The first chapter for the sequel, The Shadow's Revelation, is finally up and you guys can go check it out right now!

I'd also like to share with you guys the very first draft of The Shadow's Secret incase anyone is interested in reading it! (it's only 19,000 words so it won't take up much of your time lol) There are probably a million typos and very poor grammar choices, and it's hella cringeyand hardly any planning went into it so please no judging lmao I wrote it two years ago when I was fourteen and it only took me like two months so ya, it's gonna be pretty bad haha

The Shadow's Secret First Draft

No one believed me.

They dismissed my story as a mere dream or tale to gain attention when I was younger.

But as I grew older, they all thought I was insane.

But I never gave up.

I spent years trying to find him again.

I couldn't give up; not when I'd witnessed something incredible.

I was walking home from school one day, back when I was around thirteen. I decided to take a short cut because I knew there was pizza waiting for me at home, so I turned down an alleyway. Everything was fine until these big smelly guys with beards suddenly formed a circle around me. I tried running from them but one of them grabbed me and threatened me with a knife to stay quiet. I kicked him in between his legs but when he dropped me, his buddies just grabbed me and tied a rag around my mouth so my screams were muffled. Then, this guy darted from a shadow and past one of my attackers. The big dude fell to the ground. The rest formed a circle around me, knives out. The guy came at them again, picking them off until only the one who had threatened me remained. In desperation, he grabbed me and held his knife to my throat, drawing a thin line of blood. I didn't dare struggle against him. A silver streak hit his knife away from me. I punched him and dove away as the shadow guy took him down. I squinted through the dust that hung in the air and tried my best to see what he looked like in the gloomy, sunless alley. He was bigger than the guys he just took out. He was really muscular too and he had a bald head, with dark skin and a sort of hunchback. He bent and picked the silver thing off the ground, he turned to look at me. And through the cloud of dust I glimpsed a pair of glinting, alien-ish blue eyes. And with that, my saviour disappeared into the shadows from whence he came.

I had gone after him of course, but the dark alley I followed him down led only to a dead end. As did most of my research. The few leads I got only remained stable and reliable for a short time before tapering off into nothing. I filled notebooks upon notebooks of notes, newspaper articles, photos, (possible) evidence, ideas, theories, stories, and anything I could find, no matter how ridiculous it sounded. It was my life. Those eyes had pierced through the shadows and into my mind forever. And since that memory was my only solid evidence, I had researched eyes for hours, trying to learn everything I could about them. I scrolled through countless pictures of all sorts until I made the unusual discovery that my saviour's eyes appeared to be those of a reptilian humanoid; reptilian referring more specifically, to a turtle.

"Pizza's here!" Olivia called. Yes!

"Bring it over here!"

"That delivery guy was so hot, I almost tipped him my number instead of cash." She set my boxes down in front of me and took hers over to sit on the couch in front of the TV. Netflix lit up the screen. I looked up from my notebook in time to see my sister giving me a concerned look,

"You should take a break Raiy, come watch a movie."

I shook my head, "can't."

She raised her eyebrows and selected a movie for me to see, "are you sure?" She drawled. The movie started playing. I snapped my notebook shut, snatched my pizza up and ran over to the other couch. Olivia laughed and threw me my favourite blanket. There were few things that made me pause my research, and one of them was Now You See Me. I had this uncontrollable love for it and I didn't know why. Olivia fell asleep halfway through the movie and began to snore so loud that I had to throw a pillow over her face. When the movie came to an end, I put all the pizza in the fridge and my notebook in my room. Then, I stumbled back to the couch where my spot was still warm and I fell asleep there, while gazing over the city that never sleeps.

My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright.

"Holy shit." I said and ran, partly blind, to my room. I crashed into something on my way there and cursed before continuing. I switched the light on and cursed again as my eyes took an eternity to adjust. Then, I scrambled for my notebook and computer. After screwing up my password a few times, I opened a safari window and googled a million things, writing my findings down. I barely registered the approaching footsteps,

"What are you doing?" Olivia yawned from the doorway.

"Researching, what does it look like?" I said without turning around in my chair to look at her.

"I suppose it's 3 in the morning," she muttered, "oh it's only 5:40, you're lucky, I just about lit all your notes on fire."

"If you did I would've thrown you in that fire to save all my shit." I rubbed the drowsiness from my eyes desperately, as it was hard to write anything legible.

"I'll make coffees." She muttered and left my room.

"And bring the leftover pizza!" I called desperately. She came back 15 minutes after with an insane amount of caffeine and microwaved pizza that I accepted greedily. She sat on the edge of my bed,

"Alright, let's hear it. What's your 'grand idea' this time?" She sipped her coffee.

"You won't like this one." I said grimly

"Uh huh, just tell me."

"Alright," I spun around in my swivel chair and took a bite of my pizza, "so he only appeared when I was in danger, right?" She nodded, "okay, so I'm doing a bunch of research right now and so far, I've figured out that the one thing all the witnesses of this guy have in common is that they were all in some sort of danger when he appeared," I showed her the screen of my computer which had an article about a girl, "she was mugged," I pulled up another article, "he was beat," I found another, and another and another, "rape, kidnapping, terrorist attacks, break-ins, robberies. All these incidents caused an event like the one I witnessed to happen. So I figured, all I need to do is-"

"Intentionally put yourself in danger in hopes of this shadow dude coming to save you?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Exactly!" Olivia sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, "you're insane."

"I know," I shoved the rest of the pizza in my mouth, spun around and started typing on my keyboard, "it's great!"

While most of the shadow dude's appearances occurred while the sun was down, I figured that if I went to the same place at the same time I was attacked, he would appear like last time. At least, if there was a reason for him to.

They weren't the same guys, but they still got up as I approached. I hurried my pace, portraying myself as a scared teen. One of them grinned toothily at another,

"We got ourselves a treat." The others laughed and blocked all my escape routes. The faint noise of metal grinding against pavement echoed down the same alley my saviour appeared from 5 years ago. He came.

"You guys are really going to regret this." I sang at the guys steadily closing in on me. One of them grinned slyly at me and spun a knife in his hand.

"Petty words like yours don't bother us no more."

"Well, I warned you." I shrugged innocently. He looked around and snorted a laugh,

"Bout what? The shadows? They gonna fight for you?" You have no idea. His buddies snickered. They weren't laughing for long though. Something huge darted past them and knocked one out. The other guys shuffled uneasily at the sight of their fallen comrade. I watched as the figure danced from shadow to shadow, dispatching the rest of the gang until none remained. I took no chances and chased after him right away,

"I knew you would come! I knew it!" Blue eyes gazed back at me through the darkness, but no voice accompanied them.

"You saved me here 5 years ago," I prompted. The eyes tilted to the side, interested, "ever since then I've been trying to figure out who you are and why you saved me."

"I saved you because I hate bullies." He said and ran off.

"Wait! Wait! Don't do this again! I have to talk to you! I have so many questions!" I stopped running to listen. Nothing, "I know you can still hear me! And I know your hiding, like you have been all your life! I'm not trying to hurt you or anything, I just want to talk and say thank you!" Nothing, again. Unbelievable! I almost called him a coward but then remembered what he could do to people. I spun on my heel and stomped off.

"I'll come out," I skidded to a halt at the sound of his voice, it was coming from somewhere on the wall of a building "but first, you have to prove I can trust you."

"Trust me with what?"

"Keeping my secret."

"Uhm okay well for starters I have no friends, I live with my sister in an apartment we share, the only family that visits are my grandparents once a month and I have pilot training twice a week with my uncle, I already know probably more than anyone else knows about you, and I've been searching for years for you and you were pretty hard to find so the least you can do is just tell me already and get out of the shadows for once. Like really, you can't be that ugly." I laughed. I thought I heard him laugh,

"Can I talk to you later tonight? I have to go." Uh uh! Noway, buddy!

"Oh bullshit, how do I know you're not going to ditch me?" I crossed my arms.

"Just be there."

"Where?"

"I'll send you the address."

"How?"

"I just will."

"Well that's specific." I muttered. He laughed out loud that time,

"I promise I'll be there if you promise not to tell anyone about this."

"Okay." After a moment, he left.

"How'd it go?" Olivia asked from the kitchen.

"He didn't show." I muttered, walking in as she cut up a salad.

"What happened then?" She sliced the wrapping off a cucumber.

"Well when I realized he wasn't coming, I pulled a WWE smackdown on one of the alley guys I was using as bait and the rest ran off after that." I swiped one of the cucumber slices hungrily. She nodded in approval,

"Nice. So back to your tireless research now?"

"Nope," her jaw dropped and she stopped cutting, I ate another "I reached the last dead end of this research campaign and I am finished with it. Wow! It feels great to be single again!"

"Now you give up!?" She watches me with wide eyes "WHAT THE HELL RAIYA!?" My phone vibrated. I pulled it out and looked at the screen. An address in white font took up the whole black screen and continued to vibrate until I powered the whole thing down.

"WHO THE HELL IS TEXTING YOU? SINCE WHEN DO YOU GET TEXTS!?" She demanded.

"Chill, it was just a telemarketer!" I said innocently and slightly horrified from her reaction. I grabbed a head of romaine lettuce Olivia planned to use for her salad and ran to my room before she could tackle me for it,

"Fine then, you don't get any salad tonight!" She yelled.

"This is my salad for tonight!" I peeled a leaf off and ate it while I added to my notes about my mysterious encounter. Halfway through recounting the event in my evidence notebook, I took out my phone and looked at the screenshot of the address I took. I wrote that down too. I couldn't stop thinking about Olivia though. I never thought I would have to lie to her about anything, especially this. But I made a promise I have to keep, so I couldn't tell her just yet. The excitement coursing through my entire body overtook my thoughts. I could hardly contain myself! I couldn't believe that after 5 years of restlessly searching, I was finally going to meet him!

4th ave & E 12th street.

I leaned carefully over the edge of the building and grinned with excitement at how high I was. I'd always loved heights. A heavy thump behind me made me jump with surprise. My smile fell away when I saw no sign of him,

"What is it with you and the shadows?" I demanded in frustration.

"Slide your phone away from you," he ordered. I sighed but did as he told me, "okay, and please just, don't freak out." This huge, 2-toed, green foot stepped from the shadows. Followed by another. He was massive. 6 feet tall at least. His biceps, shoulders and abs were amazingly toned. He wore black pants, a blue mask, and a strap of leather across his chest and a huge shell on his back. 2 huge, silver Japanese swords with black and blue hilts and grips sat sheathed on the leather. A blue NYC pin was clipped onto the leather strap, along with an odd looking walkie-talkie-transmitter-thing. A thin, faded scar ran down his forehead and appeared below his mask on his cheek. A black tattoo of 2 patterned lines encircled his upper right arm. Bands of cloth, leather, and even tape ran up his arms in random patterns.

"What are you?" I asked in wonder. He shifted his weight uneasily,

"When I was a normal turtle, I was injected with something that mutated me and turned me into this."

"Did it give you ninja powers too?" I nodded at the swords on his shell.

"Oh," he unsheathed them and twirled them around in his hands, creating a silver blur in the air, "no, I've been training in ninjutsu for years." I nodded and picked my phone up off the roof as he put the weapons away,

"Cool."

"You're not...scared?"

"Not really, I already know you're not going to hurt me after you've saved me, like, twice." I laughed and slung my bag off my shoulder. I took a notebook out and clicked a pen "are you...the only one?"

"Yeah," he sighed, then narrowed his eyes as he noticed me writing things down, "what are you doing?"

"Oh," I smiled sheepishly and held up the notebook, "sorry, I'm just making sure I don't forget anything you tell me."

"Can I see?"

"Uhm, sure, I guess," I handed him the notebook and he sat down in front of me, flipping through it. He gave it back without saying anything,

"sorry if that's all kind of creepy, I just, really wanted to find you and say thank you."

"You're welcome." Silence filled the air between us for a few moments.

"So what's your name?" I asked, then realized something, "oh sorry, I'm Raiya."

"Leonardo, but I prefer just Leo." He watched as I wrote everything down.

"Do you mind, if I ask you a few things?" I asked hesitantly. He shook his head,

"Fire away." I barely looked up as I asked more questions,

"Alright, so what's your favourite colour?"

"Blue."

"What's your favourite song?"

"I like so many, I'm not sure."

"Favourite artist?"

"Same thing."

"Favourite food?"

"Mediterranean pizza."

"Favourite movie?"

"Bourne Identity."

"Favourite pastime?"

"Being above ground."

"Favourite season?"

"Spring."

"Favourite book?"

"I haven't read many, but I really liked Tarzan."

"How did you learn English?"

"Exactly how you did. I grew up hearing it from the people on the streets and I slowly got the hang of it."

"Where do you live?"

"The sewers."

"How long have you lived in New York?"

"As long as I can remember."

"How old are you?"

"17."

"When's your birthday?" Leo shrugged,

"I don't know," oh shit, nice going Raiya. "I tried to figure it out a few years ago and I estimated that I must've been only been a few months old when I was mutated so I just counted the years since then and it added up to 17. I still can't remember the exact date though, I think it was sometime right after winter."

"What kind of serum was it?"

"Some sort of mutagen that could heal any living thing at a cellular level."

"Why did you choose to be a ninja?"

"They're silent, respected, skilled; and follow a code of honour. It's also the book I found in the sewer one day."

"Why do you come out only at night?"

"It's easier to hide in the dark."

"Why do you hide?"

"I don't want everyone learning monsters are real. That would ruin the whole point of me saving people."

"Why do you save people?"

"I told you, I just hate bullies. And this city is infested with them."

"Why are you telling me all this and not someone else?"

"Because nobody has ever thanked me for saving them before, and you've been trying to for 5 years now. And because you didn't freak out when you saw me."

"How do I know you're not lying to me about all this?"

"You don't." He grinned and stood up, heading for the edge of the roof.

"Wait!" I called, clambering to my feet desperately. Leo turned to me. His blue eyes somehow seemed brighter in the dark of night, "can you stay for just a while longer? I want to quickly document your appearance." He tilted his head, amused.

"So you want to draw me?"

"Well, if you want to remove the technicality of it all, then yeah." He grinned and stepped away from the roof's edge,

"Alright, how do you want me to pose?" I scrambled for a pencil and a blank sheet of paper.

"Doesn't matter, but it has to be in good lighting so I can actually see you."

"Swords drawn?"

"Mmmmaybe."

"Where did you disappear to last night?" Olivia asked me the next morning as I struggled to stay awake while she made pancakes.

"I'm not exactly sure." I murmured.

"Are you hungover!?" She demanded, waving a spatula like a sword at me accusingly.

"No!" I sputtered. She held her hands up defensively,

"Well regardless, you either need more sleep or some food"

"Well thanks sis, I'll put it at the top of my list of to-dos!"

"Anytime!"

I laid my head down on the counter while she finished making breakfast.

"So what do you want to do today?" Olivia asked.

"Sleep" I muttered, accepting the plate she handed me.

"Woah there Raiy, don't get too adventurous." she warned sarcastically.

"What can I say, I'm feeling pretty wild."

"Well how about we have a movie marathon today, so you can fall asleep whenever and we can order in again," I gave her a thumbs up as I crushed a pile of pancakes, "okay, so we can watch Madagascar Terminator, The Exorcist, Jurassic Park, Bourne, Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman, Scary Movie, Insidious, Hunger Games, Ice Age, or literally any of the Marvel superheroes." She awaited my reply. I was not mentally prepared to handle a horror movie today, if I watched one I might piss myself. Not Hunger Games, or else I would have to track down Jennifer Lawrence and murder her. My mind was too slow today to comprehend Terminator. Batman was just boring, I don't know why it even qualified as an option. I wasn't really feeling Jurassic Park, the second one was just too awful. But hey, I haven't seen Bourne in a while, and Hawkeye was in the last one...

Someone knocked on the door just as Jason Bourne commenced yet another police chase.

"Dibs out!" I called, putting my finger on my nose and throwing the other hand to the floor. Olivia sighed heavily and got up to pay the Mikado's delivery guy. When she returned, I thrust my hands out eagerly from beneath my blanket,

"Dragon Eye me!" I ordered.

"You have to say p-" a quiet vibration from somewhere in the apartment made us go silent. It was continuous and without an accompanying ringtone. Leo.

"I'll get it." She stood and walked off. I shoved a Dragon Eye in my mouth and jumped off the couch, running full throttle to my phone before she could reach it. I quickly screenshotted the address and powered it down to stop the vibrations. I turned to see Olivia giving me a weird look,

"Are you okay?" She asked oddly

"Yep, but now I'm missing Bourne!" I took my phone with me back to the couch and ate while I waited. When it finally turned back on, I read the message, this time it contained an address, and a time; 3 am. Shit. Better start sleeping now.

"Leo?" I called hesitantly into the shadows. I sighed in relief as a pair of blue eyes shone from the darkness and met my own, "oh good," I said as he stepped into the moonlight "I was worried I was in the wrong place...so why did you want to see me at 3 in the morning?"

"Oh yeah, sorry," he smiled sheepishly, "it just worked best with my schedule today."

"Schedule?" My fingers itched to grab a notebook and write this all down.

"Yeah. I have a life you know." Leo grinned.

"I know but, what's your average schedule?"

"It's never the same."

"Okay, so what's your schedule for today?"

"That's classified."

"Even for research purposes?" I pouted, clutching a notebook innocently.

"Why are you still researching me? You don't have to anymore."

"I don't know," I murmured, "maybe it's just a habit, maybe I feel like this is all a dream and I need to retain as much as possible, or maybe I want to learn as much as I can and write it down so if you end up running off, I can find you easier." Something awful flashed in his eyes and he backed away from me, tense in case of danger.

"Are you working for them?" He demanded.

"Working for wh-"

"Are you working for them!?" He drew a sword lightning fast and pointed it centimetres from my throat, "are you working for the Footclan!?"

"The Footclan!?" I sputtered, "are you shitting me!? Why would I do that!?"

"Why else would you be trying so hard to find me!? Ergh I'm so stupid for not seeing this earlier!"

"Leo, I promise I have nothing to do with them." I said desperately. He turned to me, apologetic for some reason,

"If you're telling the truth, then I'm sorry." He moved faster than light and my vision went black.

"Oh my god, still!? You've been asleep forever!" Olivia.

"What the hell?" I muttered, sitting up in my bed groggily.

"Oh good, I did not want to arrange a funeral." She spun around in my swivel chair beside my desk. In our apartment. Not on a roof. Not talking to a mutant turtle. What the hell happened?

"What the hell happened?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"I have no idea, you passed out on the couch at like 6 and somewhere between 1 in the morning and 7 you must have migrated into your room and you've literally been asleep ever since."

"What time is it?"

"Almost 3." Leo.

"Where's my phone?" I demanded, jumping to my feet.

"Right here," she handed it to me and walked out of my room, "you're not very popular though, so don't get too excited." My phone opened on a screenshot of a new address. My mind was racing. Why does Leo still want to see me? What the hell happened?

"Leo what the hell!?" I demanded angrily as soon as I stepped onto the roof at 1 in the morning. There was no movement in the shadows, "oh come on! I know you're hiding!" He slowly stepped out of the darkness,

"Raiya I'm really sorry I did what I did, but I had to. I wanted to trust you and I always thought I could, but I just had to be sure."

"What the hell did you do to me?" I demanded, he sighed and laced his hands behind his head before answering,

"I targeted a muscle that knocked you unconscious, then I brought you to the sewers where Donnie scanned your eyes to prove you really were who you said you were and read through all your files to make sure there was no secret Footclan activity. Then I brought you back to your apartment."

"Who the hell is Donnie, Leo!?"

"I'm sorry I had to lie, but I could never completely trust you until I knew..."

"And now you do know so what else do you have to tell me?"

"A lot," he sighed "come on." I stepped away as he tried to grab me.

"Noway. Tell me where we're going."

"My home in the sewers so you can meet my family and they can help explain everything." I squeaked in surprise when Leo picked me up and carried me over to the edge of the roof, then jumped off the edge without hesitation. He dove into a sewer panel and slid trough the underground tunnels on his shell until he landed in the middle of this...place. It was like the ultimate man cave, if it didn't smell like shit.

Leo and I were in a huge, octagonal room. We stood on this pedestal kind of thing in the middle of a depression in the concrete floor, far above us, a fan turned slowly. 4 of the 8 walls had big arches in them and led to other rooms. The other 4 walls were solid, aside from a few big, circular ports like the one we just came in from and an upper walkway that allowed access to more ports. Wires and pipes ran everywhere along the walls, along with an amazing amount of graffiti. Music blared and voices boomed from somewhere in the underground fortress. Leo set me down just as the music was abruptly turned off and a voice called his name,

"Yeah?" He yelled back.

"Is the girl with you again?"

He smiled, "yeah."

"Dead, alive or comatose?"

"Alive." The music cut off abruptly.

"Holy shit," the same voice whispered, "noway. She's awake this time…how do I look?"

"Like you live in the sewers." Another snorted.

"Guys, guys, she can hear us." A third voice warned and they went quiet for a moment.

"Hey beautiful!" The first one shouted and the others hurriedly shushed him and hissed 'Mikey' at him angrily.

"Hey guys, how about you get over here and introduce yourselves in person." Leo called, grinning.

"Uh, I don't know if I can-" A short, light green turtle stumbled from the shadows of an archway. He had grey-blue eyes almost exactly like my own, wore an orange mask, orange basketball shorts, a grey hoodie tied around his waist, a beaded necklace, and a backpack strapping a weird looking skateboard to his shell and a transmitter on one strap near his shoulder.

"Raiya, right?" He asked nervously. I nodded, feeling like I was being introduced as Leo's girlfriend to the rest of his family, "I'm Michelangelo, better known as Mikey. Sorry Leo kept you away from us for so long."

"It was 2 days." He argued.

"48 hours is like 48 years." 2 other turtles appeared behind him, slightly obscured by darkness. Both taller than Leonardo and Mikey, the skinnier one approached me first,

"Hi, I'm Donatello, but uh, just call me Donnie. I'm glad to see you're conscious this time." Leo sighed heavily from behind me and I smiled,

"So am I." Donatello was the tallest of the brothers and was less muscular than the rest. I assumed from his gear that he was usually the brains of the operation. He wore olive-green cargo pants, a purple mask, had hazel eyes, big glasses with masking tape on the bridge, high tech goggles resting on his forehead, purple strands of cloth lacing up his forearms, a big, weird watch, a transmitter on a strap over his shoulder and an ensemble of gadgets on his shell, along with a weird stick. The other turtle, the huge one, remained silent and away from the group, party concealed in a patch of darkness. Donnie caught me looking at him,

"Oh don't mind Raphael, he's sort of antisocial."

"Well I was planning on introducing myself but it looks like you've taken care of that for me." Raphael grumbled from the darkness.

"No! Do not enrage the hulk while in the presence of our beautiful guest!" Mikey yelled desperately. Donnie nodded towards him like he seconded the warning.

"Where's Sensei?" Leo asked

"Above ground again." Mikey said absently.

"Wait, you're actually going to tell him about her?" Donnie asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I have to. He has to explain everything to her."

"Didn't you already?" Raphael sighed and walked off, bored.

"Well, sort of. I tried to but she was kinda mad and I figured it would be easier if Sensei told her everything instead since he knows more than us."

"Hey," I waved a hand in the air, "she's right here."

"Sorry." they said simultaneously. Mikey rolled his eyes,

"Quality hosts huh?"

"Oh yeah, the best."

"Don't worry I'm taking over. We're going on a tour!"

Mikey showed me around for a little before Leo returned to finish the tour while we waited for their Sensei to show up. Basically every room connected to one another in some way. One of the archways from the octagonal room led to a room filled with instruments, they called it the jam room. Another arch brought us to the turtle's bedroom. Hammocks hung from the roof, a shelf holding a million boxes painted purple, orange, blue and red stood against a wall. Through another arch, there was a living area with couches. On the other side of the living room, the wall was covered in computer screens showing live images from all over the city and the sewers. Past the monitor wall, an arch opened to a dining area and another room with another pedestal that was a training room. The training room also led off to a smaller room filled with weapons, called the weapons room. The last arch from the octagonal room led to their Sensei, Splinter's, room. I asked Leo if their Master was like them.

"Well, sort of, he's a rat." A rat!?

"Uhm okay, wow," I laughed and shook my head, "I really can't wait to hear your guys' story."

"Yeah, me too."

"Wait, you've never heard it either?" How can they not know how they became what they are? I sat at the table in the dining room with him. Leo placed a box of pizza on the table in front of me. I took a triangle of 5 cheese pizza hungrily. I could really get used to this place.

"No, Sensei never told us."

"So what do you know?" I asked, taking a bite of the microwaved pizza.

"Just that we were injected with a serum when we were really young. Sensei was a lot older than us so he raised us and taught himself Ninjutsu, then us. He always believed that when we grew up we would be heroes and keep the city safe. Even though he still doesn't trust us to go up there and fight-"

"But wait, you saved me when I was eleven."

"Yeah. I always snuck out so I got beneficial field practice. And yeah, that's all he ever told us."

"So, he doesn't know about me at all?"

"No."

"Alright, what's the worst case scenario when he does find out?"

"I'm not sure. Probably somehow make you forget all this happened and possibly relocate us to a different city."

"Well at least I won't become an exotic pizza topping." I laughed nervously, he grinned,

"Yeah. But I'm sure it won't come to that." I nodded,

"So what's up with the Italian Renaissance names?"

"I have no clue," he laughed, "when I was bored one day I researched who we're all named after. Leonardo Da Vinci was a painter, scientist and engineer. Donatello was a sculptor. Michelangelo was also a sculptor but a painter, architect and poet too. Raphael was also a painter and architect...Don't mind him by the way, like Donnie said earlier. He's not very good around other people, even us sometimes. And if he does decide to talk to you, just don't let him get to you."

I nodded again, "so what do you guys do down here everyday?" My eyes darted to my bag sitting on the floor beside me, instinctively telling me I needed to document this.

"Nothing, really. I've been going above ground every night so that gave me something to do. But the others usually train, eat, watch the monitors' feeds from the city, read the few books we find laying around the sewers, sometimes play a game we came up with as kids, or sleep," Leo noticed how I was forcing my hands to not whip out a notebook, he laughed, "you can write this all down, don't worry." I smiled sheepishly and snatched a notebook and pen,

"So wait, are you guys nocturnal?"

"Not really. We don't feel tired very often, and when we do, a 2 hour nap fixes it. So we really just sleep whenever. But we can only go above ground under the cover of darkness, or else we'll be seen so we kind of seem nocturnal." I scrawled Leo's words down as he said them.

"But it was the middle of the day when you saved me."

"I was smaller then and you were in a dark alley. Plus, there was a sewer grate right there, so I took the chance," I felt his eyes on me as I wrote this all down, "now it's my turn to ask questions." I looked up, surprised,

"Okay." I put my pen down and shifted in my seat.

"What's your favourite colour?" My grin matched his,

"Red."

"How old are you?"

"16."

"When's your birthday?"

"August 22."

"Is that your actual hair colour?" He asked incredulously. I grinned and pulled a strand of red hair over my lip like a moustache,

"Au naturel." Leo chuckled,

"That's pretty cool. What's your favourite season?"

"Summer."

"Where did you grow up?"

"Arizona."

"What's your favourite song?"

"So Over You by The Mission District."

"Favourite movie?"

"Now You See Me."

"Favourite book?"

"Legend."

"Favourite food?"

"Pizza or lettuce."

"Like just plain lettuce?" I nodded and he laughed, "well that's interesting. What's your favourite animal?"

"A sugar glider possum."

"What about your favourite subject in school?"

"Science. Physics more specifically."

"Favourite pastime?"

"Drawing, watching movies or flying," Leo looked baffled and I smiled, "my uncle is a helicopter pilot here in New York so he gives me lessons twice a week."

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that. Why are you living alone with your sister? Where's the rest of your family?"

"They're really split up and like all over the place, a few are still in Arizona I think. My parents divorced, then my dad went to jail and my mom died a few years later. Luckily, Olivia was old enough to legally take care of me and we moved here, mainly to get away from our family."

"Sounds rough." I shrugged,

"We're used to it."

"Okay, if you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?"

"Iceland."

"Really, why?"

I shrugged, "The black sand beaches, all the amazing scenery and hikes...I actually think you can go on hikes through glaciers there."

"Sounds cold," he laughed "what's your full name?"

"Emmalyn Raiya Carter."

"You go by your middle name?"

"Yeah," my face flushed, embarrassed, "I don't like Emmalyn."

"Do you have a boyfriend!?" Mikey called, perched on the railing on the other side of the lair.

"Say yes." Leo whispered.

"No!" I grinned as he pumped his fist in the air and asked another question,

"What's your type?" Leo hurled a soccer ball at him so Mikey would fall off the railing, then he turned to me,

"Don't answer that." There was a loud crash as the turtle landed on the concrete floor.

"Okay." I laughed and Mikey groaned,

"I smell pizza," He murmured, then bolted upright in horror, "am I in heaven!?" Leo closed his eyes and sighed deeply through his nose. I laughed and grabbed another piece of pizza as Mikey walked over.

"Girl are you eating all my pizza!?" He demanded accusingly.

"Nope." I said, mouth full.

"You better not be." he sat in a chair beside me and stacked 3 pizza slices on top of each other before shoving them into his mouth. He nodded toward my notebook, licking sauce off his face and fingers,

"What's that?"

"One of my notebooks."

"One of?" he whistled and grabbed more pizza, "how many do you have?" I thought for a moment,

"10, I think," he spit out his pizza, showering Leo in chewed food, "no wait, 7."

"Well that's much better," Mikey said sarcastically, then looked at Leo, "sorry man, I wasn't prepared for that big a number." Leo glared at him, then got up and left to clean the pizza off of him. Donnie walked in as he left,

"What happened to Leo?" He asked confused.

"I scared Mikey," I admitted with a smile.

"I wasn't prepared for 10."

"7." I corrected

"What?" Donnie stood with a concerned look on his face.

"What do you even put in 10 notebooks!?" Mikey demanded

"Mikey asked how many notebooks I have and I said 10 accidentally, but really I have 7 and they're filled with information of Leo I gathered over the last 5 years."

"Stalker alert." Mikey hissed, sipping an orange crush that seemed to magically appear beside him.

"Do you mind if I look at them?" Donnie asked.

"Not at all." I handed him my bag and the notebook I had on the table.

"Oh wow, you can draw too." Shit. I forgot about the sketch I did of Leo. My face flushed.

"Bro lemme see." Donnie showed him the page depicting Leo. Mikey whistled,

"Girl you have some insane stalking skills."

"Thanks." I smiled sheepishly. There were a few minutes of silence before Donnie sighed in frustration,

"Raph, stop being impolite." He scolded.

"I'm not." The voice came from a shadowy corner.

"Hiding where our guest can't see you and eavesdropping is considered impolite."

"I was just watching in silence." He objected.

"Well it's about time you introduce yourself, so get over here."

"Alright." He grumbled and stepped into the light.

He was huge, almost taller than Donnie. His arms were massive and muscular, a red band of cloth wrapped around his bicep, along with multiple scars. He wore black pants, taped at his waist, ankles and around his feet. A super defined six-pack sat above the waistline of his pants. A strap of leather ran across his chest and over the back if his shell with a transmitter clipped to it at his shoulder and a dirty, silver swiss army knife at his chest. 2 big daggers hung at his hips. He wore a worn, red bandana that had a dull white Japanese symbol on the top of his head. His bright green eyes shone through the holes in the bandana mysteriously. He had a scar near his lip and another, larger scar on his right shoulder in the shape of a Japanese symbol.

"I'm Raphael," he said, "you can call me Raph." And he left.

"Sorry, he can be like that sometimes." Donnie apologized, flipping through another notebook.

"He's lying, Raph's like that all the time," Mikey corrected, then Leo walked in, "hey man, you just missed a miracle. Raph said hello!" He thought for a second, "well...sort of." Leo grinned and looked over Donnie's shoulder at one of my notebooks.

"Cool, huh?" His brother nodded as he scanned the current page,

"Ye-" He was cut off by a loud clang of metal.

"Sensei's home," Leo hissed and grabbed my stuff from Donnie, shoved it all in my bag and gave it to me. Then ushered me to a hiding spot, "just until I know for sure Sensei won't hurt you." He said as if the words would reassure me.

"I'll stay with her." Donnie offered. Leo nodded and dragged Mikey away. I clutched my bag to my stomach as I leaned against the concrete wall. The turtle sat down beside me silently. Loud, unintelligible words were exchanged for a while before the voices lowered for a while longer. Then, Leo called Donnie's name. He stood up and offered me his hand. I took it and he pulled me to my feet.

"Ready?" He asked. I shook my head,

"Nope."

He smiled, "come on." I slung my bag over my shoulders and followed him to Splinter's room where Leo, Mikey and Raphael were already gathered. I held myself together upon seeing the rat, I even think I smiled at him. He was shorter than the turtles, and covered in brown-grey fur, that grew longer under his chin and nose like a moustache and beard. He wore a yellow robe with Japanese symbols on it, a black belt, and weird, wooden sandals. The grey hair on his head was pulled back in a man-bun. His room had a low table in the middle of it, with pillows lain around it. The back wall was completely made up of tightly stacked stereos. All eyes were on me as I walked up to the rat. How the hell do I introduce myself!? What do I even do!?

"Hi. I'm, uh, Raiya Carter."

"Yes, Leonardo told me everything. May I see your notebooks?" I awkwardly handed him the bag. He spent a while sifting through them all before sitting down on one of the pillows,

"Please, sit," he offered. I took it more as an order and sat across from him. The brothers sat down as well, "do not be afraid of me, Raiya. Or any of us. We are not monsters or aliens or anything of the sort. The turtles and I were normal. As part of an experiment, we were injected with a mutagen that could heal things at a cellular level. The men running this experiment were Eric Sacks and Kirby O'Neil. If you do not know this already, Eric Sacks is allied with the Footclan. The Footclan's leader, Shredder, is like a father to Sacks. The mutagen injected into us was a part of their plan to take over the city in some way. And when Kirby O'Neil discovered this, he set fire to the lab and tried to destroy everything. He died doing so. The brothers and I were still regular animals in wire cages and we had noway to escape. Then, the mutagen in my blood began to take effect and I was able to break out of my cage and help the turtles. I ushered them to the sewers, where the mutagen took full effect and turned us into what we are now. We wandered around until I found this place. I raised the turtles here. And as they grew up, I realized they had the potential to save the city from the Footclan. One day, I chanced upon an old book discerning the art of Ninjutsu. After I taught myself, I taught the brothers. They excelled at a wondrous rate and developed a growing passion for martial arts. And though I am extremely disappointed in Leonardo for disobeying my orders, my anger is somewhat satisfied by his actions and intentions. And it also seems that he has gained a valuable ally through what he's done…you are the only human who knows our secret, Raiya. You need to understand that. Leonardo has deemed you trustworthy of our secret and I will trust his decision, so long as the brothers also agree to this." He looked over at the turtles expectantly.

"She's done impressive research over the last 5 years and shows promise as an ally. I read over all the files to make sure she has no Footclan related activity, and she's completely clean. And she hasn't told anyone yet...I think she can be trusted." Donnie answered.

"Yeah, as long as she doesn't eat all my pizza, she's cool." I grinned and looked at Raph, a bit nervous for his answer. He just shrugged,

"When she goes above ground, somebody should always be watching her." Okay well aside from the creepy aspect of that, ARE YOU SHITTING ME!? WHAT THE HELL AM I GOING TO DO, SCREAM YOUR EXISTENCE AT A PARADE!? Splinter nodded thoughtfully,

"Yes, that sounds reasonable. Since you think it is necessary, that can be your job, Raphael." The turtle's jaw clenched as well as his fists,

"Yes, Sensei." he said angrily through his teeth. Splinter then turned to me,

"Now there is only one other pressing matter. Have you told anyone else of our existence?"

"No...we-ll...my sister, Olivia, knows everything up to the part where I lured Leonardo out. But I did what Leo told me and told her that he didn't show up and that I gave up on the whole researching thing." Splinter stroked his beard,

"That is an issue for another time. Leonardo, did anybody witness you meeting with Raiya?"

"Not to my knowledge, Sensei."

"Good, we must be very cautious."

"Yes Sensei." The brothers murmured simultaneously.

"Thank you, Raiya. For agreeing to keep our secret." Splinter smiled at me, I nodded,

"I'll help you guys in any way I can," I grinned at Donnie "feel free to hijack my phone whenever you like."

"You're not very talkative, are you?" I asked. No reply. Then,

"You're very observant." I grinned,

"Thanks." Raphael led me through the sewers until he stopped below a storm drain. He peeked through the top of it, then pushed the panel out of the way,

"It's clear." He hoisted me out into an empty alley, then climbed out after me. He gazed around like he was in the middle of a new world.

"Have you ever been up here?" I asked.

"No." Raphael scaled the side of a building before I could say anything else. Whatever. I walked back to my apartment, glancing at the roofs every so often in attempt to catch a glimpse of Raph. But he was a ghost in the night.

My alarm went off at 7. I groaned and turned it off, confused. Why wa-shit. Flight training. Hurriedly, I threw clothes on, brushed my teeth and grabbed my phone on my way out. I couldn't take the car since Olivia would be needing it for work, so I basically ran the whole way there, stopping for breakfast at one point. Then I remembered something. Raph. Is he still watching me? I scanned the roofs surrounding my uncle's hangar but saw nothing. Maybe he went back to the sewers when the sun came out. I checked the time on my phone: 8:13. Right on time. My training was supposed to start in 2 minutes. I went searching for my uncle, one of the few remaining family members who didn't avoid us. He was my mom's brother so he wasn't as bad as my dad's side of the family. The grandparents that visit me and Olivia sometimes are also from my mom's side.

Okay so little bit of a history lesson: my dad's family hated each other to begin with. They were all criminals and druggies. So my mom's family was not very happy and barely spoke to us when my parents got married. And then my dad went to jail which made everything even worse. After my mom died, some of her family pitied us and helped us move to New York. My grandparents come to visit every month to see that we're getting along alright and my uncle Thomas helps by teaching me how to fly so I can get into a good college after I graduate, get my commercial pilot license and get a job with high pay. At least, that's how I think it's going to work.

I found uncle Thomas inside the hangar, filling his helicopter with gas.

"Hello?" I called he jumped and turned to face me,

"Raiya you scared me." He chuckled. Uncle Tom was young, in his late twenties. He was tall and built, with unruly brown hair, a fair amount of dark stubble and grey eyes.

"Sorry." I laughed. He waved it off and finished filling the gas tank. When he looked closer at my face, his smile fell away,

"You look tired. Do you still want to fly today?"

"Yeah, I'm good. There's noway I can pass up this perfect flying weather. What are we doing today?"

"Well I'm not sure I can trust you with the controls right now," he quirked a smile, "so how about the basics?"

"Sounds good to me." I stifled a yawn.

"Alright, hop in." He opened the door for me and handed me my helmet from the copilot seat.

"Thanks." I took it and strapped it on, then climbed in and shut the door behind me. Uncle Tom got in on the other side. He shot me a grin and started the engine. The propellers started to rotate as he opened the hangar roof above us. Soon, we were out in the open, New York air.

My interaction with the turtles over the next week was fairly regular. Usually, as soon as Olivia fell asleep, Raphael or Leo was there to lead me through the sewers and I hung out with the brothers for a while before they showed me the way back. I'd basically memorized the route there and I always told them I could get there and home on my own, but Leo didn't allow it. On nights before my flight training, I didn't stay out very long. I also downsized my research by a lot. Splinter offered to safeguard my notebooks in their lair in case somebody found them in my apartment, like Olivia or Footclan soldiers. So I barely ever wrote in them anymore. For once in my life, everything was going pretty well.

I woke up in a blue hammock, confused as hell. I was in this...place. The walls were covered in graffiti, there were loud voices and it smelled like shit. Panic started to set in when I remembered last night. I'd fallen asleep while hanging out with the turtles. Leo must have carried me to his hammock after I passed out. Shit! Olivia! Where's my phone!? I moved around in the hammock, checking my pockets and the crevasses between the pillows around me but I found nothing. I peered over the edge of the hammock and at the surrounding concrete floor; still nothing. I shuffled my way awkwardly out of the monstrous hammock and almost fell to the ground in the process. What time is it? I groaned and rubbed sleep from my eyes as I stumbled-shoeless and half blind-to my feet. I grabbed for something to support me and came across a small dresser. On top of it, sat my phone and wallet. Well that was easy. And at the foot of it, my shoes awaited my feet. I fumbled to turn my phone on. 11:42. Shit. I pulled my shoes on and headed towards the voices. Mikey and Donnie were sitting at the dining table, eating.

"Check it out, it's sleeping beauty!"

"Hey guys," I smiled tiredly and sat down beside them, "where's Leo and Raph?" Donnie shrugged,

"Beats me." He lifted a pizza box over and offered me some.

"I'm good, thanks." As much as I loved pizza, I should not have been eating it as much as I did, especially for breakfast. Mikey watched me with an odd look on his face,

"You okay, Raiya?" He asked, concerned.

"Yeah...well, sort of. I just don't know what to tell Olivia."

"You fell asleep at a friend's place." Donnie offered. I snorted,

"She'll think I'm lying." His brow creased in confusion,

"How?"

"Because I have no friends." Mikey's jaw dropped,

"What!? But you're like," he motioned to me vigorously and searched for words, "you know." I nodded,

"Thanks Mikey."

"Tell her you got up early and went out, forgot to leave a note and your phone died." Donnie suggested and I nodded,

"Assuming she didn't get up early herself that could work, thanks." I stood to leave but they both immediately protested,

"We can't let you leave when you haven't eaten anything." Donnie explained.

"I'm just going to pick up something on my way home," I said, walking towards the exit. Instead, I ran right into Raphael, "Holy shit!" I stumbled backwards but he grabbed the front of my hoodie to steady me.

"Where's-?"

"Right here." Leo appeared beside Raph holding a plastic shopping bag. He handed it to me and I laughed as I extracted 4 heads of romaine lettuce, 2 icebergs and a bottle of this mocha cappuccino protein drink.

"How did you manage to get all this?" I asked incredulously, still grinning. Leo shrugged,

"We have our ways."

"Well thanks," I smiled, grabbed the protein drink and a head of romaine, removed the hard bottom of the lettuce, then put the rest in the fridge to eat later, "I'll eat on the way home, Olivia's probably having a heart attack." Leo volunteered immediately,

"I'll walk you home."

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?" Olivia demanded the second I closed the door behind me. She rounded a corner and appeared-fuming-in front of me.

"Woah," I held my hands up, "chill. I left early this morning and forgot to leave a note, then my phone died while I was out so I couldn't text you." She crossed her arms, unsatisfied.

"Where did you go?"

"A job interview," I lied, "at Vapiano." Olivia narrowed her eyes and frowned,

"Why didn't you tell me yesterday?"

"I have no idea, I was so tired when I got home that my Alzheimer's kicked in and I just fell asleep."

"Oh," she thought for a moment, "well how did it go!?"

"Uhm, I dunno I kinda panicked and I think I blew it." I raked a hand through my hair grimly.

"Aww," her face fell, "well you'll get it next time. Hungry?" She turned and sauntered into the kitchen. I just ate a whole head of lettuce, I was far from hungry.

"Not really, I had lunch on my way home." I sat down on the couch as she poked her head out of the kitchen,

"Let's go out tonight. I've been dying for Olive Garden" Sure why not? I've been living off pizza all week anyways.

"Aw hell yeah, we're getting like thirty breadsticks."

I climbed out onto the roof of my apartment building after Olivia fell asleep, hoping to see Leo instead of Raphael. But instead of a smiling turtle in blue I was met by a huge, scowling one in red.

"Come on." He said and ran off across the tops of the buildings, I sighed and chased after him, eventually having to climb down and follow from the streets. Raph always did that. I found him waiting for me at the storm drain.

"Well thanks for waiting." I muttered. He snorted and moved the panel aside for us to climb down into. Then his head snapped up as if he were a bloodhound and he just caught a scent.

"Wait here." Raphael ran off down the alley. What the hell!? I almost yelled his name but stopped myself. Instead, I ran after him before he got too far away.

I don't know how far I ran but it seemed like forever until I found the reason Raphael took off; a huge group of Footclan soldiers were raiding the docks. Wait...we ran all the way to the coast!? I made a mental note to kick Raphael's ass, but first I had to get out of there before I was seen. I turned and ran right into a black figure. A hand clamped over my mouth and an arm wrapped across my arms, restraining my movement. I struggled against their grip and tried to call for help but to no avail. Quick voices conversed in a different language through comms. I tried to bite the hand clasped across my mouth and kick out with my legs but it made no difference. There was pressure on the inside of my wrist, then a sharp pain. Though I quickly forgot about it as my feet and hands were tied tightly behind my back and a gag was tied around my mouth. Then, I was locked into an empty transport crate. Where the hell is Raphael!? Swimming in darkness, I struggled against my bonds and prayed that Raph didn't abandon me.

Bang!

I stopped shuffling and listened. Something had crashed against the crate I sat in. There were yells and rapid gunfire. Then everything went quiet. It was over. The raid was stopped. Annoyed, I waited impatiently while Raphael took his time busting down the entrance to the crate. He walked briskly over to me and used his knife to cut away the rope. I removed the gag from my mouth immediately,

"Explanation! Now!" I demanded, "why the hell did you run off all the way to the goddamn docks, attack the Footclan and let them throw me in there!?" I waved at my short livedprison.

"I saved you." he said drily.

"Yeah, after you dragged me into that shit it was the least you could do!" I shot back, fuming.

"I told you to stay put but you didn't listen!" He yelled.

"Yeah, because I had no idea what you were doing and I didn't want you to be seen, dumbass!" I looked around, worried, "what did you even do with the Foot soldiers?"

"Tied 'em together and left them laying on the ground" Well that's just great, Raph, good job. I sighed in exasperation,

"Whatever. Let's just go."

"You endangered the lives of everyone here!" Splinter paced the length of his room, lashing his tail angrily, "what were you thinking, Raphael!?" Raph stood in front of him,

"I knew I could stop them." He grumbled.

"And you did, but now they are aware of your presence and will soon learn of ours! They know what Raiya looks like and will find her again! You think only of yourself and not of others! You must always consider the consequences your actions will inflict and who they will be inflicted upon. I am very disappointed in you, Raphael." All the while, Raph appeared untroubled by his words. In fact, he looked bored. Exhausted with Raph, Splinter turned to me,

"I'm terribly sorry, Raiya. You should not have been affected by Raphael's reckless actions," I decided it was best that I didn't say anything, so I just nodded instead, "you may leave if you wish." I took his offer as more of a suggestion and left, making my way to the training cave. Leo peeled away from a shadowy corner and walked beside me,

"Sensei's pissed." He noted.

"Yeah, no kidding. Now that I'm gone, he's probably ripping Raph apart back there." I grimaced and Leo's brow creased in confusion,

"You don't want him to get in trouble?" I snorted,

"Ifcourse I do, but I hate that he's made Splinter so mad again because of his own stupidity. And he doesn't even care which makes it even worse. If I could, I'd rip him apart myself," I shook my head, still in disbelief as we sat down at the dining table where Mikey was devouring a box of 5 cheese pizza.

"Who are we ranting about?" He asked behind a mouthful of pizza.

"Raphael." I swiped a piece of pizza he was grabbing for and took a huge bite before he could snatch it away from me.

He sighed in defeat, "the pizza bandit strikes again," I grinned triumphantly and claimed another piece, "what'd he do this time?"

"Dragged Raiya into getting captured by the Footclan while he stopped them from raiding the docks." Leo muttered.

"Oooooo, that's way worse than spray painting the Sacks skyscraper. I'll bet my copy of Space Jam that Sensei's ripping his shell off in there," I tried to hide my laugh, Space Jam? "girl what are you laughing at?"

"Nothing."

"Good," he chewed absently on his pizza. Then his eyes widened and he inhaled sharply as if remembering something. He wolfed down the rest of his pizza, "I'll be right back!" Mikey ran to their bedroom and reappeared seconds later holding a model helicopter in his palm. His brothers groaned upon seeing it.

"I can't figure out how to fly this thing! And you know how to fly helicopters so..."

"Mikey, I fly real helicopters, not remote control ones," I laughed. But hey, that thing looks kinda cool. I grinned, "but I'll give it a whirl." He pumped his fist and set the slightly wrecked copter on the floor, extended the remote's antennae, and flicked it on. A red light blinked on the remote. He moved all the joysticks and pressed all the triggers but it stayed stationary the whole time.

"See!" Mikey said. I glanced over the remote and the red light on it, then to the helicopter. Wait a minute... I picked up the model helicopter and turned it over, searching for something...there it is! I flicked the switch in the side of it's belly and set it down, a red light now glowing on it's side. Mikey tried one of the joysticks again. The propellers started spinning faster and faster until it lifted off the ground.

"And we have lift off!" Mikey high-fived me as the copter hovered in the air, "sweet! Thanks girl!" he flew the helicopter shakily around the room "hey, you can fly planes too, right?" I laughed,

"No, but apparently it's easier than a helicopter." Mikey nodded, then got really bold and started climbing higher. Oh shit.

"Pull up! Pull up!" I yelled desperately and scrambled out of the way. Donnie and Leo watched with matching expressions of horror as the aircraft plummeted towards it's pilot. Mikey yelled and ducked, trying madly to regain control but it crashed and skidded across the concrete, it's propellers smacking against the floor. Somehow, it was still functional, so he kept trying to fly it. I sat at the dining table with Leo and Donnie. Eating pizza, laughing and yelling at Mikey to do something different when he would almost crash it.

And that's when everything went to hell.

Alarms wailed throughout the lair.

The helicopter crashed.

Donnie was the first to react,

"Breach!" He got up and ran to the monitor wall. Leo, Mikey and I scrambled after him. Donnie's fingers flew madly across the keyboards and video feeds of people carrying guns in black appeared. They were running through the maze of sewage tunnels and heading straight towards us. Splinter and Raphael appeared behind us and watched in horror. The Footclan.

"They've blocked all our escape routes." Donnie announced.

"Hide!" Splinter hissed, "go, I will take care of them but you cannot be seen! Get Raiya away from here!" His last statement made them all turn and look at me. Oh great, I'm the Damsel in Distress.

"They're going to blow the main wall!" Donnie yelled. Splinter ran for the main octagon room just as a giant hole was blasted through one of the walls. My ears rang and I heard nothing for what seemed like an eternity. Leo grabbed my arm and dragged me into the dining room where he ushered me to hide. Then he ran off. And that's when my hearing returned. I almost fell backward with the noise that hit me; yelling, gunshots, the crackle of electricity, metal against metal. It was all so much!

"-tranq darts!" I heard Donnie yell

"Don't let them hit your skin!" Leo. I breathed a sigh of relief; he wasn't far away. The gunshots came closer. God damn it, what can I do? I'm totally useless! I dimly made out Mikey's voice as he taunted the Foot soldiers. That's it! I can taunt them! I looked around for a weapon of some sort but there was nothing. The weapons room was just across the training cave, if I could get to it without being shot. Leo barked orders to his brothers, he sounded further away than before. There were so many things that could go wrong but I could think of nothing else to do. So I gathered my courage, put out the growing flames of fear, and charged from my hiding spot. Huge bullets zoomed past me as I ran, but then it was over and I was in the weapons room. I looked around hopefully. Is there a shield or...wait. Ninjas don't use shields. I mentally face palmed myself. You're so stupid! You can't use any of this shit! I yanked a massive dagger off the wall anyway. I heard Leo yell something about the fan room and I remembered briefly seeing it on my tour with Mikey. I wasn't far from it. I can help! I peeked around the corner. Foot soldiers were advancing towards the fan room, where one of the turtles fought inside it. I darted closer to the entrance and picked up a chunk of cement. I didn't really want to kill anyone, maybe just knock them out. It was heavy, so I couldn't throw it far. Which meant I had to get closer to chuck it. My approach wasn't very stealthy and I was spotted. I tossed the cement and-amazingly-took a guy out with it. Ha! Take that, asshole! I looked up and saw Raphael fighting within the confined area of the fan room. He gave me an incredulous look as he was being pelted by tranq darts that seemed to have no affect on him. Then he noticed a bunch of soldiers lift their guns toward me,

"Raiya!" He yelled. I ducked and ran out of the way as they opened fire. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm totally dead. Raph rammed a soldier right into the wall, which caused the whole room to collapse on top of them. There was no movement beneath the concrete blocks. Holy shit.

"Raph!" I called as I climbed over the debris, "Raph!" A weak cry rang from the octagon room. It seemed like the whole assault paused for a moment to see what happened. Splinter. He laid on the ground at the foot of a massive, robot samurai. What the hell is that!? Several cries of "Sensei!" rang throughout the lair. Then, incessant crackles of electricity that were followed by cries of pain. I have to do something. I gripped the dagger in my hand, climbed back over the fallen cement, and ran towards them. Swallowing back my fear, I ran right up to the samurai-who'sback was to me-and plunged the dagger into an important lookingmechanism on it's back. It whirled around on me,

"You stupid little girl!" It bellowed in an angry voice. I backed away, my fear returning at a frightful rate. Splinter was back on his feet, thanks to my interruption. He yelled my name and wrapped his tail around my midsection, then hurled me away from the fight. Shaking, I huddled behind the table in his room and watched events unfold before my eyes. The robot samurai, I assumed, could be no other than Shedder. Splinter had battled him restlessly, despite his old age and wounds. But now, he couldn't stay on his feet. Leo shook off the Foot soldiers that had been electrocuting him through electric-charged spears,

"Sensei!" He yelled desperately, running to his master's aid. Splinter crawled toward a lever on the wall,

"No my sons!" He coughed out the words, "stay back!" He pulled the lever and slumped to the floor. Chains rose and fell throughout the whole room and huge, metal gates fell across all the entrances.

"Sensei!" Leo rammed the gate but it didn't budge. He knelt down beside the almost motionless rat, "dad! Dad, what are you doing!?" He watched with fearful eyes as Shredder approached his master.

"Hide." Splinter hissed before he was dragged away. Leo, stubborn as ever, gripped the gate and tried to raise it. His brothers ran to help and with their combined effort, lifted it high enough for Donnie to place his bō beneath it. He pressed the button that extended the staff and all the gates shot up around the room. The turtles ran into the room, weapons raised. The remaining Footclan soldiers held a defensive circle around Shredder, who held Splinter up as if he were a rag doll.

"Drop your weapons," he ordered and looked at the crippled rat in his grasp, "or your...father...will die." He held up his other fist with small spikes across the knuckles, awaiting their decision. Leo released his grip on his swords. They clattered onto the wet, concrete floor to rest at his feet. Donnie and Mikey followed suit, abandoning their weapons. Shredder laughed and launched his fist into Splinter's gut.

"No!" The turtle's cried in unison and rushed forward. But they were stopped in their tracks by the electric spears. Their bodies writhed desperately as white-blue electricity snaked across them. Splinter's body fell to the ground, unmoving. Leo cried out and tried to move, but-like his brothers-Leo's struggles slowed until he stopped moving completely. Tranq darts were fired at the 3 turtles until Shredder was satisfied and had them chained, then carried out through the hole they blasted through the wall.

"Where's the fourth?" The robot samurai asked as the last of the soldiers exited the lair.

"He's dead," one of them answered "tunnel collapsed on him."

"Hmmm," Shredder glanced across the underground fortress once more, "destroy this place." I barely had time to scramble for cover under the table before bombs went off throughout the whole lair.

The explosion seemed to happen in slow motion. First, it was the blasts, causing the ground to shake beneath me. Then, cracks snaked across the roof and walls, causing dust to rain down and hang in the air. And then, concrete flew everywhere. Chunks smashed furniture, cracked walls and the floor and even collided in mid-air. But it didn't stop there. More cracks formed in the walls and roof, causing more concrete to fall loseand smash the floor. There was a huge crack above me and dust sprinkled down around me. I dove out from beneath the table only a moment before it was smashed by concrete. I gasped for breath to calm my racing heart, but only succeeded in filling my lungs with heavy dust. I coughed as I stumbled toward Splinter. It looked like he'd moved during the explosions. And a good thing he did too, or else he would've gotten crushed. He laid on his back against a block of cement, surrounded by debris. It looked like he was wrapped in a bed of stone there was so much of it. I wiped dust from my eyes and began to dig the rat out. I knew I couldn't through, most of the cement slabs were too big and heavy for me to move. But I did what I could and eventually tried to move one of the larger pieces. I threw all my weight into yanking it off Splinter's arm. And I did get it off him, but I couldn't flip it away. I heard movement from somewhere in the lair. The sound of concrete chunks tumbling over each other and being shoved aside. I looked at the pile of them behind Splinter, praying for it to not fall on him. The mound didn't budge...the noise was coming from somewhere else. There was a groan, then heavy footsteps. Hope fluttered inside me,

"Raph?" I called.

"Raiya?" The footsteps approached me from behind, "Sensei!" The turtle leaped into my vision as he desperately uncovered Splinter. He was covered in dust. Holy shit. Raph dug himself out of the collapsed fan room. He shoved the concrete out of his way as if they weighed no more than stones and pebbles. Raphael scooped the rat up in his arm, it was the most gentle thing I'd ever seen him do. He jogged over to the living room and I cleared the table off for him to set Splinter down on.

"Get the first aid kit," he ordered. I stumbled around, trying to find it, "on the shelf." There! I yanked it from is place and brought it over to Splinter. Inside was a jumbled mess of medical supplies. My hands didn't know what to grab or what to do. What do I even need!?

"Do you know first aid?" I asked Raph desperately. He looked at me incredulously,

"Does it look like I know first aid!?" He demanded "why the hell would I know first aid!? Don't you know first aid!? You're a girl, you should know first aid!" Well that's extremely stereotypical. Splinter groaned and tried to roll over but Raph grabbed him to keep him still. I dug through the contents of the entire kit in frustration. There isn't even Advil in this god damn box! What kind of first aid kit doesn't have Advil!?

"Sensei?" He called softly. The rat's eyes flickered open,

"Raphael?" My heart sank at the sound of his voice. He sounds so weak.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm here."

"You...must go, and-" he coughed awfully before continuing in a cracked voice "and find, your...brothers" One of the vials was labelled as morphine. The name stirred a memory...I remembered reading something about it. Pain medication! The really good shit too! I fumbled and read the dosages on the side, then grabbed for a needle. Why can't this shit just be chewable fish gummies? I filled the syringe up to the specified adult measurement, hoping it worked on mutant rats just as well. Then I realized I have no idea how to inject it,

"Uhm," I waved the needle in the air, "I have no idea what I'm doing. Where's a vein I can stick this in?"

"Didn't it come with instructions!?" Raph snapped. Oh yeah, of coursebecause this stuff is sold regularly at the dollar store! I tried to think as fast as I could. In movies, needles were always injected into an arm vein...I searched for a visible vein in Splinter's arm, then slid it into his skin without a second thought and dispensed the liquid.

"I really hope that works." I murmured and just about had a heart attack as an alarm went off. I glanced back at the monitor wall; screens had fallen off the wall, keyboards were scattered across the floor, monitors flickered on and off or displayed static as disconnected wires sparked occasionally. I ran over as a screen lit up and stayed on. A map of New York appeared and zoomed in on a blinking dot that kept moving.

"It's some sort of tracker, I think." I called.

"It must be Donnie."

"Go...save them." Splinter urged. Raphael looked up at me, determined,

"Let's go save my brothers."

Of course; we had no way of getting to the Sacks Estate, which is where Donnie's tracker ended up at. I couldn't call Olivia, she'd just cause a whole other problem and Raph probably wouldn't even fit in our small car. I could call my uncle and we might even be able to fly a helicopter, but him knowing would also cause a problem. I voiced all this to Raphael,

"I'll walk if I have to, but we have to get there fast so let's just grab one of those news vans."

"Uhm, how about we don't steal a vehicle," I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, "I guess I can just sneak in and grab our car," I sized Raphael up doubtfully," is there any way you can fit in the backseat?"

"This is ridiculous." Raphael grumbled and tried to move around in the cramped back seat, where all the window shades were up.

"Well, it'll be easier to explain to my sister how I got the car covered in bullet holes than to my uncle." Even though uncleTom would be way more capable and chill about replacing one of his trucks.

"I'm probably going to have to tell Olivia after this." I muttered as I followed the GPS directions to the Sack's Estate. He snorted,

"Sensei won't like that." Hearing him confirm my thoughts made me grimace,

"Yeah, I know."

"How did they know?" He hissed angrily, "how did they find us?" I shrugged, not wanting to point out that he'd intentionally attacked them and later the same night they attacked us. It had to have some sort of connection.

"It's like a game of cat and mouse," he growled "we attacked them and got away, they found us, attacked us and got away, now we're tracking them, and-" he stopped mid sentencein realization.

"What?" I blinked as the sun's first rays of light peaked over the horizon and blinded me.

"They must have bugged you when I attacked them. None of them or their bullets touched me, so it must have been you." My hand to flew to my wrist. Shit. I wrenched the steering wheel and veered over to the side of the road.

"It's in my wrist. I forgot that I felt a sting there. Give me your knife." He raised his nonexistent eyebrows at my outstretched hand and snorted,

"Only I use my knife." I rolled my eyes, of course. I laid a cloth down on the centre console,

"Fine then," I held my wrist out to him, palm up, "cut it out." He muttered something and roughly grabbed my arm to look closer at my wrist. He ran his fingers over the skin, searching for signs of the bug.

"I think I felt the sting here." I poked at a tiny, red spot on my otherwise clear skin. He cursed,

"That's where all your veins are." He traced his fingers over the area a while longer, as if creating a mental map of my wrist and everything below my skin. He grimaced and took out his knife, flipped the blade out, and ran the cold metal lightly over the red spot.

"Keep still." Despite his words, I couldn't help but flinch as the cool blade bit into my skin. Pain lanced up my arm and I clenched my other hand into a fist, my nails cutting into my palm. I looked away, but could still feel the warm blood trickle from the open wound.

"Calm down," Raph murmured, he started breathing loudly through his mouth, "slow your heart rate." I matched my breathing to his and never faltered from the pattern, even when I felt the cold knife plunge deeper, causing crude bolts of pain to shoot through me and pool around the cut. I flexed the fingers on my other hand and wiggled them around, focusing on moving them instead of the pain. What is so long!? Shouldn't he have found the bug before he stabbed me!? Raphael sighed in relief and extracted the knife from my wrist, which caused more blood to flow forth. He cursed and scrambled for the first aid kit I convinced him we should bring. He cursed again when he hit his head on something. I would have laughed if my hand hadn't started to grow cold. He came up with bandages but then realized the wound was too large and needed stitches. So he dove back down and searched for a needle and thread.

"Shit shit shit shit…" he continued to mutter swears the whole time he closed the cut. I glanced over as he pulled the bandages out. With one hand, Raphael held one end of the bandage against my wrist and used his other hand to gently wrap it around my wrist and occasionally over my thumb. My eyes flickered to his face. He was focused on concentration, he didn't even acknowledge me staring at him. He bit his lip and examined his work,

"Is it too tight?" He asked. I wiggled my fingers to test it out,

"Nope."

"Good," he slumped back awkwardly in the backseat, "that thing was in deep." I saw his knife laying on the cloth beside a tiny, metal thing the shape of a sharpened pencil lead; both covered in my blood.

"Do we smash it or leave it on the side of the road?" I asked.

"Leave it so they think we haven't found it." I nodded and tossed it out the window, cleaned my blood off Raph's knife and handed it back to him,

"Thanks, by the way." I added and started the car.

"Can you drive?" He asked. I pulled out onto the road using my good hand to answer his question.

"Raiya?" Raphael asked, breaking the long string of silence "I-uh..." He cleared his throat and started over,

"I never apologized for putting you in danger. I'm sorry," my gaze flickered to the rear-view mirror. Raph sat uncomfortably in the back, looking down as he fiddled with his fingers. I opened my mouth to reply but he was faster, "Sensei was right. I should have stopped and considered my actions. I did this all. All this shit was because of me. If I hadn't attacked them, they never would have known we existed and they never wouldhave put that thing in you and..." He groaned and put his head in his hands. What can I tell him?

"Well...at least now we all know you can't do anything dumber than this." I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard him laugh. It was a small, light laugh. But it was still a laugh; the first one I'd heard from him. I smiled, It sounded nice, actually.

"Does your wrist still hurt?"

"Not really, I'm just kinda scared to use it in case your shitty stitches don't hold it closed." Raph grinned,

"Sensei and Donnie are the best at that stuff"

"That doesn't surprise me. What about Leo?"

"Worries too much. And Mikey just does it all too fast."

"And you...?" He grimaced,

"I didn't really try when we had to practice. Which really backfired on me today."

I yawned, "yeah no kidding."

"Shit, you didn't sleep at all last night, I forgot. Can you still drive?"

"Well even if I can't, neither can you," I avoided the question, "if I start falling asleep, just stab my wrist again."

"But can you drive?" He repeated

"I'm going to have to. What kind of music do you like?"

"Any as long as it doesn't sound like funeral music," I nodded and switched on the radio, shuffling through a few stations before settling on one, "you're not going to fall asleep while you're driving, are you?"

"Well I definitely could, but as long as you keep talking to me and keep my mind going I'm good. Just try not to bore me for the sake of both of us."

"Okay, how far out are we?" I glanced at the map and the distance we still had to cover. I did some quick math,

"Like half an hour."

"Can we shorten that?"

"Yeah, if you want to end up in the ditch," I laughed. Raph gave me a confused look, "I don't have my license yet because I'm a shit driver. And also, if I get caught, I'll be in some huge trouble. I can speed a bit, but that's it," I shook my head, "I really don't like driving, flying is way easier and I'm so much better at it."

"You aren't bothered by heights?" He asked in disbelief. I shook my head with a grin,

"Noway, the higher, the better! I need to take you out on a flight sometime, it's so cool."

"Yeah, I'll pass on that offer."

"Who the hell turns down a helicop-ohhhhh! You're afraid of heights, aren't you?" I glanced back at him. Raph opened and closed his mouth, trying to deny it, basically answering my question, "no freaking way! The fearless warrior is afraid of heights!" I patted his insanely muscular arm, "don't worry, I can keep a secret." Then, he burst out like he finally could form words,

"W-what!? Heights? I'm not afraid of heights! Who...wha-what gave you that idea?"

"Raph, I give you credit for trying, but you're a bit late," I laughed, "don't worry. Everyone has fears; I'm afraid of emus."

"Of what?"

"An emu. You know, those big, hostile birds that are always at zoos and look kind of like ostriches? The ones with the big, fat feathery bellies and wings and the scary feet and long necks? They're always in those cages that have signs all over saying, 'caution: don't poke fingers through fence or feed animals' because the assholes'll bite them right off!" He raised a brow at me,

"That's happened to you, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, I have a scar on my pointer and middle finger." I showed him my right hand, which also had the bandage wrapped around it, he took my hand carefully and ran his fingers over the scar,

"Wow, this hand's gone through a lot"

"I know," I laughed, "I have another right here from a hair straightener," I pointed out a light patch of rough skin on the side of my neck, "how'd you get that one on your lip? It's probably way more heroic then an emu attack." Raphael sighed,

"Not by much, actually. A cat clawed me." I burst out laughing,

"How the hell did that happen?" "When I was younger, I found this cat in the sewer. She had her paw caught in a rat trap and a baby cat with her. I got her free and gave food to them, but as soon as I got near the baby cat, she lashed out and clawed me." I laughed,

"I hate cats, they're too sassy for me. Okay, so guess what happened here" I ran a finger over a jagged line of scar tissue on my forearm. Raph answered immediately,

"Serrated knife cut."

"Ha! I wish, that'd be a way better explanation than a frickintree branch attack."

"Once I tripped and cut myself with my own sai." Raph said, rubbing a cut below his collarbone. I took this as a challenge,

"There's one on my foot from stepping on a nail."

"I have another on my palm from shattering a light bulb Mikey and I were tossing back and forth."

"I got this one in my eyebrow from having a temper tantrum and smashing my face into my bed frame." I grinned.

"I got electrocuted here while we were setting up cameras in the sewers." He ran a finger over a light green, spiderwebbing, pattern of skin on the inside of his forearm.

"My cousins were pretending to cut my mouth like the Joker once and the knife slipped and made this cut on my cheekbone," I laughed at Raph's horrified expression, "I know, such a mean family." We compared stories of how we got all our scars. It was as if Raph had been wearing a veil for the past week and now he'd taken it off. And only after we ran out of scars to tell about did I notice that Raph hadn't mentioned the big, intricate Japanese one on his shoulder. I pointed at it and asked how he got it.

"Oh, that one. Yeah I got Mikey to do that for me. It's the same symbol as the one on my mask. Cool, huh?" He stroked his thumb over the raised scar tissue.

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"Anger," he laughed lightly as I raised an eyebrow, "it's there because it fuels me. I know, it sounds weird. But I'm always angry and I have been all my life, and I've learned to take that anger and strengthen myself with it. Aaaand this was also one of the only symbols Mikey could do. And I can't really take it off now," he smiled. Then, much to my surprise, he took a deep breath and continued, "I'm sorry for how I've been around you this last week. I've just been mad that everyone trusts you without a second thought and worried that you would expose us. It's hard for me to let go of all my anger and just have fun, but for some reason, it's easier when I'm around you," he finally met my gaze through the rear-view mirror, "thanks." I smiled and flushed,

"Well I guess this is beneficial for both of us then because you're much less scary like this," Raphael laughed and I checked the map, "5 minutes until we get to the Sacks Estate." I announced.

"What's the layout?" He leaned forward and gazed out the front windshield.

"Uhm a big ass castle on a big ass square piece of land."

"That's not what I meant."

"Well this is the best I got," I had the screen on my dashboard show the Sacks Estate. My map was supposed to display just the roads so it showed the roads around his property, which gave us an idea of how big his house might be but that was it, "so what's the plan?" I asked.

"Get us as close to the house as you can and wait outside for me to come back with the others."

"I can help!" I protested, "the entire Footclan is going to be there, and that includes robowarrior! So you can hold them off while I find your brothers."

"I can't just let you run around the Sacks Estate! Leo would kill me!"

"Oh shit there's a gate." I started to slow down as the castle came into view.

"What the hell are you doing!? Ram it!" Is he insane!? We're going to die! Oh well, too late now. I ducked instinctively as we crashed through the gates. Foot soldiers started peppering the car with bullets immediately. I laid my foot on the gas pedal and peeked through the windshield. I managed to crash into 2 of them before ramming through a second, smaller gate into the courtyard where we got shot even more. Raphael burst from the backseat and dispatched the soldiers. He turned back to me,

"Wait here," I jumped from the front seat and followed him anyways. "Raiya! What are-!?" Soldiers opened fire on us the second he busted down the front door. He whipped around and pulled me tightly against his chest with his back-or really, his shell-tothem. When they stopped firing he looked down at me,

"You okay?" I nodded and watched in amazement as he took out all the soldiers with ease. He beckoned me over,

"Okay that was really cool." I whispered

"Why are you whispering?" He asked and I shrugged, "okay you can help, but stay close. They know we're here so we have to be quick. Look for signs of the others and I'll take care of the Foot if we're seen. But just incasetake this," he handed me one of his sai, "alright, let's go."

"They're in here!" Raphael disappeared into a room ahead of us. I ran after him, praying I wouldn't get lost. I heard yelling up ahead and I ran faster.

"Raph!" I yelled as I burst into the room. I barely registered the 3 brothers standing-basically motionless-in glass cages with their feet and arms tied up, and their blood running in tubes from their wrists and to a machine, where it was filling a canister. The turtles looked up at me as I entered, but my attention was on Raph. He was battling Shredder on the level beneath us. A huge square hole in the ground allowed me to watch in horror as Shredder tossed him around as if he weighed no more than a loaf of bread.

"Raphael!" I yelled. Shredder looked up at me as I threw Raph's saito him. I didn't wait to see what happened, I just ran to Donnie's cage and banged on the glass.

"Donnie! Donnie!" He finally looked up at me, "Donnie, what do I do?" He murmured something too quiet to hear. I placed my ear to a breathing hole in the glass and I was able to roughly make out what he said,

"Adrenaline." Of course! I looked around desperately for a control pad or something. I backed into an old computer sitting on a desk, one of the few still on. Excited, I ran around to face the screen. It was exactly what I needed! I heard a huge cracking noise and instinctively looked up at the roof, but it wasn't collapsing. A pained yell accompanied the loud noise. The sounds were coming from the level below me. I ran to the railing encircling the square hole. Raph laid on his stomach as Shredder pressed down with his foot on his shell. He let out another yell that caused my heart to stop. Shredder's going to kill him. I ran back to the computer, and scanned the screen for a dosage option. I selected adrenaline and increased the dosage until I couldn't anymore. An overdose warning flashed on the screen but I barely noticed it. Yet the turtles remained unmoving in their cells.

"Get up!" I yelled. Raphael had gone silent and I couldn't decide wether to take it as a good, or bad sign. Arms grabbed me from behind, restraining me before I could react. No. Not again! Dread filled my chest, making it near impossible to breathe. I screamed Raphael's name. I have to know if he's alive. I tried screaming again but a gag was shoved in my mouth. I struggled as they dragged me away. I must've been too much trouble, because they resorted to pressing an awful smelling cloth against my nose. My senses dimmed and I started to lose control of myself. I was partly aware of something shattering. Then yelling. Strong arms lifted me. I curled up against a warm chest, wanting to sleep. Voices, calling my name maybe? Ow. Something poked my arm. Oh ow that really hurt. I felt a warmth from the spot in my arm spread across my body. My hearing slowly returned,

"-awake?" Mikey.

"Just give it a sec. Her vitals are fine and I've counteracted the sedative's effects." Donnie.

"Raiya? Raiya, wake up." Leo. The heaviness in my eyelids was lifted and my eyes fluttered open. 2 big, green faces were right in mine.

"See, I told you." Donnie said triumphantly and backed away. I noticed I grasped the nasty cloth that was shoved in my face and I put it in my hoodie pocket. I looked up at Leo, who held me in his arms.

"Can you stand?"

"Yeah I-" I gasped as I remembered someone was missing "Raph!" I squirmed from Leo's grasp and ran to the railing, Raph's saiwere scattered on the floor, along with his brothers' weapons that he brought. I heard them follow. And once again, Leo scooped me up. He jumped down to the level beneath us and set me on the ground. Mikey cursed. I felt myself go cold when I saw him laying on the floor. I scrambled over to him.

"His shell's cracked." Donnie murmured and took out a roll of duct tape.

"What happened?" Leo demanded as Donnie taped the crevasses on his shell closed.

"Shredder. He held him off while I tried to free you guys," I laid my hand on his arm, "Raph." He groaned in acknowledgement and shifted to look at me,

"Are you okay?" I sighed in relief. He's okay.

"Are you serious, you're worried about me? You should be worried about yourself, you look like shit." His shoulders shook as he laughed,

"That's good to know," he stood up and looked at his brothers, "what'd they do to you?"

"Cow prodded us all the way to this shit hole and sucked our blood like mosquitoes." Mikey grumbled as he picked up his nunchucks. Raph's brow creased in confusion,

"What?" We asked simultaneously,

"Sacks is going to release a neurotoxin from his skyscraper to infect the whole city, then use the mutagen in our blood to save everyone and become rich." Donnie explained and twirled his bō in his hand.

"So we have to get there first and stop him." Leo concluded, his katana sat sheathed once again on the back of his shell. He handed Raph his sai.

"But the canister of your blood is still here." I pointed out.

"Sacks took another one to New York with him as soon as you guys set off the alarm. We should probably destroy the one here," Leo explained then turned to Donnie, "what's the fastest way back to New York?"

"The only way we could make it back in time to stop them is if we flew but none of us know how to-" Mikey cut him off,

"Woah woah woah, bro," he slung his arm across my shoulders and pulled me closer to his side, "you're forgetting that the latest and hottest member of our team, is a freaking pilot."

"Can you guys fit in that?" I asked, looking over the 4 passenger helicopter.

"Nope. Raph and I'll ride outside. Can this thing hold our weight?"

"Hell yeah it can, Robinson R44 Raven II was built for heavy slinging." I hopped into the pilot's seat and started the engine as the turtles climbed on, dragging the canister of their blood with them. Raphael and Leo stood on the rails, wearing harnesses that kept them clipped onto the helicopter incasethey slipped. They all managed to fit the helmets on, much to my surprise.

"Alright boys, hang on out there," I said through the transmitter at my mouth and we rose off the ground. Holy shit. I'm flying without uncle Tom! "what's the plan?" I asked.

"Fly us up to the Sacks skyscraper then get the hell out of there." Leo said.

"Awyou guys are cute. Raph tried to keep me out of the fight too, ask him how that went."

"You'll have to put her in a coma to keep her out of it." He grumbled and I grinned,

"I'm not just a chauffeur, I can help. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it."

"Leo, she can get the mutagen." Donnie pointed out.

"Yeah, I'll do that! Where would it be?"

"As soon as I can get a visual on the building I'll do a scan and tell you where it is."

"Got it, we're about 10 minutes out."

"Hey guys, check this out," Mikey hoisted the canister up and tossed it out the open doorway "bomb's away!" I laughed,

"Is that a secluded enough place to throw it?"

"It should be good. If anyone finds it, the blood will have already been absorbed into the ground or infected." Donnie said.

"Oh yeah, and thanks for saving us." Leo added.

"No problem, how's the view out there?"

"Awesome!" I could hear the smile in Leo's voice and I grinned,

"This is the flight I said I'd take you on, Raph. So if you don't open your eyes and relax I'll take you out on another one later." He muttered something then yelled,

"Holy shit Raiya! Could you take us any higher!?"

"Not yet, I haven't learned to navigate the wind-shit hang on!" The helicopter shook and rocked sideways for a few seconds, "my bad, I hit a pocket"

"Maybe you should work on navigating these winds first." Raph said.

"I can!" I protested, "Donnie I can see the Sacks tower, are you close enough to scan it?"

"Not yet."

"Girl you have to take us sky divingsometime!" Mikey said. Raph protested immediately and I laughed,

"First I need a helicopter that can fit all you guys properly."

"Donnie can modify this one."

"Mutagen's 8 levels below the roof." He announced.

"Nice, I'll land and take the elevator down to grab it. Then what?"

"Take it to the lair, it can save Splinter." Leo said. Of course. I squinted at a figure on the roof of the Sacks skyscraper.

"Is that...?" I cursed as multiple projectiles zoomed toward us, "hold on!" I veered out of the way as they flew past us. Shredder.

"Disengaging!" Leo yelled, threw off his helmet, and unclipped his harness before falling to the roof. Donnie and Mikey followed, but Raphael stayed.

"What are you doing!?" I demanded, "it's not that far, Mr. Fearless, just jump!"

"What!? No, Raiya, I didn't stay because of the heights, I stayed because I have to tell you something." What!? Are you shitting me!? I cursed and avoided another volley of blades from Shredder.

"Raph I can't talk right now! You have to kill robowarriorand I have to steal back your brothers' blood!" I finally managed to land on the roof. I ripped my helmet off and ran for the elevator. As I passed Raph, he reached out and grabbed my arm.

"Raiya, I-" I turned back to him, stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. He lost his words and stood with his mouth open in surprise. Then I jabbed my finger in his chest, which got his attention,

"If you die I'll kill you." And I ran into the elevator.

I shook him off my mind as I searched another room for the mutagen. Still nothing. Where is it? As far as I knew, this level was deserted which worked out great for me, considering I was weaponless and could barely defend myself. I should get Leo to teach me a few things. I peeked into the next room and sucked in my breath. Somebody was moving around in there. I heard a machine whir to life from inside. Then I saw his face. I'd seen that face on TV all the time, there was no mistaking him. Eric Sacks. I briefly considered killing him but dismissed the idea almost as quickly as I came up with it. Instead, I snuck into the room and hid behind a shelf of tools and equipment. I watched as he placed an empty canister tothe machine and it began to fill with a green liquid. He's separating the mutagen from their blood. I looked around desperately for something heavy to throw at him, the only thing I could find was a microscope. So my plan is to throw something at him and hopehe doesn't shoot me with the gun on the counter beside him. There's no way that's going to work. I decided to modify my plan just a little. I Imagined Raphael beside me and I matched my breathing to histo slow my heart rate. I smoothed my clothes and hair, then stood up and walked out from my hiding spot,

"Mr. Sacks," I forced myself not to react when he grabbed his gun and whirled around to point it at me. I held my hands behind my back so he wouldn't see them shaking, "the test subjects are on the roof."

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"Sir?" I asked, feigning confusion

"Who are you?" he repeated

"It seems Sensei Shredder has not notified you of my role."

"Nohe has not."

"Allow me to explain, Sensei Shredder had me eliminate the test subjects' ally and pose as her. I led the fourth test subject you thought had perished in the attack to the lab in your estate but they managed to escape and so I brought them here to be eliminated," Sacks relaxed his grip on his gun and I continued, "I apologize for all the secrecy, I assumed Sensei Shredder would have told you."

"I assumed the same thing," he lowered his gun warily. I visibly relaxed and put my hands in the pocket of my hoodie. Sacks watched my every move suspiciously,but assumed this movement was as casual as any. I followed him as he turned and walked back to the canister to watch it's process, "good work bringing the test subjects here, Ms. …" he waited for me to say my name. I removed my hands from my pocket,

"Raiya fucking Carter." He cursed and scrambled for his gun but I was faster. I pressed the cloth in my hand to his face until he stopped struggling and fell to the floor. Then, I tied his hands and feet together and secured the cloth around his mouth and nose. Nice! That was totally badass! I grabbed the canister of mutagen and disconnected it from the machine. I considered doing what Leo said but then decided against it, as usual.

Good thing I didn't run off on the turtles, it looked like they were in a bit of a predicament. They were supporting the base of the spire (which held the canister of neurotoxins in it) while Shredder threw his blades at them. Relief flooded through me when I saw that all the brothers appeared unharmed. Leo yelled at everyone to stay put and support the spire. Then Shredder had other ideas. He threw his blades at the frame, slowly cutting through the metal. It creaked and swayed dangerously. Oh shit. Time to improvise,

"Hey, Robowarrior!" I yelled. Shredder whirled around and glared at me. I waved the canister of mutagen in the air for him to see and backed toward the edge of the roof, "what happens if I drop this?"

"Little girl..." He warned and took a step toward me. The spire whined as it toppled over.

"Raiya!" I turned just in time to see Shredder ram into me. I screamed as we toppled over the edge of the roof and fell after the spire. The top of it landed with a massive crash on the roof of another building, creaking unsteadily. He wrenched the canister from my grasp as we fell. He clipped it to his side and grabbed onto the spire as he fell past it. I can do that, can't I? I reached out and grabbed it, jarring my body. I heard the turtles yell my name and I turned to see them running down the body of the spire toward me. Unfortunately, I didn't land far enough away from Shredder. He whipped a blade at me and cut off the bar I was hanging onto. I screamed as I fell yet again. What a shitty day. Something caught my arm and I stopped falling I looked up to see Raph. The turtles had created a chain to save me. They started to raise me back up to the spire.

"Are you okay?" Raph asked and I nodded.

"Thanks."

"Leo!" Mikey yelled. I looked up as Leo parried a blade from Shredder and threw his katana at him, impaling his chest.

"Swing me towards him!"

"Do it!" Donnie yelled, "the angle is perfect!" Raph swayed me backwards, then forward. I kicked Shredder off the pole he held onto and he fell toward the streets below. Oh my god it worked. The spire creaked as Raphael hoisted me up. I grabbed a metal pole and caught my breath. It's finally over.

"You're so stupid." Raphael murmured. I smiled and patted his arm,

"I know." Then I screamed as the spire creaked and started to roll off the building. There's nowaywe're going to survive the fall.

"Is there anything anyone wants to say?" Leo called.

"I'm the one who licks all the icing off the Poptarts every morning and puts them back in the box!" Donnie yelled. The spire rolled off the edge of the building and fell until it landed on another roof below it.

"I so did not understand the ending of Lost!" Mikey cried. Same!

"Raph?"

"I just uh…," I saw him hesitate before continuing, "uh, I just want you guys to know I'm sorry! I'm sorry I was so hard on you! Every time I pushed you, I-I threatened you, I yelled at you, I pushed you beyond your limits is because I believe in you! I believe in each one of you!" we slid off the building and started falling to the ground, but he didn't stop, "I believe in your spirit and your intelligence and your potential! And every time I talked about walking away it was because I was scared-I just didn't think I was good enough to stand next to you and call you my brothers!"

"Uh, Raph?" Donnie called, "we made it." Hey, I guess we did. Dust hung in the air around us.

"We need to get out of here!" Leo hissed. I climbed out from under the spire and followed the turtles as they dove into the nearest storm drain. Back to the shadows, I guess.

"The mutagen is now entering his bloodstream." Donnie announced. I stood off to the side as the turtles crowded around their Sensei. I'd filled a syringe with mutagen after I decided to disobey Leo. Donnie just injected him with it now,

"Master Splinter?" Mikey asked.

"Nothing's happening."

"Why isn't it working yet?"

"Mikey..." Splinter's voice came, very strained, "come closer." I watched as he leaned down to hear him better.

"What did he say?" Raph asked

"He said please get your knee off my chest." I stifled a laugh.

"Sensei!" They all yelled and backed away to give him space.

"You're alive!"

"It worked!" Leo was a lot less enthusiastic,

"I'm sorry. This was all my fault. You were right, we weren't ready."

"No," Splinter said, "it was I, who wasn't ready to let you go. All you needed was to discover that your true power lies in believing in one another." The brothers looked up at each other and grinned.

I watched excitedly as Donnie drew out plans for the helicopter modifications.

"Oh yeah, I was also thinking while I was falling to my death that you should make me like a really badass wingsuit." I added.

"Oh that sounds cool, add another one to that order!" Mikey called.

"I'll look into it but you might be too fat." Donnie hid his laughter.

"Hey! Muscle weighs more than fat!" He countered and I grinned. Everything was working out great now. The brothers had helped me put together an explanation to tell Olivia. I told her that I'd ran into this guy when I went to Vapiano for my job interview and we'd talked a bit. Then the morning after we went to Olive Garden, I went out early to see uncle Tom and forgot my phone in my room. While I was walking back to my apartment, I met the same guy again and he took me to lunch and after we walked around the city and did a bunch of things, then he walked me back to my apartment. As for the totallycar we'd left at the Sacks Estate, we ended up having to tell Uncle Tom and he helped me buy the same car and got the same license plate and made it seem like nothing ever happened to it. Turned out, he got along amazingly with Donnie and agreed to keep the helicopter he was planning to modify in his hangar. Amazingly, Olivia had actually believed me. As I watched Donnie, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Damn, Already?

"Alright guys, I have flight training in the morning so I'm out. See you tomorrow."

I turned around before crawling through the window and into my room.

"What?" Raph asked as I walked back toward him,

"I just remembered something. You know, when you decided to tell me something while robowarriorwas trying to kill us and I was trying to land a helicopter?"

"Oh yeah," he grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck, "sorry about that." I laughed,

"Wellwe didn't die so no worries. But what did you want to tell me?"

"Oh...nothing."

"Really? It seemed pretty important."

"Just...don'tworry about it," I rolled my eyes and plopped down on the roof. He watched me, confused, "what are you doing?"

"Waiting for you to man up. Should've grabbed a book, though." After a few minutes, he sighed heavily,

"Fiiine," I grinned and hopped to my feet, "I just wanted to tell you that you're a great pilot," I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow, "aaaand your reckless, and stubborn, and funny, smart, strong, beautiful and sarcastic and you make me happy and I love being around you and I love how you don't care what anyone thinks and I-I know Mikey called dibs on you-"

"Woah, hold up! Did he really call dibs on me?"

"Yeah, right after you left the first night you came to the lair," Why am I not surprised? He stepped closer to me, "but I think Mikey can suck it the hell up." I laughed, stood on my tiptoes and wrapped my arms around Raphael's neck, "I second that statement." He grinned, bent down, and kissed me.

I know, I know, it's pretty cringey but I was fourteen and put about five minutes of planning into this so cut me some slack lol

But hey, it's fun to read every now and then and it really helps to let me know how much my writing has progressed in the past two years.