PATH OF THE NINJA: ONE YEAR LATER
 

January 5, 2005.

"I hope you enjoyed your stay on Earth, highness. Have a pleasant trip home." Michelangelo said with a smile, bowing curteously to the High Princess of the planet Kadatha. She waved goodbye with a smile, and the Utrom transmat device enveloped she and her entourage in a brilliant flash of light.

Mike looked up at the clock. It was 5:30 in the afternoon. "Well, it's time for me to get going, guys." Mike motioned to his fellow facilitators with a nod. He removed his ornamental robe and headed toward the exit of the Utroms' base off the coast of Manhattan. A high-tech security device scanned his body and blinked a blink of approval. "Good evening, Facilitator Michelangelo Hamato," a computerized voice chimed at him. Mike chuckled and headed for the hover-vehicle that would take him back into the city.

As the vehicle soared across the water, Michelangelo was deep in thought. It had been over a year since Splinter had died of a heart attack. Even though it seemed like it happened in a dream, the pain of the event still tugged at Mike's heart like an ever-present weight. He didn't really show it, but he missed his father. A lot. How the others managed to cope with their sensei's demise was beyond him....

The 30 year old mutant immersed himself into his new job as a reorientation facilitator. He quite enjoyed meeting new alien beings and introducing them to North American culture. Occassionally, he found that he even had to play the role of bodyguard due to some of the human supremacist groups in the city. It was always exciting, and he was well-equipped for the task. He knew that the Oots had offered the job to him for a reason.

The hover-device docked onto the city port, and Mike deftly hopped off his ride. He waved goodbye to the Utrom pilot and headed toward his car. Mike began driving downtown. With luck, he should just be able to make his class on time...

About six months back, Mike used some of the money he had saved from his new job to buy a little property downtown. He had decided to establish a martial arts dojo to spread the teachings of the ninja to those who sought it. This is something he felt Splinter would want him to do, considering he hadn't taken his studies all that seriously in his youth.

Mike parked his car in a garage on the side of the building. He walked outside and looked up at the small sign. It read: "HAMATO NO BUDO", with the accompanying Japanese kanji below it. He had a very small, but loyal, base of students --- usually having no more then a dozen students on any given night. He smiled, walking in the front door of the school right at 6:00. The class was waiting.

"Evenin', guys." Michelangelo said with a smile.

"HEY, SENSEI!!" They yelled in near-unison. Mike chuckled. He preferred to run his classes informally, and this suited him quite well.

"Alright, guys, let's begin..." Mike said, noticing a few new faces in the crowd tonight....

Re: PATH OF THE NINJA: ONE YEAR LATER
 

(((Whereabouts would Leo be in the comic, just to fill me in.)))

Hmm
 

((they don't clarify in the comic what Leo's going to do with himself yet.

Do whatever you feel would be most in-character with him.))

Re: Hmm
 

(((okies here goes nothin)))

Leonardo sighed as he watched Silver get turned down for the eighth time that night. He missed the others dreadfully and wondered where they were.
Silver reminded him of an Australian Rapheal with a terrible addiction for smoking. He was also white and lost a finger on his right hand.

Although he missed his brothers, he missed Sensai terribly, he had to leave the memories but a year in Japan wasn't going to help him forget.

He found Silver in the airport asking the stewardess for her number, too bad she was a he. But then the kid was lost in America, he was looking for a 'HAMATO NO BUDO' in New York and he, being the helping guy he is said he'd take him there.

"Jeezus, ya'd think the shelias' 'ere wud be gentle wiv dem mani's they have." Leo looked up at the albino turtle, waking from his wistful gaze on his bandanna.
"Mani?" he repeated, raising an eyeridge. Silver smaked his forehead.
"Manicures, bruce!" he exclaimed shaking his head, leo could see the pink mark on the younger turtles cheek where the girl slapped him. He got up and tied his bandana back on, mumbling for him to follow.
Come to think of it Leo thought to himself he knows my past and yet he won't tell me his. I keep asking him and he changes the subject. I'd better keep an eye on him.

(((that ok?)))

hee
 

((that's fine. :wink: ))

Re: hee
 

(((arigato)))
:lol:

((Yay, the RP is here! :wink: Hmm, I think I was gonna play as my character? Yes, I think so. So, I'll just roll along with this. Hmm, lesse, alone.. early thirties... okay, I'll actually RP now :P ))

Kenai sighed as she loked up at the apartment, now occupied by two college students who had enough money to buy it. She now had the money, but she had no idea where to go. She walked down Broadway St., whistling as she walked. She acted cheery, though she wasn't. Her life was falling apart. She wished that Master Splinter never left her friends and herself. She knew she shouldn't have sold her apartment, but they offered a little too much for her to reject. They bought her apartment and moved in last week. She'd been staying in the cheapest motels she could find, which meant she had to walk and take subways out of New York to New Jersey. Now she was back in New York, and trying to find a place to get some decent food.

((Was that okay? :wink: ))

(((thought it was ok)))

((Yay, thanks :wink: ))

ummm
 

((Ummm... sure. You'll just have to explain why your character knows Splinter but not Michelangelo, and why she wasn't at his funeral.

Everyone, please don't "write in" a history between your own characters and the TMNT characters if you can help it. It will make things very confusing and is not conducive for good role-playing.))

Re: ummm
 

((ooohhh.. I can't? Okay then, I'll just get rid of that Master Splinter part?
Would it be okay if my character meets the turtles like, in this RP? Hmmm, I guess that's all I can do or I'll switch to some un-used character or quit :P .))

hee
 

((That would be ideal. :wink: ))

((Not so sure where to place Don or Miranda... but I'll try))

Miranda Ann Tezlof stepped off of the subway train, adjusting the collar of her favorite long coat as she did so. She only recieved a few stares as she made her way out of the station and onto the streets above. In a day and age where official 'alien visitations' weren't unheared of, a simple mutant like herself didn't even make a splash - especially in a city like Manhattan, New York.

She snorted to herself as she walked down the busy street. There had been a time when she and others of her kind were forced hide from the view of the general public, a time of harship where survival and freedom were the only things on their minds, it was a time of war; but those days were gone. A lot had happened since the Ultroms had landed... the Mutant Militia had all but disapeared and the Outlanders had wittled down from nearly three hundred to just twenty.

Freedom was pretty much theres for the taking, after all, the didn't have the Mutant Militia to worry about anymore and the Ultroms proved to be friendly; the only real trouble was the antialien/mutant extreamists... and most of them were usually worried about the aliens.

Miranda was one of those who had left the Outlanders, but not completely. She was still 'Greysight' to them and would always be there to lend a hand when the group needed it. She stopped at the street corner, leaned against the post and wondered what exactly she would do today.

Kenai's stomach grumbled as she walked along the pavement. 'The Lion King? Sheesh, on broadway? I should've known...' she thought to herself.
Kenai blent in with the crowd well. No one cared for physical features much, so with her tan hat covering her shoulder-length brunette hair, a pair of tan denim pants,red sweater, and fur coat, she looked like any other typical human. She was wearing her best clothes so she didn't look like a bum. She didn't want that reputation, never would she want it. She sighed as she stepped into the path train from NY to NJ. She needed to find a home sometime soon.

GM, sorta...
 

((Mars, please recall what I said to Kenai.))

((Meep! Sorry. Thought it was Mirage..... :toops: My bad.....))

GM
 

((It *is* Mirage. Mirage, volume 4.))

((Then why in the world was the begining pointed out to be...ah, never mind....:dead:))

Leo grumbled when Silver awoke him, joking about his old age.Though Silver only woke him because he had slept throught the entire journey on the train (or watever resembles one)
"i'm comming, Rookie!" The two turtles exited the station and adjusted thier jackets, Leo kept to the old trech coat and fedora whilst the 'rookie' wore a grey hoodie and baggy black pants.
"hello New York!" grinned the albino as he gazed at the site. Leo let himself smile as he wondered if one of his brothers was there.

"Hey, Leo." Silver looked at him seriously. "Do ya think they'd accept me there, I know i had my letter back saying im accepted...but what if they think i ain't good enough?" Leo smiled.
"Then I'll train you. It'll help me with pratice." He blinked with surprise as he was brought into a big hug.
"Cheers mate! Come on, lets find the building!"

GM
 

((I asked everyone not to "write in" histories between their own characters and cannon characters. What Lady Estel did was okay, because she explained where Leo was and how he met Silver. All of this happened within the last year. What you're talking about in Mars is an in-depth, long history between your character and the others. I'd prefer to avoid that, if possible.))

Miranda, who also went by Randi, had found that she had quite the mind for business and economics. Starting a couple years back, she started doing a bit of stock traiding and got a little lucky. After a while, she bought an annonimous partenership in a small record business for hip-hop and R&B called 'Azrael Records'. When that grew in size, she bought titles to a few other companies and began to work on raising their profet too. She had been quite busy.

But life could get pretty boring sometiems for her. She had handed over most of her ownership duties to her 'assistants', leaving her to do the most important, (and sometimes, dumbest), work of all; and since she the type of person who - no matter what she did - could only sleep four to six hours every night, she did most of her work late in the evening or early in the morning thus leaving her most of her day free.

Right now, she wasn't bored. It had been a while since she had simply walked the streets of downtown Manhattan and it was fun just to quietly walk along and listen to random pieces of conversations and thoughts while casually window shopping. It gave her time to think about her 'business morning' or her upcoming 'business night'.

She stopped infront of a decore store, looking at the leapard print designs they had on sale.

((OOC: You know, I may just take myself out. Haven't decided yet....))

((Hey guys, don't be so bitter about this, okay? I mean, Kenai and mars- your stories contradict each other. How can you both know the turtles and NOT know each other in the first place? Heretic based this rpg off of the new comic series and only that. None of us with fanons can 'claim' to know any of them because none of our fanons are IN the comic series!
Now, Silver knows Leo, right? But they have a story behind how that happened: They met at the airport and Leo agreed to show him where Hamato No Budo was. That happened with in the next year and since she controls both characters, she didn't need to talk it over with anyone.
Now, if I had controlled Leo, she'd have to ask ME about that... but I would have more than likely said yes because it was a logical story.
As for Donatello, as you will find out later, does not know but is connected to Randi through his job...

*sigh*

Here's my thing: Are your characters' hisotries SO set in stone that you can't try them out in a senario where they DIDN'T know the turtles? Is that so hard to do? C'mon, yer writers, right? USE YOUR ABILITIES AND THINK UP A HISTORY FOR THEM NOT DEALING WITH THE TURTLES THEMSELVES!))

((Aye, I did. Lookie at the postie.))

((OOC: The only reason why I said that is because I'm keeping my eye on other rp's and this one will probably take the cake since I haven't done a Mirage thing before. :D So sorry to upset anyone. And now...I take my leave.... *bows and leaves*))

Hey, I don't know all that much about Mirage comics, and I still role play them...

((Mars! Don't leave! :( You can still RP, I don't know much about those comics. I never even read one, but I have the basics down. Come on, don't leave!))

Ya, just 'cause ya can't be the guy's sister doesn't mean you can't be Kenai's or something.

((OOC: Well...I guess I could TRY and be Kenai's sis...I'm sure she'd love that... :lol: Okily-dokily...I'm back in. Just...ignore the last post I made....just someone give me a place to leap in and I will. :P))

[mod edit by Machi: taken care of... :D]

(((I don't own any of their comics mars so in one way im kinda confused on how Leo was in. :( Anyways I was thinking about this and its sumfin ta do wid silver and leo before dey met, someone who went to Japan to kill Leo and was in Silvers life, a scientist who has a grudg on da guys perhaps?)))

((OOC:Sorry I haven't been around for the past week. if I type in anything terribly contradictory to the story, tell me. I've got a social exam in 2 hours so part of my mind is doing review and a bit of catch up :sleep: ))

Some people have all the luck. However Cynthia isn't one of those people. After her flight into New York was cancelled due to certain racist bastards trying some new trick to smuggle weapons into the US to wreak havok. She over heard that the machine guns were probably from Cuba, which doesn't suprise her. She finally gets to leave and then has to report a pipe bomb in the Toyota Celica she is currently driving. She would take have taken Public transport but, the tech behind the cars are still unknown to her, and the Utom's taxi's aren't as accesible here. Of course when she got near New York she had to leave her reliable little car on the outskirts and catch a Utom taxi.

She had checked ahead and gotten herself a small apartment in a respectable area, she coulden't afford upscale right now, but it was in a comunity that too diverse for gangs to work effectivly, so she new she was safe. She would have brought her little sisters with her, but neither wanted to leave their friends. Cynthia was efficient, and now she is currently looking through the classifieds for jobs. She knew that her previous career is still unfesable, but interplanetary immagrations looked like a booming buisness.

ahem
 

((Woot!! Glad that's all settled now.

Happy RPing everyone!! :D ))[/quote]

((what was her previous career?))

Interplanetary immigrations was indeed a booming business; and because of the many new residents, other businesses were growing too. There was a saying that said, 'For every dollar put into space, seven dollars worth of technology comes back'.

What the quote meant was that for every dollar spent on space exploration, seven dollars worth of technology would be developed, (on Earth), for everyday use; and this fact held true for several years - and then the first wave if visitors came to Earth.

It was because of these visitors, the Ultroms and etc... that the quote took on a whole new meaning; well, at least it did for 'Mouki-technologies'. The business seemed to be feeding indirectly off of the incoming interplanetary technologies, getting new ideas for gadgets and learning new ways of improving old technology as well.

Even though Donatello had been working for 'Mouki-technologies' for six months, he still found the name to be kind of funny. 'Mouki', last he checked, meant 'blind turtle'; so essentially, the translated name of the company was 'Blind Turtle technologies'. He had decided to keep this little fact to himself, because he wasn't sure how his peers would react. Donatello Hamato was indeed a turtle and he loved technology... but he was most assuredly not blind. He knew that there were several people in the company that felt oddly... threatened by him.

Perhaps it was the controversy behind his being hired; before he came, it was the supervisor of each department who did the main hiring. Despite the new laws, some of them were still against hiring outside of their own species and so, when he came to put his resume into the research department and - much to his dismay - it had been promptly declined, (they didn't even look at his resume)!

But luck, it seemed, was on his side. As he was walking out of the department, a woman with short reddish brown hair was walking in. They had collided and papers had gone flying; it wasn't until Donatello got home that he realized that he had grabbed some of the woman's papers rather than his resume and then heard the message on his answering machine.

The woman, Jade McGreen, (ooc: lol, play on names, no?), had realized the problem far quicker than he had and figured out what had happened during Don's visit. Astonished by his credibility and the supervisor's refusal to hire him, Jade had gone straight to the company’s owner: A woman by the name of Miranda Tezlof.

The next thing Donatello knew, the supervisor that had refused him had been fired and he... hired in his place. A month later, a new department was created for the sole purpose of hiring and placing new employees with in the company thus taking the hiring ability out of the supervisors hand. Even now, five months later, the other supervisors still held a grudge against him for taking away one of their supposed 'rights'.

But Donatello didn't mind much that he had been virtually ostracized by his peers, those who worked under him thought him to be a Godsend to their department and as far as Donatello could see, there was no chance of him loosing his job any time soon. The owner herself had after all, hired him herself; however, oddly enough, Donatello had never seen nor spoken to the woman in question. In fact, no one in his department or the neighboring departments had. It seemed as if Jade, (whom it turned out was Ms. Tezlof’s personal assistant), and the head of the company, Mischev Bent, had ever spoken to her… and Don wasn’t even sure that Mr. Bent had even seen the woman himself… not that it was any of his business.

But now Donatello waved cheerily as the last worker left and locked the door to the offices. It was 6:45 p.m. and frankly, Donatello was starving. As started down the sidewalk, he began to mull through his mind on what he would have for dinner that night. It had been a while since he had been able to do anything with any of his brothers, but Michelangelo had his dojo among other things to worry about, Leonardo – last he checked – was out of town, and who knew what Raphael was up to.

He heaved a deep sigh, had they really grown that distant from each other?

Mike
 

Class had ended early for Hamato no Budo that night. Michelangelo's lessons were short and to the point. Besides, he wanted to do a little "prowling" tonight.

At one point, Michelangelo was explaining the concept of utilizing the power of intention for effectiveness in combat, and constantly referred to the concept of 'ki'. One of his students, a bright young xenoform, who also happened to be a talented psionic, interjected.

"Mike-sensei, isn't this 'ki' and 'intent' really just another word for 'psi'??"

"No. Its not."

"What do you mean??"

"Psi is merely mental energy, Sara. You could think of it as a sort of intensified form of energy that the ego creates to affect the world outside of it. Ki, however, transcends the ego-mind. It unifies body, mind, and spirit together. Its everywhere and in everything..."

"But, sensei," the student interrupted, "isn't that just philosophical semantics?? I mean, in application, wouldn't ki and psi be the same thing??"

Mike smiled and looked at his student. She was an excellent martial artist, but sometimes did too much damn thinking. "Psi bends spoons, Sara. Ki is about attuning with the power of Nature. Here. Let me demonstrate."

Michelangelo walked to the center of the dojo and sat down in a simple fudoza no kamae, his knees tucked underneath his haunches. He smiled at Sara, and pointed to collection of bokken (wooden training swords) hanging across the left wall. "You may use your telekinesis to attack me with the bokken whenever you are ready."

Sara's eyes widened in a look of pure shock, but Mike's calm demeanor convinced her it would be alright to proceed. He nodded casually.

The entire class knew Sara was a TK, but she had rarely used her powers in action. Mike advised her against using her powers during training, as they would dilute the taijutsu lessons he was trying to teach. Now, he was asking her to use her powers wantonly to attack him. Oh well, here goes...

The first bokken raised up in the air and flew right at Michelangelo's head. It whizzed on by, missing him by no more than an inch or two. Mike remained motionless, sitting on the floor.

"I guess your aim's a little off, Sara. Try again." He smiled.

She did. With bokken two. Three. Four. Five. All of them missed.

"You may attempt a closer range if you wish." He commented.

She walked up to the wall and picked up the last bokken. She then walked right behind Mike, no more than ten feet away. She let the bokken dropped, and it hovered in mid-air. Suddenly, the wooden weapon flew right toward Mike's head in a perfectly straight line. There was no way it could miss, and Mike was not moving.

The sword crashed into the wall in front of Mike with a loud thud. Sara looked at her teacher in absolute shock. She had missed. Again.

"Wh-what was that??" She stuttered. The rest of the class was in awe, as well.

"That was ki." Mike chuckled. "And 30 years of training."

"Bu-but, I don't understand. I couldn't even hit you once!!" She protested. "I didn't even feel any resistance against the bokken, its like they were--"

"You didn't expect me to bat them away with my mind did you??" Mike laughed. "I'm not a psionic, Sara, I don't have telekinesis. You know that."

"Then, how did--"

"You missed your target because your target was not there. We don't call this the art of invisibility for nothing, chica."

"So.... you made an illusion of yourself then?? You tricked me into aiming at something that wasn't there??"

Mike sighed. "No. When you have perfectly attuned yourself with Nature, then you will become 'zero'. There is no longer any distinction between yourself, your surroundings, and your opponent. That is the true nature of ki. It is the power of the Universe itself."

"So--"

"So, then, if I am no longer separate from yourself... how could you possibly hope to defeat me??" Mike smiled knowingly.

"I don't understand."

Mike stood up and patted his student on the shoulder. "Don't worry, kiddo. Just keep at it, and you will. Eventually. Its all in the taijutsu, not in bending spoons."

Sara laughed, and assumed her position at the rear wall of the dojo.

"That's it for tonight, guys. I hope this has all been... enlightening." The class bowed out to their sensei and were on their way.

Alright, Mike thought to himself. It's time to do a little prowling...

In a silent green blur, he had disappeared from the empty room.

((Wow. Do you study martial arts, or did you make that up? :o))

Heh
 

((a little bit of the former and a little bit of the latter :lol: ))

((just a reminder, Randi ain't no level one as it were... 22 years of psi training and self defense too. ^.^ sure, she can't defeat Mike, but she does understand the basics of 'Ki'... and can still do MAJOR damage.))

Randi shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat as she continued down the sidewalk. She stopped, looking across the street where about 12 people were filing out of a small shop-like building. "Hrm..." she hummed. The 12 were stronger than the average person energy wise and... one of them even had a relatively high psi energy - no where near herself, of course. There was one more presence still inside the shop that was far stronger than the rest.

But she only was able to pinpoint the energy for a moment before it was gone. "Eh?" Curious, she walked across the nightly street and looked up at the sign. "Hamato no Budo?" Odd. Randi wasn't fluent in Japanese, but she knew enough to translate simple things like this. It was a Dojo for Bushido or something of the sort. It was the 'Hamato' that had her a bit confused. It was familiar...

Jade McGreen nearly jumped as she heared the familiar ring tone on her cell phone and quickly answered, "Aye, Missy Tezlof?"

"Heh, hey Jade, just gotta question." Randi smirked, looking up to the sign.

"I'll answer it to the best o' me ability."

"Well, I was walking down the street when I saw this Familiar name - but I can't place it: Hamato."

"Hamato? Hamato... Oh! That be tha Sur name o' the supervisor over in expiramental technology in Mouki." Jade replied.

"Oh? Oh, ya... ya..." Randi replied, "Alright, thanks for the extra memory cells, talk to ya later. Ciao."

Jade sighed, putting away the phone. Randi could be odd at times.

Randi put up her own cell phone, looking up at the sign again. Well, that strong power she felt certainly wasn't human... Humans had a specific psi-type signature and this one was... more like her own.

"Hrm, it looks like Mr. Hamato has siblings."

Heh
 

((*chuckles* I never claimed otherwise. I wasn't trying to portray the little scene with Sara as if Mike were the "Anti-TK Turtle" or anything like that. He was just proving a point to his student [that 'ki' and 'psi' are very different], and spouting a little "ninjer spirituality", too.

I'll post a bit more later.))

((No! Grrr! post now dammi! >.<;; I'm bored outta my mind here...))

((sorry ive been gone long! Remind me, who is there?)))