A/N - This is a series of loosely-related one-shots of minor moments in the lives of a family that lives in the shadows and does whatever is necessary to survive.
This chapter is dedicated to Kame Terra, who goaded me into it, and vacant houses, who writes the best crack-fics around.
Chapter 1 - The Girl
"It's the perfect plan to get those little green freaks!" Dragon Face insisted. "It's foolproof!"
"I don't trust anything that claims ta be foolproof," Destynee dared to retort. "There's always a bigger fool out there." She didn't like the sound of this at all. When she first tried to join the Purple Dragons so she could be with her boyfriend, they told her all about their vendetta against some freaks who dressed up like giant turtles, but Destynee had never seen them and frankly wondered if the gang members were just messing with her mind. It wouldn't be the first time someone did that as part of an initiation, after all - Destynee herself had sent younger cousins out on "snipe hunts" when she was a kid at family reunions. This whole plan felt like it was a snipe hunt being played on her. A dangerous snipe hunt, too, since this one involved faking a mugging.
Her hand twitched the fabric of the too-big skirt that was part of her 'costume' for this plan that the gang had cooked up to capture one or more of the guys in the turtle costumes. She tried one last time to avoid this snipe hunt: "How'm I supposed to run in this skirt and shoes? What makes you think the turtle-men are out there at all, anyway? They coulda stayed home tonight, or maybe they're in a completely different part of town! And then what?"
The Purple Dragon lieutenant waved this off with an irritated gesture. "Just do it exactly like I told you. It's gonna be just fine!" He dug in his pocket and pulled out a knife that looked a whole lot more dangerous with every step that he took closer to her. His mouth twisted up in a frightening leer that didn't look like he was faking it. "So let's go. Just...run!"
Destynee, who was barely 17 and unsure that she wanted to go through with her Purple Dragon initiation any more, gulped back one last protest when she saw the light gleam off the uneven edge of the knife. Her eyes skipped up, nervously, to take in the look in Dragon Face's eyes.
And then she ran.
They let her get a whole block away before they came after her, whooping and catcalling. Dragon Face led a hand-picked group of the best fighters he could find, including Destynee's boyfriend, in a chase after her. She dug her toes into the unfamiliar angles of the high heels they told her to wear, and put on as much speed as she could. It wasn't going to be enough! She darted into an alley - the borrowed skirt snagged on the sharp corner of the brick and tore - and scrambled for some kind of hiding place.
The hoots and lewd comments got closer, and she knew it was hopeless. She couldn't possibly get away. Destynee put her back to the wall and took up a fighting stance. "Get away from me!" she screamed. The fear in her voice wasn't exactly an act - the gathered Purple Dragons were actually frightening her. It was all supposed to be a setup, some kind of performance that would lure those turtle-men in to try to rescue the 'damsel in distress'...but it was starting to feel frighteningly real.
Her eyes darted through the mass of tattoed thugs advancing on her, seeking at least the minor reassurance of her boyfriend's presence, but she couldn't see him. She couldn't see anything but the threat they all represented. "Leave me alone!"
And then Dragon Face backhanded her hard enough to bounce her head off the brick wall. The pain was astonishing.
It only got worse after that.
Five pairs of eyes watched from the roof of one of the buildings that edged the alley. "Look at this - we've got a Dragon-squad mugging a girl," Leonardo indicated the scene below with a nod.
"Man, there's gotta be eight of them. Think they know it makes them look bad when it takes so many of them to deal with one skinny girl?" Michealangelo craned his neck to watch. He winced in sympathy when the victim hit the brick wall and dropped to the pavement, hard. "Ooh, that had to hurt!"
"Let's get 'em!" Casey started to lunge forward.
Raphael caught his arm and pulled him back. "Kinda overkill for all five of us to go down there. Not enough of 'em to make it interesting. I was kinda thinking it was a one-Turtle job."
"My turn," Donatello sighed. "I'll deal with this." He dropped over the edge of the roof and slid down the fire escape soundlessly as his brothers settled in to watch the show.
Destynee had never imagined so much pain in her entire life. Her face was on fire. She couldn't stop shaking long enough to get to her feet, and she wasn't sure she could do it anyway, since her entire torso was knotted into a mass of pain that she didn't even know how to describe. Her voice was reaching higher and higher pitches, though she was only intermittently aware of her own begging and sobbing.
She leaned back, putting her back to the dirty bricks behind her, and tried one more time to get to her feet while still curled in a tight ball around her pain and fear. And then the worst happened. A flash of silver that was mostly inside her head, and she screamed brokenly. Dragon Face's knife skidded across her left breast, leaving what felt like a mile-wide trench that spilled blood onto her blouse, before leaving a light scrape along her belly and coming up short on the bone of her right forearm as she futilely tried to defend herself from the blade. The knife actually made a sound as it hit the bone, a sound that Destynee felt all the way into her heart, and it cut off her scream. She fell to the ground again, barely registering Dragon Face's muttered, half-hearted apology - "Didn't actually mean to cut you, stupid girl" - and hoped that she could die before it got any worse.
And then the Dragons were screaming.
It took Destynee a breath to realize that it wasn't just in her head. It took another breath to realize that the screaming was tapering off, like there were fewer and fewer voices to do it. And it took one more breath to realize that she probably wasn't going to die.
She opened her eyes with great reluctance. The area directly in front of her was clear, but it looked like there was a pile of bodies against the opposite side of the alley.
"It's going to be okay," a smooth, calm voice came out of the darkness.
Destynee gasped. "Don't hurt me!"
"I won't," the voice didn't change. "I've called an ambulance for you. It should be here in a few minutes. Just wait here."
"No, wait!" she lifted her uninjured hand and appealed to the voice. "Please don't...please don't leave me alone." Her own voice broke. "Please, please...I'm scared. What if they...? What do I do if...?" It was probably one of the turtle-men, she reasoned. Beyond that, her confusion was genuine. What could she do to keep him in place long enough for one of the Dragons to wake up and catch him? Should she even try? How would the Dragons react when they found out she hadn't? She winced at the thought. The next plea was borne out of panic. "Please - take me with you!"
"There's an ambulance on the way," the voice repeated. "You're going to be just fine. The police will take the Dragons away, and you'll be safe."
"No," she hiccuped. "No, they'll kill me. They will! You have to take me with you!"
"It's not a good idea," and now the voice seemed to be slightly amused. "You'll be much better off waiting here for the ambulance."
"Please...!" Silence fell. Destynee looked at the unconscious members of the Purple Dragons, and began to cry again, in real pain and fear. After all of that, she hadn't helped capture one of the turtle-men. She hadn't even gotten a glimpse of him! "Worst snipe hunt ever...!"
She definitely didn't want to be a member of the Purple Dragon gang now.
Donatello caught up to them three blocks away. "All done," he reported.
"Good job," Leonardo clapped him on the back. "I get the next one, though."
"No way, shell-for-brains! It's my turn!" Casey argued. "I've been running all over these roofs for hours, and I ain't gotten to bust a single head tonight!"
Michealangelo shrugged, though it was hard to tell since he was walking on his hands. "That happens sometimes, dude. The bad guys just stay home and watch HBO some nights."
They wandered off, still squabbling over whose turn it was to break up the next mugging. The Purple Dragons and their victim faded from memory before they even made it back to the Lair.
It was just an ordinary night, after all.