Waste Away

I don't own TMNT.

Summary: "What? I was hungry." "Enough to follow a stranger?" "Enough to follow a pink alien cow if I had to."

Chapter 1:

"Oh, you poor thing," the man said softly to the girl in front of him. Reaching inside his coat, he pulled out his wallet and took out all the money. The girl's eyes widened. Was he seriously going to give her everything he had? But then her hopes deflated when he took one bill from what looked like a dozen bills and handed her the one. It was a one dollar bill. The girl grabbed the dollar out of his hand with intended force and glared at him. The man's eyes widened before he turned to walk away, muttering things. She only caught the word 'ungrateful' and rolled her eyes. The girl stuffed the money in the pocket of her worn black jacket and stood up from where she was sitting on a bench. She shivered from the cold November breeze and tightened the scarf around her neck.

Don't forget your scarf, Di.

Diana shook her head and tried to force her older sister's voice and smile out of her head. She intended to get rid of the scarf her sister had given her (the one that she was wearing) as soon as she got enough money to buy another one. At least, that's what she tried to tell herself. She knew she wouldn't do that any time soon.

"Now…what to do with this dollar…?" Dianna asked herself. Almost as if on cue, her stomach growled.

"Food it is then," she said, ignoring the stares directed to her. Then she frowned. It was late out now. Where was she supposed to find food? Plus, she only had a dollar. This would most likely limit her chances of getting food. Then, feeling the strap of the case on her back beginning to slip, she readjusted it.

Her brow furrowed.

"This sucks," she concluded.

Incredibly enough, she found a food cart in a park after twenty minutes of searching and telling her stomach to 'shut up' whenever it growled. Dianna licked her lips as she neared the cart. She stopped when she heard a rustle. Turning around, she saw a big figure in a trench coat and hat step out from behind the trees. No, wait – make that four big figures. Upon noticing the suspicious look the four were receiving from her, two of the figures smiled nervously and waved while the other two turned away and walked to a nearby bench. What confused her was that the latter didn't even sit down on the bench. They just…stood there.

Diana considered continuing to stare, but the impatient complains from her stomach told her it wasn't worth it. She headed towards the cart. Hearing footsteps behind her, she assumed the two previous figures (that were waving) had also wanted to get something to eat. When she was finally in front of the cart, the bored teenager younger than her blew a bubble from the gum he was chewing. Soon, it popped. Diana didn't care.

"Got anything for a dollar?" Diana asked.

"Hm…" He popped another bubble. "Let me check."

Sensing someone behind her, she turned around to see the two figures again. Instantly, they turned their heads away. One of them started whistling. Diana snickered and turned back to the bored employee.

"Nope. Nothing. Nada."

How nice.

A growl escaped Diana's lips, soon followed by one by her stomach. Sighing, she stalked to the nearest bench to sulk. Aware that someone was staring at her, she raised her lowered head and saw the other two figures. They looked away immediately, just as the others had. Bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, she vaguely wondered why before resting her chin on her knees. Though they seemed like they were hiding something, they didn't feel dangerous. She ignored as the black case on her back slid down onto the bench from her change of position.

Interesting…she thought.

Is it really? said another voice in her head.

"Shut up," she said verbally by accident, just as her stomach growled. She sighed as she felt the stares come back. She looked up again to see all four of them staring at her. Her eyes instantly locked on the food two of them were holding. Diana felt heat rushing to her cheeks from the embarrassment of talking out loud by accident, and from the frustration she felt from not being able to obtain any food. Without offering the strangers any explanation, she got to her feet before her stomach could growl again and started walking away, all the while dragging her case with her.

"Damn Karma…" Dianna muttered. Seriously, what had she done to deserve all this? All this crap that just had to happen to her for the past month?

The two strangers who were holding food glanced at each other.

"Uh…hey, wait up girl!" one of them shouted. Surprised, she stopped and turned around to see the two holding food walk towards her, closing the distance she had previously set. When they were about 3 feet away from her, they stopped. Looking behind them, she could see that the other two were also surprised. Maybe slightly angry too. Reverting her attention back to the pair in front of her, she cocked her eyebrow in question.

"Well, you see," one of them said, "we had some extra, um, food…"

"…And…?" Diana asked, telling him to continue.

This time the other one spoke.

"We were wondering if you…wanted it."

Diana cocked her head and blinked in confusion.

He scratched his head and continued. "Because, you know, we noticed that you were hungry and…you don't have enough money, right?"

His last statement caused Diana to flush and look away in shame. Nonetheless, he held out a bag for her, which she hesitantly took. After muttering her thanks, it seemed that the nervousness all of them had felt earlier vanished. This was confirmed when both of them grinned. Diana smiled slightly.

"Hey, it's no prob-"

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!" a girly scream interrupted him. Everyone turned towards the cart and saw the previous teenager running away towards the street, narrowly dodging a car. Oh, and let's not forget the dozen of people completely covered in black and holding swords, sais, and…is that a rope?

"Oh shell…" one of the strangers muttered.

Blowing the stray strands of hair that had fell in front of her vision, Diana's grip on the case's band tightened. Her whole body was tense. She could tell that the four others were also tense.

Onee-sama…? Diana couldn't help but wonder. But on closer inspection, she found that they were indeed not her sister's underlings. The uniform that these people wore was similar because of the black coloring. Almost everything else was different; the red fire-like symbol for example. Moreover, her sister never really liked everyone to look the same. It confused her.

Diana let a small smile grace her lips as she stared at the sidewalk under her.

Of course, her sister would always say that she valued 'infidelity' as an excuse. Diana's smile turned bitter. Even when she's on the dark side, trying to kill her, she could still make Diana smile.

How ironic. Diana truly hated irony. Yet, she always found it amusing.

Why is she smiling? the person nearest to her thought. The smile sent chills down his spine.

Suddenly the men in black (haha) dashed at them. The four responded by pulling out their own individual weapons. While three of them sprinted towards the black new arrivals, one of them stayed behind.

"Hey! Stay here, okay?" He was talking to Diana. "Oh, but run like shell when you see an opportunity!"

Diana watched his retreating figure with a blank stare. Shell? She shook her head in disbelief. You know, the kind of disbelief you feel when you just learned your father stuck chopsticks up his nose at your aunt's wedding. Actually, Diana (and many others) had laughed at the act. Her mother was the one that shook her head in disbelief, but even she couldn't deny that there was some amusement on her face.

Each of the four trench coat clad individuals fought two black clad freaks. That meant that four of the freaks were left. Where were they? Headed straight towards Diana.

The closest one to Diana drew back his sword and jumped up, about to bring down his sword and draw blood. Reacting quickly, she pulled the case from behind her and blocked his attack. She did this with every other attempt made by them. She vaguely noted that she dropped her food. Thankfully, before Diana could get too annoyed and attack back, the group of four returned and knocked them out.

"Are you okay?"

Diana sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, thanks for-"

Diana stared. They, with their coats and hats discarded, stared back. Diana kept staring at them. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Finally finding her voice, only one thing came to mind; excluding all the questions racing around her head.

"Turtles…"

The one with the red headband grunted.

"Turtles…with headbands," Diana said slowly. Diana, for her age, had seen and heard many things. This was not part of those things.

"Um, yeah," the turtle with the purple headband said. "Aren't you…"

"Supposed to be screaming?" the turtle with the orange headband finished. "Like, y'know, how that guy working behind the cart did. Ha…that was funny."

Diana frowned. "Um…okay? I don't know…"

"Shock, perhaps?" Purple suggested.

"Highly likely," Diana replied, shrugging.

"Or maybe it's a result of-" Purple was cut off.

"Donny! That's not important right now," Blue said, narrowing his eyes at the girl in front of them. Purp – Donny looked confused, but nonetheless waited for him to continue.

Blue took a step forward. "Who are you? How did you learn to block like that? Why are you so calm? What's your relationship with The Foot Clan? Answer the questions!"

Diana blinked. "Uh…I'm Diana and…I'm sorry, you were talking too fast. What?"

If possible, Blue's eyes narrowed even farther. Donny coughed. Blue opened his mouth to speak, but was pulled away before he could even say whatever it was he was going to say. All four of the turtles were huddled in a circle a few feet from the girl.

Diana rolled her eyes. Did they really think she wouldn't be able to hear them? Throughout the whole conversation, Diana was zoning in and out. So, of course, she could only hear the scraps of the discussion.

"I'm not sure…No money…The food…"

"Foot Clan…Where did she learn…You just pity…"

"Of course…Starving…"

"Self defense…Not uncommon…"

"Threat…Our family…Shredder…"

"She was smiling…"

"Freakin' Fearless Leader…"

The turtles made their decision. Thus, they turned around to talk to the girl.

Guess what?

She wasn't there anymore.