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Perseverance	By : EvaBrick Category: Comics > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Views: 9920 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Charlie walked back over to the house where the turtles were all laughing delightedly and slapping Donatello on the shell in celebration. Raphael and Michelangelo had put their masks and pads back on and they and they were carrying two arm fulls of different weapons. Leonardo stepped over to Charlie and hugged her. “You’re a blessing to us,” he whispered so the others couldn’t hear. The next moment, she found herself in the middle of a big group hug with strong arms and hard shells all around her. Her arms were completely pinned, so all she could do was rest her head on someone’s shoulder... possibly Raphael’s... she wasn’t sure.

“I love you guys, too,” she laughed, winking over Leo’s shoulder at Don, who was still grinning. “Y’know,” she said, “This is probably the safest I’ve ever been. I could probably survive a small bomb blast with all your shells around me.”

“You could never say that about a human guy,” Don said, proudly.

“Hey! Mikey shouted, “Who just grabbed my ass?” They all erupted into laughter and headed out onto the lawn, except for Charlie. She sat down on a deck chair to watch them, shivering slightly now that her turtle blanket was gone.

“If I wore sweaters I’d let you wear mine,” Don said earnestly as they started stretching. “There’s an afghan inside one the living room couch if you want to bring it out.”

“Thanks,” she said, hurrying in. She didn’t want to miss anything good. The last time she’d watched the turtles practice, she’d been blown away by their physical ability. Heck, just watching Don’s muscles flex and ripple while he stretched was turning her on and she hoped he wouldn’t notice. She grabbed the afghan and was back outside in less than a minute.

Don was thrilled that she was watching him as intently as she was. He stretched his legs slowly into a sideways splits and winked at her. Charlie wished she could do that. Then he put his palms flat in front of him on the ground and rolled himself forward, springing up into a handstand, while still doing the splits. He balanced himself on one hand, then one the other, like a gymnast. Charlie was thrilled.

Leo had to laugh. “The way he does that, you’d think he was the only one who could,” he said, repeating the same motions as his brother.”

“Kick fight!” Raph shouted, gleefully, hoping onto his hands, too. Mike followed suit a nanosecond later and the four of them walked on their hands toward each other, trying to knock the others down without losing their own balance. Charlie clapped and cheered them on.

“How’s the arm, Mike?” Don asked, standing on one hand to grab Raph’s belt. He pulled the red turtle off-centre until he hit the ground.

“A little stiff,” he admitted, kicking the purple turtle square in the chest, sending him to the ground. “Ha ha ha! Boom, Donnie!”

Leonardo kicked Mike in the back, winning the play fight, and gracefully stood himself back up.

“Mikey,” he said, “You seriously need to quit gloating when you win things. First of all, it’s not a part of a healthy mindset, and secondly, you get distracted and get your ass kicked.”

Mike rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know, I know, bro. I can’t break the habit.”

“Dat’s cause ya don’t try,” Raph snapped. “Now let’s get these Katas done so I can catch the new Simpsons episode.” He stepped away from them and stood like a soldier, facing the trees. Donatello smiled at Charlie and went to stand about ten feet in front of Raph, in the same motionless way. Leo stood next to Don and Mikey filed in next to Raph so that they formed a ten-by-ten square.

None of them seemed bothered by the exchange, Charlie noticed. They seemed very used to each other’s personalities and responses. Mike was a bit of a clown, Raph was cranky, Don was always thinking - he was the only one to hesitate to kick Mike in case he re-damaged the nearly-healed arm, and Leo pulled them all together.

Suddenly, Leo shouted something short and loud in Japanese and they all turned inward, bowing to each other. They snapped back to their original positions quickly and he shouted something else. Instantly they all dropped into the same attack position, and when he shouted again, they moved forward in a series of four quick steps and punches.

“Hai!” they all shouted on the last one, their voices deep and powerful. Then just as fast, they moved backwards in a series of blocks. Back and forth they moved, blocking and punching in perfect formation, occasionally giving that same shout. When they had finished, they stood, bowed forward, then dropped back into the attack position again.

Leo ordered them through exercise after exercise. Each seemed more complicated than the next, but the turtles still did them at an impressive speed with amazing strength. Charlie marveled that they could remember so much, each motion. She thought of what Raphael had showed her that afternoon and it dawned on her that what she was watching now was just the tip of the iceberg of their martial arts knowledge.

Finally, they must have finished the last one, because they turned and bowed to each other before heading off to the extra weapons, which Charlie noticed that they weren’t as nice or as well-cared for as the ones the turtles normally carried.

They each picked up a wooden katana, except for Leo, who took two. He tucked one into the back of his belt, and then Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo gathered around him and the four assumed different attack stances. This time, Raphael shouted something Japanese and then Michelangelo moved for Leonardo, in what looked like a highly-choreographed attack. Leonardo blocked each of his blows as if he knew where they were all going to fall. Then Raphael shouted something else and Donatello attacked his brother. Leo blocked it all easily and Don stepped back. Then Mike shouted something and Raph attacked. Again, Leo blocked, and Raph stepped back.

Charlie thought that it all moved like a dance and wondered how it could be much good as practice for a fight, since it was so slow. Leo pulled out the second sword and Raphael shouted something again, and the three attackers lunged at their brother, repeating their earlier movements, but at a super-speed. The wooden swords whacked loudly against each other as Leo moved quickly to defend himself, beating them all back, fighting three battles with two swords. His left sword twisted around Raph’s, sending it flying across the yard, before coming to rest at Don’s neck. His right sword poked into Mike’s thigh, then he spun around and tapped Raph’s neck. If this had been a real fight, he would have just killed two of his brothers and wounded the third, Charlie thought.

The brothers moved on, this time putting Mike in the middle and attacking him one-by-one with nun-chucks. As talented as Leo clearly was with a sword, Charlie found it even more interesting watching Michelangelo because she had already seen him in a real fight. In the last part of the exercise, where he took on all three of his brothers at once, it seemed a little slower and less vicious than the real fight had been that night when they’d met. She wondered if it was the same for Leonardo, too.

Next up was Raphael. Charlie had never seen anyone use sais before - not even in a movie - and wasn’t even sure what they were for. He held one by the handle and the other was flipped around backwards, with two of his three big fingers between the long blades. When his brothers attacked, this weird hold on his weapon meant that a sharp snap of his wrist gave his attacked a hard blow with the handle of the weapon. It also meant that he could throw it, as he turned quickly and did as a final move to back Donatello off. The weapon flew by the purple turtle’s face, lodging itself in the tree across the yard.

Charlie jumped when she saw it go sailing by her boyfriend like that. It could have killed him, but she knew that Raphael had aimed to the side of his brother’s head on purpose, just like Michelangelo had aimed to the left of the chalk figure’s chest. She put her head to one side, mulling this deliberately-missing-the-target thing over. It seemed to be a skill they’d learned. “He probably hit the tree to show Donnie that he could have hit him, if he’d wanted to,” she thought, “but if the tree had been another attacker, the tree would be dead and Raph could still fight Donnie by hand... interesting.”

Finally it was Donatello’s turn to stand in the centre. He twirled his bo around, almost lazily, blocking his brothers. It seemed like they weren’t trying very hard to attack him. Charlie couldn’t blame them. The bo had a much farther reach than any of the other weapons, and it had two ends to it - it was a totally different kind of weapon that the three others. It was hard for them to even get near Don. Leonardo noticed it too.

“Come on, guys, I know this part sucks, but we’re not doing him any favours by going easy on him.” Raphael and Michelangelo grumbled a little as they stepped back. Leo barked the order over again in Japanese and this time, they went tearing at him. Don’s bo made a low-pitched “woosh” sound as he spun it around quickly, slamming Mike hard in the plastron with a loud bang that sent the orange turtle sprawling. Another spin nailed Leo in the back, slamming him down onto his stomach. A final half-spin knocked Raph’s legs out from under him and he landed hard on his shell, leaving a dent in the lawn.

“This bo thing sucks so fucking much,” he grumbled, putting his hands on the ground above his head and flipping himself onto his feet.

“If it sucks so much,” Don said, still whirling the bow around gracefully, “how come I’m still standing?”

“Cause you’re fat and your centre of gravity is lower,” Mike grumbled, standing.

“It sucks, cause we hate getting our asses handed to us so much that we never practice it unless Splinter makes us, which, in turn, makes us worse,” Leo said, sitting up and looking a little dejected. He looked at Raph, who just sighed.

“I’ll catch the re-run,” he moped. Secretly, he was glad that Leo hadn’t just ordered them to practice even though they all knew they needed to.

Leo looked at Mike. “Don’t look at me, bro,” his little brother said. “It’s not like you’re taking me away from my girlfriend or anything.”

Leo looked at Don who had stopped spinning his bo and now looked like he was being tortured. “Aw, come on! I’m the only one who doesn’t suck at this! Don’t make me practice stuff I can do in my sleep!” He looked at Charlie, hopefully, like she could rescue him from doing boring drills. He wanted to make love to her, not practice spinning his bo around all night. A naughty thought crossed his mind about her spinning his bo around.

Leo looked at Charlie and she knew that this was an indirect test of how well she’d fit in with them. Their training was very important to their survival and had already been proven to be important to hers. She could be whiny and take Don away, but she knew he needed to stay with his brothers because they had to be able to work as a team. Charlie frowned a little, suddenly slightly annoyed with Don for wanting to sneak off with her, rather than support his teammates. She sighed inwardly... no, she wasn’t annoyed... she was flattered that she ranked the highest on his list of priorities, but it still wasn’t right.

She stood up and headed for the house. “I’m going to set the vcr to record The Simpsons for Raphael, then I’m going to make some coffee, then I’ll be back out. If you’re not practicing with your brothers when I get back, Donatello, I’ll be so mad at you that Shredder will look like Little Bo Peep next to me.”

Don’s eyes bugged out. Did she actually mean that? He looked at his brothers’ surprised faces. They didn’t know if she was serious or not, either, but Leo looked a little pleased.

Don grabbed Leo’s hand and dragged him to his feet. They had better get cracking, cause there was no way in hell that he was going to make that woman mad.
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Perseverance