And the turtles finally appear! Hopefully I kept them in character for the few lines they have. I'd love to have any feedback and suggestions on that. Speaking of, thanks to everyone for viewing/favoriting/following this, and major thanks to HorrorFan13, CharTheMander (I hope I improved on your advice a little bit, thanks!), and guests SQUIDNEY and the potatoe one. The start is a dream, so it may be a bit confusing. I dunno, it makes sense to me, but I already know what is supposed to be happening. Please enjoy chapter 3!

Chapter 3 – My Dreams Lie

It wasn't often that my grandpa stayed with my mom and me. Tickets from Florida to New York aren't exactly cheap.

Not that going anywhere else is necessarily cheaper.

Since he was a guest, I was willing to do anything for my grandpa. Even go to the supermarket and get a tomato. Which was exactly what I was doing. A journey which, at first glance, seems simple, but is actually a life-risking endeavor.

I had done well so far, avoiding the armored guards (Yes, real armored guards. Medieval style.) that the supermarket employed to protect its produce. It seems slightly odd and out of place, but then again, the supermarket only had one tomato; The Almighty Tomato.

Every day, people went into the supermarket trying to snatch The Tomato for themselves. Rumors claim that they never return.

Which begs the question. Why in the world am I risking my life trying to get some fancy tomato from the neighborhood supermarket? Oh right, Grandpa just had to ask for this specific tomato.

I poked my head from behind a shelf full of cauliflower, disgusting, to find the object I desired. Waiting on a pedestal, encased in a glass cover and lit by a spotlight above it, as if it was an expensive artifact in a museum, was The Almighty Tomato.

Wasn't expecting to find that here. I was going to look for it in the produce section, and it's currently in the cereal aisle. Lying between Cap'n Crunch and that weird, chocolate cereal with a vampire on it. Never mind the cauliflower shelf I'm behind, this is the cereal aisle, not the produce section.

I made a quick observation of my surroundings. Miraculously, all of the guards were gone, doing something else wherever they were. I made a break for it and rushed towards The Tomato.

My dash was quickly stopped by a figure plummeting from the ceiling. As it stood from the crouch it landed in, I could barely make out the shape of it, but could see enough to know that it wasn't human. It stood around three feet tall, a height that I could only assume was related to its species. A turtle. Other than the fact that it was clearly a three foot turtle no matter how you looked at it, I couldn't see any other details.

Because of that stupid spotlight on The Stupid Tomato. I get this tomato is special for some reason, but does it really need to be lit up like the sun? I'd like to be able to see the mystery turtle.

I knew I blew it, and stood no chance in a fight against the turtle.

I'm decent in stealth, but I'm gonna die if I'm in a fist fight.

I made a move to run away, but the turtle suddenly lunged forward. As he came in for the attack, I suddenly felt a sickening, falling sensation and closed my eyes.

"-sleep in his classroom, I'm sure Mr. Irwin would prefer for you to go home to do that. Are you awake yet?"

"Ugh." I moaned as I lifted my head from my pile of books.

What a weird dream. Why an Almighty Tomato?

"You slept through the entire class didn't you?" My best friend, Elisabeth questioned.

"No" I looked off to the side as I stood up, pursing my lips and trying to appear as innocent as possible.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"The clueless cow pun." I spoke intentionally slowly, knowing that, to her, only being awake for the pun the teacher said at the very beginning of class counted as sleeping for the entire period.

Elisabeth gave me a look, the one that screams 'insert sarcastic comment here', for a good minute as I hugged my books and gave my best 'innocent-but-I-know-you-know-I'm-guilty' grin.

She finally gave up and sighed as we started walking out of the classroom and to our adjacent lockers, "Did you dream up anything interesting?"

I once told Elisabeth a weird dream I had after reading The Hunger Games, and ever since, her favorite hobby seemed to have become laughing at whatever I dreamt up last night.

That Hunger Games dream was a good one, though. Our high school was part of an invasion game with another, and the students were in a life or death war with each other. Imagine a football game where all the students participate, and the opposing teams try to kill off all the other players. There were giant mechas and other awesome weapons, but our school was low on funds so I ended up with a rusty sword. I'm proud to say I was somehow still alive at the end of that dream.

By the time I finished telling Elisabeth about my 'Almighty Tomato' dream, we were stuffing our books in our lockers while she mercilessly laughed at my dream's content.

When she was finished laughing, she looked at me seriously, "You don't normally sleep during class, though. Let alone Calculus. You're one of those messed up people who actually like math. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah" I sighed as I looked up at the ceiling, remembering how much effort I put in trying to sleep the night before, "Just had a lot on my mind last night. Couldn't fall asleep."

We started heading down the hallway, backpacks slung across our shoulders, "What did you steal this time?" Elisabeth smirked at me as I smothered a smile and gave her a look that was as blank and not humored as I could manage.

Is this a dig on my stealing and hiding her stuff all the time, or is it because I stole those Legos in preschool and panicked about it for days until I brought them back to school? It's probably a mixture of both. She likes making fun of my sticky fingers.

"Okay, seriously. What had you so preoccupied that you couldn't sleep?" We were near the exit from the school, and our homes were in the opposite direction, so I assume she wanted to cut the jokes now and find out what was wrong before we had to separate. I rubbed my eyes, trying to wipe away the sleep so I could give a convincing lie.

I'm actually a really good liar when I want to be. Poker face and all. I could always tell her the truth; that I was thinking about a talking ninja rat and his ninja turtle sons. She'd think it was an obvious lie, though, and I'd still have to come up with a believable one in the end to appease her.

"Honestly Lizzie, it was nothing big. It was probably a mixture of me just not being tired at all for some reason and watching that new anime you suggested to me. I was excited about watching the show, and I never got tired." I finished my explanation with an exhausted smile.

Note to self: watch that anime. Or at least read a summary of the first few episodes. I may be tired, but Lizzie's gonna want to talk about it tomorrow now that she thinks I watched it.

Lizzie raised her eyebrow in disbelief, but we were outside now and she didn't have time to doubt what I said, "Alright. Bye!"

"See ya!" We waved to each other before we turned to walk our separate ways.

I was walking as quickly as I could, while still being inconspicuous, from my house, where I changed into clothes appropriate for walking in the sewers, to the manhole a few blocks away where I left my work equipment.

For once I'm glad everyone is always in a rush in the city. If I started running, people might only end up being slightly suspicious that I'm in a hurry. If they even noticed.

As I lifted the manhole cover and plunged into the darkness that is New York City's sewers, my mind was once again racing with thoughts of Splinter and his turtle sons.

I wonder if his sons will look like the Tomato guardian turtle in my dream? I don't know why I'm thinking about this anyway, Splinter and the pinball machine were probably some figments of my imagination brought to life by the insanity of walking for hours in dark sewer tunnels.

I quickly reached the first stubborn door of my previous adventure after running as fast as I could through the sewers. I caught my breath and set my Ipod to my Disney playlist. Then, with apprehension and curiosity for what I would find at the end of the tunnel, I tugged open the door and began singing along to Disney tunes as I skipped down the annoyingly long tunnel once again.

"Something's familiar about these strangers like me…I wanna know" I finished up the song I was singing after just arriving at the second door. I may have sung a few other songs after just arriving as well.

Okay. I need to stop lying to myself. I have to have been standing in front of this door for half an hour by now. I don't think that qualifies as 'just arriving' anymore. Just open the door and walk in, you dummy. Actually, I should knock first. In case there really is a family of mutant ninjas on the other side.

I shakily lifted a loose fist and knocked three times on the door. Then, I knocked harder a few unopened seconds later.

The first time was too quiet: they probably didn't hear me. What am I saying! There are no mutant ninjas, turtle, rat, or otherwise! This was just insanity mixed with an overactive imagination. Like how I went half my life thinking ticks were harmless bugs that lived on bathroom mirrors just because Mom told me so in a dream. I laughed at people when they told me ticks sucked blood too. I felt like an idiot when Mom finally told me that they really did suck blood and there was never a time where my bathroom mirror was covered with them.

I steeled myself and swiftly opened the door.

And promptly found my feet rooted in the doorway and my mouth ajar. There, looking just as stunned as me, were three turtles sitting around the TV. Their eyes were wide behind their colored bandanas, red, orange and blue.

Huh. They look nothing like The Tomato guarding turtle.

The turtles recovered much faster than I did, two of them taking fighting stances while the third, the red bandana, rushed forward and slammed me against the wall.

"What're you doing here?!" Red bandana demanded, as I stood unresponsively in his grip.

What do I say? Did Splinter not tell them about me? Splinter exists now, right? Since I'm seeing talking turtle people? Would it be egotistical to say I was the one that made this door in their home? Did they even realize they had a new door? Man, I hafta think of something quick! Red is lookin' scary mad.

Seeing Red had me handled, Blue turned around and shouted to a room farther off, "Donnie! I thought you were working on a security system for that tunnel?"

"I am Leo. It's almost finished, I'll be able to set it up in an hour or so." A new turtle came out from the room, taller than the other three and wearing a purple bandana, and consequently absorbed the scene occurring in the living room.

Yeah. These guys really don't get many visitors down here, do they? Their guest receiving is extremely lacking. They either stand there shocked then get ready to fight, or they aggressively slam you into a wall like Red.

"What's going on here?" Purple asked as he moved to join Orange and Blue. His eyes never left the spot right where Red had me stuck against the sewer wall.

"Dude! She just walked through that door that showed up yesterday!" Orange exclaimed, looking way more excited than agitated. It was calming. I felt much less fear from Glaring Red knowing there was a turtle just over there that might feel a moral obligation to stop the murder of a sweet, adorable, innocent, trustworthy, honest, caring, lovable, little girl.

Wow. I don't wanna count how many desperate lies I made in that one sentence.

After Purple met up with the other two, the three of them began walking over to Red and me. Granted, Orange seemed to be bouncing more than he was walking.

Jeez. I'm starting to feel like an animal in a zoo now.

"Mind telling us what you are doing here?" Blue asked, with much less violent force than Red had used. He was completely serious, though. By the look on his face, as long as I can continue assuming their facial expressions work like people's, he would get the answer whether I wanted to tell it or not.

I come in peace? No, that's what all the invading aliens that DON'T come in peace say. Would they believe me if I just said I wanted a friendly visit after meeting Splinter. And that I wanted to confirm my sanity?

"I say if she won't tell us why she's here, we beat the answer out of her!" Red had released his hold on me to slam his fist into his palm with a grin.

What?!

My eyes opened wide in panic. I attempted to fervently protest the not-so-peaceful solution, but found my words trapped in my throat, unable to reach the air.

Oh please no! I've never been beat up in my life, and I don't want to start now! Think! Think! Think! If I can't speak, how do I stop them?! Come on! Think! Thinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthink! Got it!

My arms shot straight into the air faster than they had ever moved before.

There! I surrender! Ha! Now pretty please don't beat me up?