#itt!shredder

Kendra could feel her blood pounding through every inch of her body, through the tight muscles of her legs, ready to make a run for it, through the burning hole in her shoulder where she’d been shot, through her white knuckled fingers aiming an empty gun at the monster in front of her. 

The Shredder stared back at her from behind its mask, listening carefully to her thoughts. She was trying to calculate exactly how long it would take her to make it back out the door, how far she would be able to run before blacking out from exhaustion and blood loss, how many hits she could give and take before going down. The math was not working out well. She wouldn’t make it back alive from this fight.

Tentatively uncoiling a tendril of its own mind, the shredder whispered into hers ‘don’t kill me and I won’t kill you’

Kendra’s eyes widened in a mixture of horror and awe. It spoke.

‘You can put the gun down. We both know it’s empty,’ the thing mind-whispered again.

Slowly, Kendra lowered the gun. Her boddy’s last ditch effort burst of adrenaline was wearing off and she was starting to see spots.

“Deal,” she said, then promptly slumped to the floor and passed out.

Kendra woke up to three surprises. 1: She was still alive. 2: The Shredder had not been a hallucination, or if it had, she must be still hallucinating because it was still here mere feet away from her. And 3: she was naked.

“At least buy a girl dinner first,” she slurred. Why did her mouth feel numb? Did the thing drug her or was this a symptom of blood loss?

The Shredder traced the strings of her thoughts to figure out what that phrase meant and responded by triggering a memory of a laugh.

Why did it’s laugh sound like Cassandra’s? Kendra wondered, suddenly feeling much more awake.

‘I chose one you had positive feelings towards’

It heard that? Shit, could it hear everything she was thinking?

‘Sorry about the sedation, I didn’t want you waking up and forgetting our deal’

“Like I’m gonna kill you without any weapons,” Kendra scoffed.

It held her gaze. Kendra couldn’t see its eyes, if it had any. But she could feel its stare boring into her mind, turning over thoughts and memories. She could, and they both knew it.

Slowly, the Shredder reached behind its back and undid a clasp, the metallic spikes on its shoulders slid off. Piece by piece, it removed the exoskeleton to reveal smooth irridescent skin underneath. At the very last, it reached its pale clawed fingers under the rim of the helmet and lifted.

Kendra stared in fascination at the face before her, gleaming dark eyes splayed across it like the petals of a macabre flower. It was terrifying and grotesque, entirely inhuman, and yet… there was something mesmerizing in the glow of its many pupils, in the strange curves of its bones. It was beautiful.

‘Now we’re even’ it spoke to her mind.

Since only one of them was a mind reader, Kendra supposed she’d have to take the creature’s word for it.

“So what were you doing while I was out? You could’ve just searched me if you wanted to make sure I didn’t have any other weapons to wake up and stab you with.” Or you could have killed me, she thought.

‘Well where would be the fun in that?’ the creature replied with a shift of its facial muscles that Kendra more understood than recognized as its equivalent of a grin. ‘I wanted to study you,’ it continued after a pause. ‘I haven’t seen many of your species that have reached this level of maturity.’

“You calling me old?” Kendra laughed.

‘Yes, it’s a compliment. To have survived this long on a planet with these conditions is impressive.’

“You’ve got a rather impressive track recccord yourself, could’ve sworn you were a gonner after we collapsed that building on you in the Battle of New York.”

‘I have… some helpful abilities in such situations’

“What kind of abilities?” Kendra asked with a bit of coy curiosity. She’d seen mutants do some pretty unexplainable things and everyone knew the Shredder was powerful, catch a glimpse of those gleaming spikes and you’ve gotta decide quick weather to call in reinforcements or get the hell out of there, but no one knew exactly what its powers were.

‘I can demonstrate if you let me,’ it said reaching a hand toward her.

At this point, if the thing was going to hurt her, it certainly would have by now. Kendra’s curiosity won out.

“Show me.”

Its pale skin and polished talons were cool on her bare skin but a warmth blossomed in her flesh beneath the touch, spreading outwards with a slight glow. There was a slight burning sensation in the soul of her foot where a thorn had pierced through her shoe while she was running in the dark. Then it was gone. Brushing the blood away with the soft side of one of its fingers, the shredder revealed the healed skin underneath.

‘I can do the rest if you like,’ it said, gesturing to the various injuries littering her body from the fight.

“Certainly won’t say no to that,” said Kendra with an impressed sigh. “leave the shoulder though. My team saw me get shot. I show back up without a bullet wound and people will ask questions. I’ve got some bandages in my jacket I could use a hand with though.”

Retrieving the bandages, the Shredder began wrapping her shoulder with one hand while its other sent waves of energy through her.

“Do you have a name?” She asked eventually.

‘Tang Shen’