I was sitting in Donnie's lab, pretending to read a book, but was actually focusing more on his biceps... He called me in, as he usually did. He knew I liked to be around the lab and help him with all kinds of stuff. Not that I could ever really understand what my favorite brainiac was working on. He would tell me all about his new projects, but I could rarely actually get it. We'd do that a lot: he would be trying to experiment on something or build something, while I would sit next to him and assist him with whatever was requested of me. That's how I usually got some alone-time with him, unless one of the other turtles, his brothers, would be in the lab as well, distracting his attention. All I knew, I could watch him work for hours, sticking his cute li'l tongue out in a wave of concentration and genius.

Obviously, I was head over heels into that mutant genius, but how could that ever work out between us?! I mean, it's insane!

Anyhow.. I'll start my story at the beginning:

It all pretty much began at a turning point of my life. About 3 years ago I've been visiting a friend in New York. I stayed at her house for a while so we could spend some time together, but on occasional night I would walk around the city all by myself, 'cause she would've been busy with some performance preparation, or an audition or else - she's a professional singer. To cut the long story short, on one of those lonely strolls I came to the wrong pace in the wrong time. There was some kind of a street battle between gangs or something. Bullets were fired and windows were shattered...

When I figured out my unfortunate situation, I hid behind a wall in some dark alley, thinking this might just be the end of my journey as it was. I pulled out my phone to call the police, when suddenly a man with tattoos all over his face came at me out of nowhere, and slapped me so hard I lost my consciousness. I don't remember even hitting the ground.

When I came to my senses, my face was still burning from that slap. I was not on the street anymore, but in some pitch dark place. It was very quiet and it felt like a closed space of some kind. I immediately tried to reach my phone again, but it was nowhere to be found. And the worst part was that when I tried to move, I felt an excruciating pain in my left leg.

"Don't move! Your ankle is dislocated!" - came a voice from the darkness around me.

I froze as tears of pain and fear came to my eyes. Taking a deep breath, I assembled all of my courage to ask: "Who's there? Where am I? Wha.. What happened?"

"Everything will be O.K." - came the same voice from the dark. It was a man's voice. Slightly high-pitched, but soft and reassuring: "I am here to help... It will all be over soon."

I gazed at the direction of this voice, but could not see a thing, it was so dark there; and since I could not get up, I tried to reach that person with my hand. My fingers brushed on something hard - this person was wearing some sort of armor on his chest. Fast as a lightning a hand caught my arm and pushed it back, preventing me from exploring any further.

"My name is Don. We are under the streets. You were caught inside a discordance between the Purple Dragons and the Foot" - continued the voice, getting me even more confused then before, "I will assist you to the surface as soon as it will be safe enough."

"Are you the police?" - I inquired.

"No..." - was the answer, "But don't worry. I'm with the good guys!"

He's with the good guys... But that's exactly what a bad guy would say... I couldn't take it anymore, maybe I'm just a coward, but this situation: my dislocated ankle, the opaque darkness and this soft but unfamiliar voice - not the police? Then who was that man?- it was the worst day of my life! And I'm supposed to be having fun! It was supposed to be my vacation after all... The feels sort of just came at me and I began to cry. It was silent at first, but soon became a pretty loud sobbing. I just couldn't calm myself. Then his hand grabbed mine and squeezed it reassuringly. I squeezed back and suddenly felt a lot better! Don's palm was kind of rough, but warm and strong and there was a piece of cloth wrapped around it. For several minutes we just sat like that in the dark, silently. What else was I supposed to do in this situation?

At some point, I guess I relaxed enough to start paying attention and even began separating different shadows and silhouettes in the dark. And so I noticed that my friend from the shadows was indeed wearing some kind of gear and even some special goggles over his head. So he is from a rescue troop or something, I thought, the ones that usually take care of terrorists' attacks and stuff.

A sudden ring made me jump and loose my calm again, that's how much fucked up I was at those moments. I was literary terrified. I squeezed harder on his hand. To think I didn't trust him just a little earlier... There came a short beep, probably a phone or some other communication device, and then he spoke: "Yeah, it's all quiet here. No news." Then he paused a little to hear the other end of the line and continued: "Got it! See you in a bit." - he hung up. All became quiet again.

"Alright!" - He suddenly sounded more cheered up, "Let's get you out of here! It's safe now!"

And then he just grabbed me and picked me up, as if I was made of feathers or marshmallows, careful not to cause anymore damage to my bad leg. I didn't even have the chance to protest, that's how quickly we popped out into fresh air. The lights above ground blinded me in an instant after a long period of time spent in total darkness; and I rubbed my eyes for several seconds, during which he asked: "Do you trust me?" and I just sort of blinked blindly at his direction, still not being able to visualize my savior's features.

"I'll take that as a yes..." - he answered to himself and that's when I felt an even worse amount of pain in my ankle. He made it right, put it back in place; and it was so quick and was gone so fast that I didn't ever had the chance to scream, it kind'a just caught my breath for a split of a second and then it was all over. Also, I never let go of my hand, still grabbing his palm. I couldn't get my fingers to unlock.

"It's alright now... you can let go... You're perfectly safe!"

"Oh! Thank you so much... I think you saved my life..." - I smiled blindly.

"No problem! Just doing my job... You can let go of my hand now..." - his voice was getting a little nervous, "I'm sorry, but I really have to go!"

"No! Please, I lost my phone and I am not from around here..." - I was trying to find some excuse to make him stay longer, "besides, I would really like to see your face!"

He sighed and said: "No. You wouldn't..." - with so much sadness in his voice, then added: "You cannot see a thing, ha?"

I nodded. It was true, I was pretty much still blind and my face felt as if it was swelling from the slap earlier.

"Where do you live? I'll take you there."

"Damn! The address was in my phone..." - I had no idea how to explain the directions to my friend's house in a foreign city without the actual address or without being able to see anything, "I'm only a tourist here... I'm staying at my friend's... oh, shit!"

"Right..." - an abstracted answer. He sighed: "So you said you trusted me, right?"

"I never..."

He picked me up so fast again as if I were weightless, I didn't have a chance to answer, and we started to move really fast.

"I can walk, you know?!" - I protested, clenching closer to him for my dear life, because I felt that we were possibly climbing up, "Where are you taking me?"

No answer came, just heavy breathing and I couldn't, for the world of me, figure out how he was able to climb with one of his hands still occupied in my grasp?! In a matter of moments we climbed and jumped, flew through the air and fell down, landing on our feet like cats. And it was all over shortly as we've arrived at our destination - whatever it was. Then he let me down and I could stand by my self. A strong wind blew scattering my hair and the noises of the never-sleeping city were now coming from underneath. I figured we were on a roof somewhere high up above the ground.

"Hey!" - a cheery new voice appeared in front of my face.

I flinched slightly, but answered right away: "Oh, hello! Sorry, I'm kind'a blinded right now..."

"Wow! Can we keep her? Bro... Leo's gonna' be sooooo pissed!" - the same cheery voice exclaimed giggling.

"Let me handle Leo!" - Don answered.

"What'da?!" - a third voice appeared from behind me, "What do we have here?" - it mocked, "Donnie, you green machine! What the shell did you do?!"

"Don't start!"

"Oh look, they're holding hands!" - the mocking continued. More giggles followed.

"There goes Fearless!"

All became silent. I blinked as I finally started seeing blurry shapes and colors. I saw three figures beside me and another one heading towards us.

"Don... Explain!" - the one they called Fearless required.

"This is... um"

Don squeezed my hand and I immediately reacted: "My friends call me Lin..."

"She can't see all that well..." - the cheery one added.

"What happened, Donnie?" - Fearless continued investigating.

"I was tracking down the Foot from the alley, as we discussed, then she... um, Lin here came out of nowhere and was attacked by one of the Dragons. So, I had to act fast..."

"Don saved my life!" - I cut in, eventually letting go of his hand, as the miracle of sight was slowly coming back to me. They were all wearing similar armor as the one I've felt on Don before. Moreover, I've noticed they were all disguised in green camouflage. And I remember thinking: why would they choose that color in a city scenario? I looked in the direction of my savior in hope to finally see his face. And I saw it this time: his green face was turned to Fearless. The goggles were there on top of his bold head, right above a purple bandana surrounding his light-brown eyes. I could not have... ever in my life... imagined that I would be standing on a rooftop in New York city, surrounded by... four human-sized turtles?! with weapons and all kinds of stuff...

Just as my eyes started to grow wider, my heart missed a beat and sort'a dived down my body. I can't imagine the facial expression I must have had at that moment! But I'd lost all ability to speak...

The turtle with a blue bandana-mask-thingy - yup, they all had different colored bandanas - and two, not one but two swords, I'm not kidding! behind his...um, well... shell, looked straight into my eyes and said: "You can see fine now..."

I couldn't move my tongue. My heart threatened to jump out of my chest and I was starting to think that I must have been dreaming all this time. After all, there were four humanoid, intelligent turtles staring right at me! Questioning me!

The Red-bandana-turtle was the first to brake the silence: "I think she's speechless at the sight of Mickey's physiognomy!"

"Yeah! That's 'cause I'm the prettiest!"

O.k, so Yellow was Mikey and the mocking voice belonged to Red.

"Guys, guys, give her some space... I think she is in... shock!" - said the purple-bandana turtle, whom I believed to be my savior - Don.

As I was about to bring myself to actually open my mouth and make a sound, any sound... an arrow shot through the air out of nowhere and pierced Don's shoulder. He cried in pain and disappeared into the shadows behind us. Three others, covering him and me with their own bodies, looked at the approximate direction the arrow appeared from; and one after the other rushed ahead, scattering and leaving the two of us alone again.

Without as much as a second thought, I ran towards my injured savior to see if I could help somehow. I found him sitting with his back against the wall withdrawing the arrow out of his shoulder. There was a serious amount of blood.

"Oh my God! Let me help you... " - I remembered that one should apply pressure on an open wound and tie it to stop the bleeding, so I landed on my knees beside him, took my scarf off and offered it to him.

He looked at me a little surprised: "That wouldn't do! I'm loosing a lot of blood..."

Without any hesitation, I took my jacket off and carefully pressed it to the wound. He winced, but smiled reassuringly, "A little harder!" - was all he said. So I pressed harder and he gave a little growl of pain.

"Sorry! Was that too hard?" - I didn't want to make it worse.

"No, no, that's good! Now help me tie your scarf around it, to hold it in place."

We tied my scarf around his shoulder together with what used to be my favorite jacket. Instantly he got up to his feet, that's when I first noticed he wasn't wearing much accept his shell. I clapped my eyes on a leathery belt and a long stick or staff, tucked into it from behind. Well, there were bits and pieces of cloth tied up on different parts of his body. So yeah, it was hard to miss his long beautifully shaped physique and the unique shape of his body and of his muscles... His shell... and the two toes on each of his feet, which were absolutely bare on the cement roof floor... Out of nowhere the Red turtle landed beside us. I was still sitting on my knees numbly staring, while Don, towering above me was reaching for the staff behind his back.

"You O.K., bro?" - questioned Red, but noticing the bloody jacket and the scarf, he added gazing at me: "well.. I see..."

Don nodded reassuringly, sheepishly smiling at me and letting go of his staff, he picked me up to a standing position instantly with his strong hands. As if he wasn't injured at all... He looked me straight in the eye, saying: "It's dangerous here! We'll take you some place safe!"

His big light-brown eyes gazed at me intensely, but at the same time very softy, gently even. He offered me his green three-fingered hand and I took it without a glimpse of hesitation - a fact that is still a mystery to me... I trusted him completely... Well, after all, we did kind of save each other that day!

As we were about to jump to another roof - that seemed to be these guys' casual way of transportation, I guess - and taking into consideration the traffic below, everyone will agree that it was super effective! - Don picked me up again and winced right away. New amounts of blood poured down his arm. Suddenly the blue-bandana turtle or as they called him - Fearless, landed in front of us, blocking our way. He appeared to be worried. Don grabbed the injured shoulder, looking at him apologetically.

"Shell!" - Red muttered under his nose... or beak... or whatever turtles have there... and disappeared into the darkness again, cursing.

Fearles' expression was very severe, he sighed heavily and said: We'll have to consult Master Splinter about this... "