, Raph taking care of the Foot guarding the door. "Not much of a trainer, your kid," he mutters under his breath.
This whole thing has gone too easy, and it makes him nervous.
Satoru has backed off, is moving toward the other door, raising his katana to ward any attackers off. Let 'im, Raph thinks, knowing Mike and Leo are coming in from the other side.
His kids are already running toward him. He can see Isamu's been hurt, pretty badly. Almost reassures him. Maybe this is as bad as it gets...
Then he gets a good look at Carlos.
And then he sees Lupe.
He is dimly aware of Mike and Leo breaking into the side, of Satoru doing something by the wall... Leo running to Isamu, taking him from Karai...
Raphael kneels down, looks at the bruise already darkening on his daughter's face. "He did this?"
She nods.
He stands up. "Get the kids out of here," he says. "Now."
"Right," Mike says, catching the tone in his voice. "C'mon, guys," he says. "Let's go."
Carlos stands at the door. "Dad?"
"Go."
Leo adjusts his son's unconscious body on his shoulder. "Raph?"
"I gave you Saki," Raph says, his eyes staring straight ahead. "This one's mine."

"Ms. O'Neil?"
She looks up. God, he looks young. "Yes?"
"I'm Dr. Lambert. Could you come with me, please?"

Keishi is hiding behind the door. He'd come back to talk to Isamu, the one who said he was his uncle.
Instead, there's a monster attacking his father...
He shakes with fear, hoping he won't make a sound.

The building shakes.
"What the hell--"
"He's started the self-destruct program," Daichi says. "He must have triggered it when he realized the security was down..."
Leo asks, "What kind of self-destruct program?"
"Brings the whole building down on our heads."
"Your dad's gonna be ticked you lost his sai for good," Mike tells Ookami.
"Should get me some of my own," she says. "I'm sick of using the blunt stuff."
"You're just like your father," he sighs, knocking out their latest attacker.
"Hey, you're not letting me have any!"
"You got your butt kicked once already..."

"What the fuck--"
"The building," Satoru gasps. "It's programmed to self-destruct--"
"You're bluffing," he says, too deep in the rage to care anyway, slashing again at the animal that hurt his daughter...
Another sound, has to be an explosion.
"The whole building," Satoru says. "We'll both be dead."
"As long as you are," Raph snarls.
"Your kids feel that way too?"
For half a second, the slashing stops. He starts again, tries to tap into the fury, but Satoru's hit a nerve.
"What, are they not gonna miss their daddy?"
"You sonuva--"
He throws the sai, and it hits Satoru in the neck.
As he runs out another explosion shakes the building.
And then the screaming starts.
"No," he whispers. "No..."

Dammit, Don thinks to himself, I knew I shoulda gone in...
They'd thought it would be better to have someone on the outside, just in case...
They're a couple feet from the door. That's the worst part.
"Shit."
Mike has stopped screaming; his eyes are closed, and he's trying to regulate his breathing, trying to calm himself down. Angela has his hand. "It's gonna be okay," he says softly to her. "I'll be okay..."
"What the hell happened?"
Karai's tying something around Mike's leg. She looks up for a second, and nods at the debris behind them. "Half the wall's on his leg," she says. "I'm trying to stop the bleeding, but--"
Don kneels down and gets his first good look at the wound.
They'll never save his leg.
Leo asks, "What should--"
"Call an ambulance," Don says to him. "We can't fix this; he'll die."
"I can do that," Karai says. "You'll take over here?"
Don nods. "If we're lucky," he says, leaning over to take her place, "Raph's on his way out--"
And then he hears his brother's voice. "Mike..."
Don looks up. The pain on Raph's face is almost worse than Mike's. Raph leans down and takes his brother's free hand. "We're gonna get you out, buddy, it's gonna be okay-- "
"I know," Mike groans.
"What are--"
"We gotta call an ambulance," Don tells him, trying to keep his voice level and calm. "I'll go with him. You guys need to get the kids home."
"I want to stay with Mike," Raph says. He's almost dripping with blood.
Don does a couple quick calculations, and figures they'll all end up with their ass in jail they're not careful. "Here," he snaps, shoving their weapons over at Raph. "Take these. If the cops find anything... I'll keep a couple shuriken and ditch 'em when help comes, okay?"
"I'm not leaving him."
"You two have the kids," Don says. "Get them the hell out of here. If anyone guesses they really are yours..."
The stubborn determination on his face fades a little.
"Get out. Keep them safe. We'll need you anyway if anything goes wrong..."
"Mike," Raph says, touching his brother's arm, "I don't wanna leave ya, but..."
"Go," Mike whispers. "Please. If something happens... you'll take care of Angel, right? She'll need..."
"Mike. You hafta ask?"
They embrace each other for a second, and then Raph and the kids are gone.
Don tightens the tourniquet around Mike's leg and wonders how much longer they can hold on.

--end chapter three--

Contents are the property of phishtar, with the exception of the John Cougar Mellencamp quote; and of course many of the characters are the intellectual property of these guys. If you try to profit from any of this, good luck...you're gonna need it. If you'd like to link to this story, please link to the main page. If you'd like to reproduce this for any reason, email me and we'll talk. Your comments are welcome as well.