Jewels opened the window to her bedroom to the late night air. Screw her parents, what did they know anyway. Grounding her just because she got caught shoplifting, it wasn't like no one else did it. Try to tell her she hung with the wrong crowd, will they? Tell her she couldn't see her friends anymore, well she would show them. They never understood her anyway, refused to see her point of view on anything. Her friends were the only ones that understood her and so what if they were in the purple dragons. She didn't care about that, they understood her for who she was, that's what she cared about. They were all in agreement, parents suck and didn't understand anything.
Looking around her room one last time she couldn't help but feel a little pang at the thought of leaving but she quickly brushed the feeling away. Her freedom was worth more to her than this stupid excuse for a family. She was sixteen, for crying out loud, not a little baby. Without any more delay she picked up her bag and slipped out the window. It was time to blow this joint. They would see, she didn't need them, any of them. Didn't need her teachers, her parents none of them.
She climbed down the fire escape next to her window and made her way to Central Park. Jewels was supposed to meet the gang there tonight and she couldn't wait. Tonight they were going to make her a full fledged member of the gang, all she had to do was pass a test. Willow, her best friend, had gone through her test already but she wasn't allowed to tell what it was. She did say it was easy though, so Jewels wasn't to worried.
It took her awhile to get to the park and it was about midnight when she finally got there. "Jewels!" Willow greeted her with a large smile. Willow was cool, she didn't give a crap about what her parents said or thought and had run away from home months ago herself. She was the one that had encouraged Jewels to just up and leave and was apparently happy that she finally did. "Just in time. We are about to get started. Got some other new recruits to break in tonight too."
Jewels walked next to the tall dark haired girl as they joined up with the rest of the group of about twenty members. "So, what's the plan?" She asked Willow as they walked.
She only got a wink and a "Wait and see." Apparently her friend still wasn't going to tell her anything.
Once they joined the group one of the older members hopped up onto a rock and looked out over the gang, and soon to be, gang members. "Slight change of plans. We can't do our usual initiation right on the count of some weirdos that keep interfering, so instead of our usual smash and grab we will go find some other type of fun for tonight. Let's go." Then he hopped down from the rock and lead the way into the park. They were being led into more the wooded areas where there were no lights really and lots of trees to hide any activities that might take place back here.
Walking behind the others she couldn't see what their goal was until they stopped. "This should do nicely." The leader said. "Bring the newbies up here." Jewels and three others were pushed up to the front of the group. She looked down and lying in front of her was a homeless man who had been sleeping under a tree. He was an older man and he looked up at them blinking in confusion as he woke up. "There you go guys. You want in? You beat the snot out of this guy." He grinned a mean grin. "Gotta do our part to keep the city clean, you know."
Jewels was shocked. This was not what she expected at all. She didn't have a problem with a little breaking and entering, or stealing. Heck she got busted earlier today for shoplifting. This was a whole different ball game, she was asked to do harm to another human being and she found that she couldn't bring herself to do it. She looked around in horror as the other three began to kick the old man, even a couple of Dragons did, Willow did...
She tried to turn away, sickened at the sight and sounds of the beating the old man was getting. She had to go get help, this wasn't right. A figure however stopped her. "And where are you going? Get back over there and finish the job." The leader told her.
"I can't, I won't do this."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "You do this or you don't get in."
"Fine. Then I guess I won't be a Dragon. I can't do that."
"Well, if you feel that way about it, then I guess you can be part of the entertainment tonight. You know to much about us for me to let you just walk away." She screamed as he grabbed her by the arm and drug her back into the middle of the circle, then he pushed her down onto the ground next to the now bleeding old man. "Got another one for you to practice on. Seems like someone had a change of heart, you know how we deal with that."
She looked around with wide eyes as the shadows of her friends closed in around her, the four larger ones that just arrived behind the group scared her the most. They were huge, this was going to hurt. Then suddelny a foot lashed out and hit her on the face and her head slammed back into the tree the old man had been trying to sleep under. Spots filled her eyes and she really couldn't see to clearly but she had enough sense still about her to try and protect her head from anymore attacks, but none came. There was sounds of someone beating on someone though.
She moved her arms and looked and was surprised to find their attention was not on her anymore. They were to busy getting the crap beat out of them, by the four large shadows she noticed earlier. She watched, amazed, as they effortlessly plowed through the Dragons. The one of them hit the leader and he came flying into her, again slamming her head into the tree. This time she started to fade out.
"Oh good job, Mikey. You just knocked out the girl we were trying to save." She heard a deep voice say then she heard no more.
.
.
Raph smacked his brother. "You need to be more careful, dipshit." One again Mikey's flair for theatrics interfered with his good judgment.
"Jeez, I'm sorry!" Came the protesting reply.
"Raph is right Mikey. You could have hurt her." Oh great. Leo agreed with him on something. "Did you have to hit him? What have I told you about hitting him?" Never mind. Raph sighed, everything had to come with a lecture with Leo. He really wasn't in the mood to listen to it tonight, but then again he never really was in the mood for one of those. He would stay in the hashi the rest of the day by himself if it would just shut Leo up.
"You can't tell me you didn't want to." He grumbled at his older brother. God Leo was just so stuck up at times, acting like he never gave Mikey a good smack.
"Of course I did, but Splinter said no more hitting." Goody two shoes.
"Guys, can we not do this now?" Donnie spoke up. "I got an ambulance on the way, we need to go."
"What about the girl?" Mikey asked concerned. Well he should be concerned, it was his fault in the first place. "We can't leave her here."
What the heck was going through his pea brained mind now? He didn't actually want to take her with us, did he? Leo looked their younger brother. "No, we can't. But we are not taking her with us either."
"Why not?" Yup, the idiot wanted to take her with us.
Raph glared at Mikey. "Because we know nothing about her, stupid. You don't really think we can take her home do you?" God he was such a twit sometimes, but Raph did have to admit his heart was in the right place, even if his brain wasn't. He looked at Leo. "Now what?"
Leo thought quickly. "Donnie check her things, see if you can find out where she lives."
Raph watched as Donnie searched through her bag for a few moments, finally he looked up. "Nothing, I think she might be a runaway."
"Then let's let the authorities figure it out." Leo said. "Take to the trees, we'll watch over them until the ambulance arrives."
"You sure there is a tree big enough to handle Raph's fat ass?" Mikey grinned.
Raph glared at his brother. "Come here you..." He started walking towards the smart mouth and Mikey squealed. The younger turtle quickly made his way up a tree, with Raph not far behind. He had just about had enough out of his little brother for one night, maybe if he broke a few of his teeth he would shut the hell up.
Raph had just about had his hands on him when Leo's whisper cut through the night air. "Knock it off you two!"
"You are so dead when we get home." Raph grumbled up to Mikey as they settled down in the branches. Trying to get his annoyed mind off of his little brother he kept his eyes glued to the figures below, and found them wandering back towards the girl. She was't that old, couldn't be more than fifteen or sixteen. Donnie had said she might be a runaway and he wondered what could be so bad at home to make her want to leave. And to hang out with the Purple Dragons of all people, what on earth had she been thinking? It's a good thing she was pretty, because her brain seemed to be lacking some good judgement skills. Wait, did it just cross his mind that she was pretty? Again his eyes wandered over her, she was tall with long legs and a slender build. And her hair, even in the dark he could tell it was a shade of red, framed a heart shaped face. Yes, he had to admit to himself, she was pretty. Not that he could do anything about it. It's not like he could just walk up to her and ask her out on a date.
Still even knowing that his situation would more than likely never allow him to see her again he could help but feel a little sad when the ambulance and police finally found their way to the scene. His eyes followed her as she was loaded up and taken to the hospital and they followed the ambulance still long after it was gone. Surprising even himself he hoped that he would see her again. He was still gazing in that direction as the police rounded up the bodies knocked all over the place, sorting out who goes to jail and who goes to the hospital. There were quite a few of them that took the hospital route. Finally the scene below them cleared out, and Raph finally pulled his gaze away from the now long gone ambulance. He turned to notice Mikey perched next to him, smiling. "You like her. Raph actually found a girl he likes." He chuckled.
Annoyed beyond his short endurance, and a little embarrassed to be caught by his brother, Raph lashed out in normal Raph fashion. He pushed his brother out of the tree. He took great satisfaction from the crashes and groans as Mikey tumbled down. A lecture from Leo and Splinter later was well worth the chuckle it brought to his lips now.