Heya peoples! Wow, it took me two years to update this, lol. TWO YEARS! (0.o) Shocking. Absolutely disgraceful.

But I improved the first chapter, and the second chapter from its original form, so I hope you like like! XD

Science and Magic Burns

He didn't know how she had ended up near his home, battered and bruised and unconscious, but it wasn't in his nature to leave a person so hurt and defenceless. He had bandaged her cuts and burns, and had found some cereal—still edible—from his cabinet, and left it near the couch she had been sleeping on. But still. One alerted by her shuffling, he swiftly got out of sight.

From the dark corner he saw her wake up, rubbing her eyes and head as if they hurt. She'd looked around the lab strangely, and had looked at the cereal strangely, and looked at the computers strangely. Could it be possible that this whole world was strange to her? Could be. It would explain her ears and attire…

Finally she looked at the cereal bowl and the milk carton next to it, neatly placed on a tray and placed on the floor beside the couch. She sat in front of it, sniffing the cereal, crunching on it slowly.

The creature watched her open the carton, and saw the delight on her face. Was milk familiar to her? She looked at the glass of water and drained it down her throat, her pace in drinking slow and measured. She then put the milk in, sniffed, and drained it. She continued to crunch on the cereal, dry.

The creature narrowed its green eyes.

Once finished she looked around and stood, wincing a little when she used her left leg. She brushed off her rough green tunic and checked that her white trousers were not torn, before walking around, examining the place carefully. The brown leather boots she wore squeaked as she walked around, and every so often she scratched her blonde head in confusion, messing up the back-long ponytail she wore.

She was intrigued by the computers, the machines he had in his home, and the photos of his friends. She clacked at the concrete with her boots with a scrutinizing frown on her face, and stared at the curved walls of the abandoned train station in wonder. She sniffed at the place but did not grimace at the smell of the sewers nearby.

She did however look around as if knowing someone was watching her.

The creature wondered why she would not leave. Didn't this place irk her? A laboratory in a sewer was definitely strange, but that kind of strange would usually drive people away.

She went back to the couch, much to the creature's dismay, scuffing her feet forlornly. If the girl stayed for any longer, he would be forced to leave. He wanted to tell his friends what had transpired, but he couldn't entrust a human with his home and data. How did he know that she wouldn't go up to the surface and blab about his home? His enemies would hunt him down; it would bring danger upon his friends.

She seemed to come to a decision. She stood, looked around again, and took a deep breath. "Could you please come out? I'd like to say thank you. … Whoever you are."

After several seconds of silence, the girl huffed and marched up to one of his machines, glancing at the blinking lights and buttons with scrutiny. She tapped her foot, almost irritated as she examined the complicated mechanism, and the creature was starting to worry. What she was standing in front of was none of her business, and was a very vital power source for all of his equipment. If she altered anything…

"Hm… what does this button do?" she asked nobody, pointing towards the most insignificant looking one.

The creature's worry turned to panic. He desperately hoped she was bluffing.

Another long few seconds, and she spoke again, a little louder. "Well, if nobody's coming out to stop me...?"

The impish smile on her face said everything. But his identity…!

She pulled back her finger like a snake striking its prey and the creature hiding in the shadows desperately hoped that she wouldn't do it. Please, please no…

The turmoil he usually fought back was coming over his senses, driving him to attack her, to save his identity. But her safety… his own safety… the safety of his friends...

The finger jerked.

He roared, "No!"

The girl yelped and stumbled back as the large creature dived for the machine, and she had to cartwheel to get her balance. When she did, she looked at her saviour slash attacker, and lost her breath.

In front of her stood a crocodile one and a half her size larger, standing on two feet freely like any other man. His leathery skin was a murky green, unlike his white teeth that gleamed sharply in his long, wide maw. His eyes were sharp and vertical, an angry emerald that was not to be messed with. The evident muscle on his body would aid it in a quest to destroy her, if it desired to pursue it. She took several deep breaths, wondering whether if it was really this creature that had healed and fed her. It growled, and shifted its feet, ready to strike.

The girl slowly reached for her pouch and pulled a porcelain instrument, putting it to her lips. She played her sister's lullaby, watching the animal carefully. It growled and roared at the music, but it shook its head wildly and didn't attack. It closed its eyes, and when it opened them again, the girl saw that it was a kind green, and was not a vertical slit, wild and unrestrained with rage.

The two looked at one another carefully, and the girl was first to move.

She bowed.

The creature took a step back in astonishment, and was further surprised when the girl said, "You have my sincere apologies for intruding on your home, and eternal gratitude for the hospitality and care you've granted me. My name is Lynda Varekai Harkinian. I am in your debt."

Such honour, such formality and respect! He never got that from a human; never!

"I… I am Leatherhead."

The girl righted herself from her bow, and grinned rather boyishly. "Nice name."

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

"This is a bad idea, ya know that, right?"

Leo paused and sighed, facing the brother that was leaning against the wall unhelpfully while he held the bowl of water with a cloth in it. "You know Don and Mikey. They wouldn't let it go."

When the blue-banded turtle continued walking towards the couch area, Raphael reluctantly followed. On said couch a stranger was lying there unconscious, and Mikey and April were bandaging a particularly nasty cut on its shin. The water Leo had been requested to get by Don was for some burns on his left arm; the skin was red and angry, the sleeve around it charred.

Don and Mikey had found him pretty much at their doorstep in that condition; and they had, to the brothers' and master's chagrin, brought him in. The worry was mounted by the fact that this person didn't look… normal. Instead of a shirt and jeans he was wearing a purple tunic with blue undershirt and trousers, a scarf that wrapped his face.

It was probably the only reason that they'd brought him in. If he was normal they would've dumped him in front of a hospital with an anonymous tip. On top of that, possibility of him being a Foot ninja was low, and if he ended up being a cosplayer, well. They could all play that game.

"Also?" Don had argued, "He could've been attacked by someone or something that could've been after us. If that's the case we have a responsibility to look after him."

"Besides," Mikey pointed out later, "You guys wouldn't have left him behind either."

Which was true but it didn't make it any easier.

Speaking of which, the orange-banded turtle had looked up to acknowledge Leo and Raph and he had a wide-eyed expression on his face. "Dudes," he whispered, worried that he would wake the stranger up, "This guy's an elf."

They blanched, not quite sure whether to take the statement as a joke or not. They looked to April for confirmation.

She hesitated and nodded. She shifted a little to the side and shifted his blonde hair. "See, look, he's re-"

A blur and a gasp of surprise as something grabbed her wrist not-quite-hard-enough-to-bruise and she was thrown on the couch and there was no unconscious stranger lying there anymore. Mikey gave his trademark squeal and was thrown backwards and hurtled against Leo and the bowl dropped, clanging as it spilt hot water. Raph dodged and swiped his sai out of his belt and threw it, metal singing against metal. The sai was in the enemy's grip.

He crouched in between April and the turtles, knife in one hand, sai in the other, and though his fringe obscured his eyes they left his ears alone and they were indeed pointed like an elf's. His breathing was harsh and his whole frame trembled. But the fight was on, whether he was an invalid or not.

His crouch crumpled; Raph yelled and dived forward and the swipe was countered by his own weapon and oof pain bashed in his chest with the enemy's shaky foot. Leo and Mikey untangled themselves from each other and their hands went to their weapons as the stranger lunged and ran from them, and Raph hollered out to Don to get his butt out here it's trouble!

He was talking to Master Splinter and both of them jolted, armed and snarling as the stranger practically barrelled into them. Don whacked his bo against the elf's head but he blocked with the blunt side of the knife, rolling away from Splinter's swipe of the walkingstick to run again, stumbling over pain and possible fear. The family rushed forward and zeroed in on the elf as he headed for the pool area, Leonardo yelling: "Box him in!"

The elf jumped and rolled and crouched on the stone floor, looking around for a possible escape rout and found too many doors that could lead anywhere, to the kitchens to the bedrooms to the armoury and whatever else the turtles had. He spun around, heaving, the left arm with the burn and knife shaking as he was surrounded.

"Hey!" Mikey yelled and the stranger flinched, "We helped you and this is what we get for it!?"

The elf hefted Raphael's sai and threw it at Mikey and he squealed and dodged and it embedded itself on the turtles' To-do list.

April grabbed Mikey and pulled him down against the couch. Leo, Don and Raph had already rushed forward to meet the elf in combat, or perhaps in Don's case negotiation, and it seemed that she was the only one who'd noticed the most important thing about the rampaging elf, "Mikey! What did I do when I first met you guys?"

"...Is this really the time to be talking about the good old days?"

"I screamed, Mikey! I was scared and I fainted and you know everything else! Why isn't he doing the same? Why is he so quiet?"

"Um, he… can't speak English?"

"Oh, forget it, come on!"

As they ran to catch up with the rest, April's chest was filled with unease. There had been no scream of fear, no moment of shock as the human took Mikey in (assuming that it was Mikey that he had seen first due to the fact that he had been the closest). Showing no fear at seeing mutants and then attacking without preamble wasn't what normal people did. It was what crazies like the Shredder and Bishop and other such warriors did.

Who was this guy?

When she reached the ground floor with Mikey the place was utter chaos. The elf ducked and dodged Leo's doubled swipe and kicked away his weapons as he rolled and slashed at Raph's chest which the turtle protected with his remaining sai, and a green foot lashed out and the elf used it to manoeuvre away from Don's jab of his bo and flipped over Raph's shoulder. throwing him over his hip as he dodged the other way to avoid the nunchakus that cracked against the floor where his head had been. A round-house kick from a foreign boot sent Don flying and the elf rolled and lunged and his face was right there, right there in front of April and there was an infinitesimal pause in which he just stared at her and he could've attacked her and be done with it but his eyes scrunched with annoyance and he turned away and gave a frustrated kick at the back of Mikey's head.

April blinked. Was his eye really…?

The thought flew from her mind as Master Splinter went for the elf next, and his stick went whack-whack-whack-whack-whack against the elf's sides and he hissed and jumped away. He ran a few metres before turning and baring his weapon again, and his posture crumpled and his visible eye winced. His blond hair was lank with the beginnings of sweat, and his gaze flickered on the bandages on his dominant arm, the ones that he seemed to have just noticed.

"Oh so now he notices that we saved his shell," Raphael snarled, baring his sai. "If this is how elves thank people we have seriously got to teach him some manners."

"Does he even speak English?" was Mikey's incredulous question, vaguely reminding himself of April's concern, despite it being way off the mark.

Don was the first to cautiously step forward, bo barred non-aggressively. "Can you understand us?"

The visible eye blinked, and the word that came from the cowl sounded like an adult that was forced to repeat something childish or degrading. "Un-stangh."

"I think we're entitled to take that as 'vaguely'," Don remarked with a sigh, "And this will make it a whole lot harder for us."

Leo grimly stepped forward, his weapons carefully lowered but still in his grip, ready, always ready. He stared the red eye down, and made his voice carefully controlled, not friendly, but not hostile either. "Who are you?"

The intruder shook his head.

Leo controlled his patience. "Where do you come from?"

That particular question had a different result than of incredulity. The elf's eyes widened and its gaze twitched all over the place, and it seemed to think, to remember, to understand, and then an angry snarl ripped from its invisible throat and the thing lashed out like a rabid animal freed from its cage.

Leo cursed and his ken whistled and clashed with the elf's knife and the purple-clad body jerked and whirled and Leo jumped over the leg that tried to trip him over, but pain erupted in his chest midair as a punch threw him back and he saw his hot-headed brother leap over him as the others held his back and he saw the elf trip over his own feet, collapsing with a groan of pain and Raph's cry was victorious as he attempted to pin the elf to the floor with his crossed sai by the neck and Leo cried out too late no! too late.

Next thing they knew Raph was lying face down on the floor, two long knives crossed above his neck to pin him down, his arm promptly ground down painfully by a foreign boot against his shell and four throwing knives were held in the enemy's grip.

The eyes that glared from the blond curtain were red, red as fresh blood, brimming with murder.

The elf took one of his own knives and threw it against the ground, where it embedded itself dangerously close to Raph's beak.

Mikey gulped. "Even I know what that means."

The family looked at each other and dropped their weapons.

The elf seemed satisfied. His tone was measured as he said, "Ghere… Linda?"

The family shook their heads and waited for Raphael to take action, to throw the elf off, to do something to-

Suddenly the phone gave a warning ring before the giant TV screen flashed to life and Leatherhead's face came to view.

"Hello, friends. I…" he took in the image he saw on his own screen, and he growled menacingly, the pupils of the kind green eyes attempting to thin into a vertical slit. But he successfully cleared his inner beast, turning his head to the side to talk to someone. "It seems what you have predicted has happened, Miss Harkinian."

There was a horrified wail, and at the sound of it the eye of the elf widened, "Lynda!"

The elf leapt towards the screens, abandoning his hostage and frantically looking at the pixels. "Lynda!?"

The crocodile moved aside, and a young woman stepped onto the screen, looking worried when she saw the red-eyed man. "Sheik! You haven't hurt anyone have you?"

Leatherhead saw the elf's eyes flick from him to her to the turtles and back again with suspicion, and the girl smiled softly before speaking in a foreign language, the man seemingly calming with every gentle word. In turn, his reply reassured her. The turtles behind him clustered around in a bemused semicircle with their Master. His sons had picked up their weapon at the first opportunity, refusing to put their guards down.

They watched the girl on the screen turn towards Leatherhead. "Is it possible for your friends to come over? Or we could go to them?"

"Of course," the crocodile replied, facing the screen again, "Leonardo, the situation seems rather… complicated. Why don't you and your brothers come along and we may discuss our visitors' predicaments? Explanations are easier in person, and they don't seem to come from New York. Or earth, for that matter."

"It'd be an honour if you could help us get home." The girl in the screen cut in, a grateful smile on her face.

"And it would be an honour to help you." the rat assured, moving up to the screen alongside the stranger. His sons gawked at him with total disbelief. The girl nodded in thanks before waving. The elf waved back, dubiously, it seemed.

"See you in couple of minutes, my friends." Leatherhead said before cutting the line. The face of the turtles' sensei, Master Splinter and the red-eyed friend of Lynda flicked into darkness, much to the girl's slight dismay. Leatherhead smiled at her childish pout. "Do not worry; you will soon see him in a few more minutes."

She blushed softly before grinning sheepishly and nodded, examining the dark screen again. Was the box really capable of showing things across the world? At home that amount of magic would kill the caster, probably. At least three mediocre mages and an extra five magicians (just in case) would be needed to do that kind of thing; and not in a piece of glass, but in a pool of water. She sceptically knocked on the glass, making it go click against her knuckles.

Leatherhead turned at her yelp of pain.

"You should be careful Miss Harkinian. Static energy and electric heat tends to remain after a visionary conversation."

"I… see." Lynda gingerly rubbed her knuckles, not understanding a word he'd said.

Her pointed ear twitched. Leatherhead caught a sound also, and they listened. To Lynda it sounded like a small earthquake, grating its teeth against glass and metal. It seemed to stroll on its lumbering feet towards them, through the strange rock tunnels and the smelly waters. Was it the strange rat creature and the one Leatherhead had named Leonardo?

Despair and alarm reined the crocodile's mind.

From every tunnel he could see, the same sound of powerful engines muffled by strong metal and the faint, undertone of electronic devices that he did not own, buzzed through. He could almost hear the troops coming in their antibacterial and contamination suits, in their visored masks that sometimes lurked in his nightmares.

She seemed almost mystified by the aiming lasers of the alien blasters. "What are…"

"Duck!"

The crocodile roared and dived, catching the woman by her torso to shove her away from the path of darts. She shouted in alarm and pain as the hornets of poison erupted from all directions, digging into her flesh as well as Leatherhead's.

She pulled two out of her arm before looking around in sheer panic, upon the men that wore glass over their faces with strange tubes coiling to their backs, holding strange bulky things that shot the darts. Were they cross-bows? And what was the deal with the red and black suits that covered them from head to toe? And why was the world… spinning…?

Lynda toppled to the floor, groaning as the pain in her head grew so great that it seemed like a sound that buzzed in her skull. She saw in her hazing vision that Leatherhead was taking the darts with roars of hate and rage, waving his arms in a storm of metal hornets. His eyes had thinned to slits again, and the men ceased fire to grab at him, some getting thrown to the wall at the first swings, but slowly they had him under their control, the excessive amount of poison finally knocking the crocodile out.

Lynda helplessly watched, unable to resist the grabbing hands that wrenched her to her feet and bruised her arms. She groggily looked upon a fiery haired man that reminded her of an enemy from her home, only he didn't wear that strange green, stiff suit…

The world was filled with laughter it did not want to hear as it covered itself in darkness.