Chapter 1

"Leo, they aren't going to show!"

The turtles had been atop a roof, staking out an abandoned warehouse for over three hours. Raph's patience was beginning to run thin. He stared at his older brother as the turtle gazed down blankly at the warehouse below them, eyes unblinking. Raph let out a groan and grabbed his brother's shoulder, forcing him to turn around and meet his gaze.

"Leo, are you even listening?"

"Patience, Raph!" Leo snapped, pushing his red-banded sibling away and turning back to the warehouse. "They'll show."

"Why? Because April said so? Face it, Leo, she was wrong."

"She hasn't been wrong before," Leo commented.

"Well, maybe she was wrong this time," Mikey inquired, sitting up. He had been lying on his stomach atop an air duct, reading a comic he'd brought along to preoccupy him. By now, he had read it at least five times and had the first part of it memorized.

"Raph and Mikey could be right," Donnie agreed, hopping down from the vent he had been perched on. "Maybe it's time we head home."

"No, they'll show," Leo insisted, holding up his hand to show he wanted them to wait. "I know they will. They have to." His eyes then narrowed behind his mask.

"Leo, we know that the Kraang are more dangerous than ever, but don't you think-"

Raph was interrupted midsentence by the sound of trashcans clanking against the asphalt ground. Each turtles' head shot into the air and veered in the direction it had come – the other side of the building. Leo was the first to race to the sound, hoping to find the Kraang. As they approached, they could hear the sound of flesh-on-flesh, followed by grunts.

Reaching the edge of the building, they peered down only to find what appeared to be a girl, possibly no younger than April's age, facing the Foot. From what they observed, the girl was not holding up too well against her attackers. They observed as a Foot ninja punched the girl in her gut, making her grunt, and then finished her off with a kick, sending her flying into a green trash bin that was in the back of the alleyway.

"We gotta save her!" Donnie yelled, grabbing his staff and getting ready to leap into combat.

"What's with you and saving every girl you come in contact with?" Raph asked, his arms folded across his chest. "For all we know, she could have attacked them." Donnie glared Raph down in anger.

"Donnie's right," Leo said, making Donnie and Raph look at him. "We can't just let them beat up on her."

"You're the boss," Raph sighed, withdrawing his Sai from their holsters.

Mikey already had his nunchucks withdrawn. He was twirling them around, smiling. "Booyakasha!" he shouted as he and his brothers leaped down from the spot they had been standing in, jumping in front of the girl to shield her from the encroaching Foot.

The black ninjas glanced at the turtles in confusion. This befuddlement didn't last for long. They began to take offensive positions, embracing for attacks. Leo held up one of his katanas, pointing it at the awaiting ninjas. "You looking for a fight? You got one."

"I can't wait to -" Raph stopped midsentence as a black silhouette gracefully leapt over his head and fell onto the closest ninja, making him topple onto his back. The figure looked back, allowing the stunned turtles to get a good look at it.

It was a dog, or from what they could tell. Its body was black but it had what seemed to be purple fur hanging down into its eyes, keeping the left one hidden from their view. Its ears were long, coming down to its shoulders at least, and from what they could see, a collar was glimmering around its neck, though they weren't sure what color exactly. The dog then snorted and a feminine voice called to them.

"You going to help or not?"

This snapped Leo out of his trance as he shook his head slightly, coming back to his sense. He lurched forward towards one of the remaining five ninjas, slashing at it with one of his unsheathed katanas. His brothers soon followed after him, each one taking one of the five ninjas, the dog joining them. Donnie clubbed one of the ninjas on the head, while Leo slashed away at another.

Mikey and Raph began teaming against two of the other ninjas, the orange-banded turtle swinging his nunchucks at them while Raph threw punches. The dog that had appeared joined in, reaching up and biting the ninja they had been combatting, making him break his silence and scream in pain. He then sped off and away from the fight, Leo and Donnie sending another one.

Three remained out of the six that had originally attacked. Mikey and Donnie began fighting against one of them while Leo, Raph, and the dog combatted the other two. It didn't take them long to fight off the remaining ones. They fled the alley scene, jumping up atop one of the fire escapes and vanishing over a building.

Mikey ran after them, stopping just under the fire escape. He put one of his hands to his mouth and shouted, "And don't show your ugly face around here again!" His free hand, which still gripped one of his nunchucks, was pointing down towards the ground.

"Uh, Mikey," began Donnie, walking to his side as he pushed his staff back into its holster. "You can't really call them ugly. You don't even know what they look like."

"Oh yeah," Mikey said, rubbing the back of his head.

"But I bet they look ugly after what we did to them!" Raph commented, cracking his knuckles.

"Guys!" Leo shouted. "She's gone."

"Gone? How can she be-" Donnie stopped talking when he saw Raph and Mikey were looking straight ahead. His gaze drifted to see the dog's silhouette outlined in the light coming from a streetlamp at the edge of the alleyway's opening. It was then that it began to shift.

The turtles watched in both awe and horror as the silhouette began to morph right before their very eyes. The dog was changing. Its muzzle began to shrink back into its face and its ears began to slightly grow longer. It began to stand on its hind legs, forelegs morphing into arms and its paws shifting into hands. Within only seconds, the figure of a young girl was standing in front of them, features hidden from the shadow the streetlight cast.

"Werewolf!" Mikey gasped before he ran to hide behind Raph; however the other turtles didn't seem to hear his cry of terror.

The girl winced slightly almost as if offended by his words. She turned on her heel and began away from the turtles, but not before giving them one last glimpse. With a monotone feminine voice, she stated, "Next time you're going to play hero, show up earlier."

She then raced out onto the sidewalk and disappeared behind the right corner, leaving the turtles alone in the dark alley.

Raph crossed his arms over his chest, shifting the loose ends of his bandana over to his right shoulder, a scowl on his face. "What, she doesn't have the decency to say thank you?"

"Werewolves don't say thank you, Raph," Mikey quivered. "We-we're just lucky we escaped."

"Mikey, she wasn't a werewolf. Werewolves don't magically morph into a dog and control their metamorphosis," Donnie corrected, giving his younger brother a look of frustration. "Plus, they don't exist."

"I'm not sure what she was," Leo spoke, blinking for the first time in a few minutes. He had been totally fixated on her. It was as if he couldn't turn away.

"Who cares?" Raph asked, walking forward. "All that matters is we did our good deed, saved her from peril, and kicked a few Foot around. I'd call it a job well done."

"Unless she comes back to try and eat us…" Mikey whimpered, glancing around himself nervously. "She's probably in the shadows right now, waiting… wondering what turtle tastes like!"

"Knock it off," Leo snapped, giving Mikey a look of frustration. "We can't judge her based on her way of saying thanks."

"Wait, wait, wait, you actually think she thanked us?" Raph questioned, looking his older brother in his blue eyes. "She said we were slow."

"Which is a hurtful stereotype," Donnie commented.

"She practically insulted us then left. Leo, she didn't say thanks. She couldn't swallow her pride."

"Let's not talk about this here. We should head back home."

"What about the Kraang you were so headstrong to stop?" Raph asked, a hint of cockiness in his voice, as he raised his brow slightly and a grin spread across his face. Leo only glared at him, his face showing scorn and brooding.

"C'mon. Let's head home."

• • •

"Did you find the Kraang?" April had been waiting on the turtles to return to their lair, Splinter sitting at her side the entire time. Ever since her father was abducted, she would wait for the turtles to return from a stakeout that involved the Kraang in the turtles' lair. Each encounter with these robotic aliens was just another step closer to finding her father.

"No, but we did find a werewolf!" Mikey shouted, flopping down onto the couch at the opposite end.

"For the hundredth time, Mikey, werewolves don't exist!" Donnie shouted, turning his entire body in his brother's direction, frustration and anger coursing through his veins.

"A werewolf?" April asked as she gave Donnie a confused look.

Donnie sighed. "We were staked out when we found this girl being beat up by the Foot."

"Who turned out to be a werewolf," Mikey interrupted, pushing Donnie aside and taking over the story. "So there we were facing six Foot ninjas just after the girl had been knocked to the ground. I was all like, 'Booyakasha, ninjas!' and then this dog flew over Raph's head and landed on one of the ninjas and was all, 'Blah blah blah fight.' And Leo was all 'Let's get 'em!' and we were all, 'Yeah!' and we started punching and kicking them and the dog bit one and-"he stopped midsentence after he realized what had just been said.

"Oh no!" he shouted, throwing his hands onto his head. "She turned one of the ninjas into a werewolf!"

Raph smacked Mikey on the head, making him turn to face his brother, pouting in anger as he rubbed the back of his head. "Basically, we defeated the ninjas and after it was over, the dog turned out to be the girl," Raph summed up.

"So she was like… a shape-shifter?" April asked.

"Pretty much. And then she thanked us and left," Leo stated, walking up to Raph's side.

"No, she called us slow and to next time show up faster and then left," Raph corrected, giving his brother a frown.

"No, I think she was thanking us. She was just… embarrassed… that we saved her."

"I'm pretty sure she didn't care that we saved her," Raph argued.

"She obviously did."

"Really? Why'd she leave in such a hurry without even giving us thanks? Because she didn't care. Face it, Leo."

Leo frowned, his cobalt eyes staring at the ground in thought. He then looked up to see Splinter standing over him. "Sensei, I think that girl can help us."

"You mean like you thought Karai was good, right?" Raph said from behind him. Leo shot him an angry glare before returning to his gaze to his teacher.

"I think that she's just… afraid. If I could just talk to her-"

"Leonardo, if what Raphael says is true, I don't think she will want to do any talking."

"But Sensei, we desperately need allies!" Leo encouraged. "And I honestly believe that she can be an ally. If she could aid us against the Shredder, we'd be able to stop him."

"She's not much a fighter, dude," Mikey commented, walking over to Leo. "I mean, she would of got her butt kicked without us being there."

"But when she's a dog, she seemed to have some sort of combat skills!"

"Yeah, because we were there to help her out," Raph said. "Just let her be, Leo. Forget about her. She's probably no good anyway."

Leo glanced down at his feet, feeling defeated. His gut was telling him that this girl could be a potential ally, but his brothers and sensei wouldn't listen. Finally, he nodded.

"Alright, we'll just let it go."