"Go away Mike! Leave me alone!"

"Aww, but Raph! Your big, fat butt is hoggin' the couch and I wanna play videogames."

As Raphael and Michelangelo argued, the eldest of the four turtle brothers decided to join his geeky younger brother at the breakfast table.

"Two hours." Donatello said out of nowhere.

"Huh?" Leonardo murmured, pouring some coffee for himself.

"Those two," Donatello told him, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "They've been arguing for the past two hours… Can you believe it?"

Leonardo just blinked and shook his head tiredly. The blue-masked turtle had just awakened and it was needless to say that it had been the fault of his quarrelling younger siblings.

Sighing, Donatello took another sip of his coffee then turned back to the newspaper. He frowned as his gaze fell upon the first headline written in big, bold letters; Gang activity in city increasing.

His eyes trailing down the page slightly, he read on;

'Police are nearly over-whelmed by the recent climb in gang activity. It seems not a night goes by there isn't at least one crime. Deeming the city unsafe, authorities advise our citizens not to be out on their own after 6:00pm.'

Donatello shook his head. "Just great… I'd bet my shell that the Purple Dragons have stirred up all this trouble." He murmured.

"Yeah… They do seem to be behind a lot of things don't they?" Leonardo mused.

The two looked up as Raphael stormed over and pulled the fridge open forcefully, gritting his teeth as waves of anger seemed to flow from him. "That little shit…" He growled. "I was quite comf'table layin' there and he just has to annoy the hell outta me!"

Leonardo could barely keep the amused smirk from his face. "Well perhaps if you'd chosen your bed instead of the couch, then-"

Raphael jabbed a finger in his direction, fury dancing like fire in his reddish-brown eyes. "Don't. You. Start. Too." He hissed, slowly emphasising each word.

The eldest turtle held both hands up and then shut his mouth; he couldn't be bothered starting an argument that would probably end in Raph storming out again. "Alright, alright… I was just saying-"

"And don't patronize me either." Raphael snapped, snatching a soda from one of the shelves. It opened with a quick ssst and then the hot-headed turtle gulped it down, as if the cool liquid could help cool the hot anger pooling in his belly.

Leonardo exchanged a glance with Donatello before finally the blue-masked turtle rose to his feet and padded away. "I'll be in the dojo." He told his brothers. "Training will be in an hour." He added.

Since Master Splinter went away on a trip to Japan to see an old friend, Leonardo had been left in charge. As both the red and purple-masked terrapins watched their brother go, Raphael crushed his soda can and threw it at the trash can carelessly. It bounced off the edge and landed on the floor and Raphael just left it there. "I'm goin' out." He muttered, heading for the exit.

"Just don't be late for training… You don't want Leo on your shell about it again. Even Mikey and I are starting to get tired of his lectures and we're not even the ones being lectured." Donatello told him, placing the newspaper down on the table.

Raphael snorted and waved his hand. "Yeah, yeah… Whatever."

…

"Leave me alone you bunch of bullies!" A young boy growled from the shadows. He tensed up as the group of Purple Dragons continued to get closer and closer. "Stay back or… Or… Or I'll fight you!"

The biggest and toughest of the bunch threw back his head and let out a nasty laugh. "Ooh, I'm so scared! I wonder what he's gonna do to us boys."

The rest of the gang members laughed and then began advancing on the boy again. "You have something that belongs to us, and we'd like you to give it back." The chubbiest one growled, clenching his hands into fists. "Yeah!" The shortest one added. "Hand it over kid!"

The leader grinned darkly and held out his hand. "Give us the device and we'll let you go."

'Liars!' The boy thought, crouching into a defensive stance. He was about to leap at the leader, but then thought better of it. Instead of attacking, the boy jumped out and slid through his legs. Once he regained his footing he took to the shadows once more and ran off. "Get him!" The leader shouted.

'Gotta find Amber and Mona.' The kid thought desperately.

…

Meanwhile, Raphael had made it to the surface and was now running across the rooftops. The sky was just starting to turn grey from dawn and he knew that he'd have to become very careful soon, he may have been angry but he certainly did care about being seen.

'Stupid Mike, stupid Leo, stupid everything!' He thought, baring his teeth as he jumped to the next roof.

…

It was a dead-end. 'No, no, no!' The boy thought. The gang members had now cornered him, and as they got nearer they could see the kid clearly now. He was no ordinary boy. The boy was covered in thick grey fur from head to toe; had ears and a tail; had small blunt claws on his fingers and he had a long snout instead of a flat face. "Geez, this kid's a freak! Even uglier than those annoying turtles." The leader scoffed, dragging his iron pipe along the ground.

Unable to run or fight back, the wolf-like boy did the only thing he could do in that moment. "HELP!"

…

A cry for help reached Raphael's ear-drums and he stopped in his tracks. The cry had come from the alley directly bellow and it sounded like a kid in trouble. Growling to himself, the red-masked terrapin dropped down and crouched protectively in front of the kid. "Hmph… Purple Dragons… I shoulda known. Still too weak to be pickin' on people of your own size and brain capacity?" He snarled.

"Look, it's one of those turtle freaks. Get him!" The leader shouted.

Raphael smirked as the first two came at him and he disposed of them quickly by clothes-lining them (for those who don't know what that is, it's when you stick out your arm and when the person's head comes into contact with your arm, the force is strong enough to flip them flat on their ass).

Then he delivered a kick to another one's chest and hit another around the back of the head. Now the leader was left, holding onto his iron pipe so tightly his knuckles were turning white. "Y-You ain't seen the last of me!" He choked out, and ran for it.

"Ha… Chicken." Raphael muttered, and then turned to the kid. To his surprise the kid appeared to be some sort of… Wolf. 'A mutant wolf?' He thought. 'What are the odds?'

As the child backed up, crouching in fear, Raphael placed his Sais back in his belt. "Don't worry kid… I ain't gonna hurt ya."

"Yeah? And how do I know you're not lying?" The wolf-boy snapped.

"I'm no—"

"Jared!" A worried, feminine-sounding shout came from behind them and Raphael barely had time to turn around before he was knocked flat on his shell. As he opened his eyes he realised he was being pinned down by a snarling ginger cat… A mutant ginger cat. "You leave my brother alone, asshole!" She growled, narrowing her lavender eyes.

The young wolf-boy, apparently called Jared, held his hand out slightly. "Wait, let him up sis… He just saved my life." He told her.

The cat-woman glared at Raphael one last time before rising to her feet. "What happened Jared? I heard your call for help and when I get here… This frog thing has you cornered. What was I supposed to think?"

"He saved me from Purple Dragons—"

"Frog?" Raphael shouted. "Geez, is everyone in this damn city blind? Get glasses lady, I ain't no damn frog I'm a turtle! Since when do frogs have shells anyways?"

With a snort the mutant cat flicked her tail. "Whatever… What were you thinking going out alone Jared?"

Jared looked down at his feet and put his hands in the pockets of his brown hoodie. "I don't know I just… We were all starving Amber, and I thought if I could-"

"Steal something?" Amber interrupted in a low tone.

"Yeah… I figured if I stole something, we could dress one of us up in a disguise and sell it to get money to buy food… But all I swiped was this strange device… And I didn't know that I'd actually stolen from a Purple Dragon." He told her.

Suddenly there was the sound of footsteps above them, and they all looked up to see a female mutant lizard up on the fire escape. "That was a dangerous move you pulled Jared, you could've been killed." The lizard lady scolded.

"I know Mona." Jared murmured, scuffing his feet along the ground.

Mona jumped down and landed beside the kid. "But you were pretty brave, I'll give you that."

Amber stared at her friend wide-eyed. "What? Don't encourage him!"

"I'm not." The mutant lizard replied. "I'm just saying… It takes guts to steal from a gang member and then run from a whole bunch of 'em. I mean, Jared could've just stayed where he was and get killed… But he didn't. He said no, and he ran."

Jared smiled just a little, his chest puffing out.

Mona frowned down at the wolf boy. "But I agree that it wasn't wise to go out alone."

Raphael scratched the back of his head. "Okay, now I'm confused. Who the hell are you guys and where did you come from?"

The ginger cat lady hissed in annoyance. "I don't see how that's any of your business frog-boy."

"I told you, I'm a tur—"

The female lizard mutant stepped in. "It's okay Amber… I'm fairly sure we can trust this guy. I mean, he just saved Jared's life… And he's a mutant like us. I doubt he'd be working for the humans."

She turned to Raphael. "To cut a long story short the cat is Amber, the wolf is Jared and I'm Mona Lisa. We're obviously all mutants like you."

The red-masked turtle tilted his head slightly. "Where have you three been hiding? It's not safe for our kind to be up on the surface."

Amber shook her head. "Don't think we don't already know that. If you MUST know, we've been roaming around from place to place… Alleyways, rooftops, junkyards… Any place that will conceal us."

"I see." He muttered. "Well, as much as I'd love to stay and chit-chat… I have to get back to my home… My brothers will be expecting me back."

"You have a family?" Jared asked. "Do they all look like you...? Like, are they turtles, I mean? Or are you non-related and just call yourselves family like Amber and I?"

Raphael sighed. "Yeah, we're all turtles and we're all blood-related. Now, I really gotta—"

"Can we go with you?"

"Jared!" Amber hissed.

Jared ignored her. "We have nowhere to go."

Raphael looked down at the kid, who looked hopeful. Then he looked up at Amber, who looked untrusting and furious and then he looked to Mona who appeared to be calm and displaying no emotion… Though her eyes betrayed a hope that almost rivalled Jared's.

"I…I'm not sure if my brothers are going to like this but… Alright. Follow me." He told them, pulling a grate back from a manhole.