Monster's on fire

By Danielle Higgins

Prolog

Riana McMurphy sat huddled in the corner of her room coughing. Flames engulfed the door and wall. Smoke filled the room and burned her lungs. Long brown wavy hair clung to her sweat soaked skin. She cried out then coughed and sputtered as the right arm of her night gown caught flame. Tears filled her green eyes and streamed down her face as the flames ate at her skin despite her attempts to smother them with her other hand. The thirteen year old hurried to the other corner of the room not bothering with the window again. She had fought with it three different times now. There was no hope. It was painted shut and lead to a four story drop that ended painfully on pavement. The room was swirling now; the fire devoured the oxygen leaving nothing but thick black smoke.

She didn't hear the glass break over the roar of the fire, but she did feel the strong arms lift her up. She huddled close to the hard chest as the someone carried her to the window. Then he leaped! She would have screamed if there had been air in her lungs. Instead she just gasped.

He caught hold of the fire escape, on the adjacent building, with one hand, and held Riana tightly to him with the other.

"It's ok I got ya." He said hoarsely. He moved onto the fire escape landing and sat Riana down. He used the skirt of her night gown to smother out any remaining flames.

Riana coughed and stared at her rescuer. Her vision was blurred buy the tears and smoke, that also made her loopy, so she couldn't be sure how much she could trust what she was seeing. What knelt before her was a large, large, blurred turtle. The tails of his red bandanna whipped in the wind.

"Raph, come on." The voice came from above them. Riana didn't look up for fear this turtle before her would disappear.

"You're gunna be alright." He ordered then stood up, and said to the voice aloft, "I'm comin'."

He shouted down the alley to get the attention of the fire fighters. Then, like turning out a light, he was gone.

Riana was rescued by something, she couldn't explain, that day. And she was told she had hallucinated because of all the smoke and lack of oxygen. But something told her they were wrong.

Chapter 1

**12 years later**

Riana Dawned her gear as the alarm sounded through the fire station. She jumped into the cab of the big red fire truck as its sirens blared. Lights flashing as it pulled out of the fire station.

Riana pulled her oxygen mask over her face and tightened the chin strap on her helmet as they pulled up to an old office building. Riana stared out at the building. It was condemned, barely standing, on fire, a serious death trap, and probably full of homeless and criminal teens hiding from police and family. Raina sighed 'firefighting wasn't for the faint of heart.'

The red rig pulled to a stop. Riana grabbed her axe and started her search for a safe way in. the building was going up fast but they had to try and save anyone they could. The trucks started to lay on water from street hydrants. The flames hissed in discontentment as the water pushed them back. Steam and smoke mixed in inky billows adding to the smog that blanketed the night in Manhattan.

"McMurphy, over here." Collin's, her current partner, called to her.

Collin's and Riana made their way through a doorway at the back. The Smoke was mostly at the top of the building as was the fire … for the moment. They needed to move quickly though. Whatever business the building used to be used for, there was no reminisce of what it was now. Newspapers and trash littered the floors.

They moved quickly through the first floor, then the second. Munitions littered this floor. Criminal hide out won the pot! If they had remembered to bet on it.

"I think most everyone that was here is gone." Collins concluded.

"Wouldn't it be terrible if we were wrong?" Riana replied. "Come on let's make sure. And get it done before the fire gets to this level. "

Collins shook his head, but followed Riana to the next floor anyway. Riana was never one to give up easily. If the burns on her arms weren't evidence enough of that, then her stubbornness, and willingness to face off with even the direst of situations would soon clue you in.

The third floor was starting to burn. The flames licked at the ceilings and were working their way to the walls. Riana and Collins picked up their pace as they moved from room to room. Still no one.

"Alright Collins, you win. Let's get outa here." Riana motioned to go back the way they came. Then she heard it, a series of hurried footsteps on the floor above them.

She looked up then hurried toward the stair way to the next floor. Collins was close behind.

Four very large turtles hurried through the burning building, trying to find a way out that wasn't covered with flame or the view of fire fighters. Luck did not seem to be favoring them. Leonardo, wearing a blue bandanna and twin katana, lead the way with their most recent advisory slung over his shoulder. Michelangelo , strutting an orange bandanna and a pair of nunchuku, fallowed close behind Leo, carrying their latest advisory's latest victim, a young teenage boy that had gone missing the week before. Donatello followed behind Mikey, he wore a dark purple bandanna and used his bow staff to push burning debris out of the way. Raphael pushed the others ahead of him, he wore a red bandana and his two sai gleamed in the flame light. "Come on Leo let's get the fuck out'a here!"

"I'm trying Raph!" Leo shouted back. 'Where to go, where to go?' He wasn't sure which direction to start in. the fire and smoke made it impossible to tell the front of the building from the back.

No matter how the fire started, whether one of the thugs that had vacated the premises had started it or it was an electrical issue, it didn't matter now. If they didn't get out soon the fire fighters would be picking very large turtle shells from the debris.

The building groaned threatening to give way under their burnt feet. Leo spotted a window in a back office. "Come on, this way!" he shouted over the roar of the flames. They ducked low as they moved quickly to the back room.

Don hurried past Leo and opened the window. "Hurry, come on, come on." He helped Leo climb out the window to the fire escape and then Mikey, complete with the people they were carrying.

Raph coughed against the smoke that was covering their escape. Don started to climb through the window. Then the building groaned, growled, and a support beam gave way. Don shoved Raph out of the way of the falling beam and dove for cover under the window, covering his head with his arms to protect it from any flaming shards

"Raph!" Don shouted over the flames. "Raph, you alright?! You there? Raph!"

Raph picked himself up from the painfully hot floor and brushed some embers off his shoulder and the edge of his shell. "I'm here Don!"

Raph coughed as he looked around. The fire was separating the two and blocking Raph's escape. There was no way back and no way forward. He was trapped.

"Go through the window. I'll back track and go out another one!" Raph lied. But he knew if they knew he was trapped there, they would die trying to get to him and he couldn't let that happen.

Don was being pushed back toward the window. The heat and flame were getting so strong he felt like his skin was going to boil right off of him. Trusting his brother had a way out he climbed out the window joined his other brother's on the roof and waited for the ever stubborn Raphael to emerge from the fiery building.

Riana reached the fourth level just in time for the support beam to break overhead she leaped out of the way as parts of the ceiling crashed down around her. She could hear the shouting between the people that were on this level. She would have to go through the wall. Riana regained her feet and quieted Collins' radioed worries. "I'm fine Collins. I am going to get these guys out of here. I'll see you out side."

Given no other choice Collins headed back down the stairs, ordering more water toward the fourth floor as he hurried out to wait for his partner.

Riana gripped her Axe and swung it into the wall. She made short work of the plaster and sheet rock she pushed her way through the wall and peered through the smoke. Sitting with his head between his knees gasping for air was something she never thought she would see again. The giant turtle with a red bandana that had saved her so long ago, and here she got the chance to return the favor. She hurried to him and took and extra oxygen mask off her tank and placed it over his face and turned on the air.

He returned the favor by pushing her back. He tried to tell her to get out of there but just ended up coughing and sputtering.

She reoffered the oxygen and he took it.

"You're gunna be all right, I'm gunna get you outa here. Anyone else in here?" Riana glanced around as she asked the question.

The giant turtle shook his head.

Riana nodded and helped him up.

"This way." She led him back through the wall to a window in the corner ally. She opened the window and smiled when she saw how close the next roof was. Not good news if they couldn't get the fire out but good for this moment. The water from the fire trucks was raining down like a water fall causing thick smoke and steam to give them enough cover that no one would be able to see anything other than maybe some shadows moving. "Alright jump in one, two, three."

On three they jumped with all their might across the gap. Raph jumped farther pulling on Riana's oxygen tank enough to set her off balance and fall into him tripping him up and creating a rolling pile of green, red, yellow, and black.

"There!" Mikey pointed Raph out amidst the smoke and fire fighter. He hurried over the roof tops followed by Don and Leo. They had left the two people they had carried out by the mouth of the ally where the fire fighters quickly found them.

Mikey slid to a stop next to Raph and hugged him before he was able to get untangled from Riana's gear which just pulled Riana back into the turtles' laps but lucky for her it was face first this time. She struggled to radio to the truck that she was no longer in the building

"You totally had me worried there for a bit bro. you in one piece?" Mikey asked excitedly.

Raph pushed Mikey off of him. "I'm fine."

He tried to untangle the oxygen mask but must have been taking to long for the fire fighter cause she just ended up slipping out the jacket, oxygen, and helmet and sat back on the roof to take a breath which ended in a coughing fit cause of the hot smoky air.

"You alright?" Mikey asked her.

She must have been, because she was smiling, and she was shaking a finger at Raph.

Before she could say anything, though, Leo caught a hold of her arm to inspect a tattoo that wrapped around her right arm nestled amongst old burns that marred her skin. The tattoo was a red bandana, with two blacked out eye holes, wrapped around her arm. The bandana had two long tails trailing down her arm. On one was written courage, on the other was written honor.

"Is our secret safe with you?" Leo asked. He looked her in the eyes. Hoping she would sense the importance of her silence. Getting caught by a fire fighter wasn't as dangerous as a cop but he didn't like the chance they were being forced to take, none the less.

She was worried for her safety when the turtle in blue first grabbed her arm, his brown eyes piercing and deep. But his question caused her to relax significantly.

"Of course." She answered softly holding his gaze till he let her go.

Raph, now that he was finally loose of her gear, leaned forward to look at her tattoo. "Do I know you?" He looked her over trying to remember who she was.

She opened her mouth to answer but was immediately cut off by and explosion on the second floor. She looked back at the burning building for a moment then back to the turtles. Except the turtles were running away! "Snap. Wait!"

Getting to her feet Riana grabbed her gear and ran after them, never mind that her job was currently burning behind her. She tried to keep up but her gear slowed her down and when she was sure she had lost them and couldn't have possibly made the next jump between buildings, she gave up with a disappointed sigh.

"I just wanted to say thanks!" she shouted into the night.

"For what?" The gruff voice came from so close behind her his breath moved the hairs on her neck.

Riana about jumped out of her clothes and skin in one movement. She spun around to face the turtle and then jumped again as the rest of the munitions on the second floor of the burning building went off, from the heat, in a great procession of noise.

The turtle gave the noisy building and irritated look then looked back at the woman.

"Shouldn't he be thanking you?" The turtle in purple and shadows asked.

"Ya." The orange one chuckled. "It did look like you were saving his tail."

The one with the blue bandana remained silent, just watching.

"Well?" the turtle in front of her snapped impatiently bringing her attention back to him

Riana cleared her throat. Placed a palm on the turtles chest and applied what she was hoping would be enough pressure to get him to take a step back so they weren't chest to chest, with a long way to fall behind her. "Well…" she began.

Raphael ignored the hand on his chest. He withheld the desire to scream at her for trying to push him back. 'What don't want the freak in your space?! Can't stand to be so close to the monster?!' Then she told him how he saved her from a fire set by a gang at her father's apartment complex, because he wouldn't pay protection money to them.

"You saved me and it made me want to save others. I chose fire fighter 'cause I could defeat what almost killed me." The pressure of her hand on Raph's chest changed from pushing to almost a rested caress. "Thank you, both for your help and for an opportunity to repay you."

She smiled up at him so sincerely with her ash smudged face and bright green eyes. Raph couldn't help but soften his demeanor toward her. "uh," he shifted his weight. "You're welcome …and thanks."

He cleared his throat uncomfortably as he took her hand in his and removed it from his chest as he took a couple of steps back.

The fire roared in the old building that was now almost a block away. Riana frowned at it, it was really getting in the way of her desire to talk with this turtle man. But she really needed to go back and do her job. She sighed.

"here." She said as she dug under her firefighting pants and into her uniform pocket. She pulled a pen out and reached for Raph's arm.

He abruptly pulled away.

Riana frowned at him. "I would like to give you my number. I would love the opportunity to get to know you If you would be kind enough to give me a call sometime. If nothing else you'll have it in case you ever need someone to have your back."

She offered Raph the pen. "Would you rather right it yourself? Even if you aren't actually going to call me, you could humor me."

Raph stared at the pen for a second then glanced at Leo, who simply shrugged. He gave her a disgruntled look but took the pen and got ready to wright on his forearm. "Number?"

Riana recited the number. "My name is Riana McMurphy."

"Ray ray, got it." Raph said as he wrote everything down and handed her back her pen. "I'm …"

"Raph." Riana said his name and smiled. "I remember."

She shrugged and smiled sweetly. "I'll see ya when I see ya." She then got here gear back on and hurried back to the fire to do her job. Radioing in that she was on a building roof and that she had been taking cover from the explosions.

Raph joined his brothers in the shadows.

"So, you gunna call her? She was pretty cute." Michelangelo smiled as he watched her running toward the fire.

Raph shook his head as he walked past. "No, I'm not gunna fucking call her, Mike."

Mikey shrugged. "Bummer."

He then hurried after his brothers as they silently slipped into the night.