Ch. 1

It was a cool summer night in New York City as four turtles were making their rounds on patrol. "Hey, Leo?" Mikey questioned as they neared the old abandoned apartment building next to the fortune cookie factory. "What is it now Mikey?" Leonardo replied. "Why are we out on patrol again?" "I told you before, to look for signs of the Kraang and the Foot." "But we haven't seen any sign of them for like, the past two weeks." Leo sighed. This had to be at least the tenth time this week Mikey had asked that question. Before Leo could respond they heard the sound of Kraang blasters on the next roof. The turtles quietly walked over to the edge of the roof and poked their heads up to see what was going on. They couldn't believe what they saw. It was a fully grown African leopard fighting off about 50 or more Kraang droids. Raphael turned and whispered to Leo "So, what's you plan?" He thought for a moment "Well….If the Kraang want her than she can't be all that bad right?" Donnie turned to his brother "Wait, are we seriously considering helping her?" "We can't just sit here!" As the turtles watched, waiting for Leo to make his decision more Kraang droids appeared making it apparent that the cat was losing. "Okay let's help her, but try not to get too involved." The turtles jumped into the action quickly taking care of most of the droids. The leopard pounced on Leo, bearing its teeth. "Hey! We're trying to help." The cat softened its expression, looking deep into his blue eyes, knowing the honesty in his voice. Just as the cat was about to unpin him from the ground a Kraang droid came up behind her and hit her over the head with its blaster, knocking her out cold. Before it had a chance to strike Leo, Raph deactivated the droid by splitting its head with his Sais. Leonardo pushed the unconscious cat off of him and helped his brothers finish off the rest of the Kraang. "The ones known as the turtles are trying to stop Kraang from taking the thing that is known as the cat. Kraang commands the Kraang to not send any more Kraang. Kraang says that the Kraang will begin what is known as the retreat." Once there were no more droids the turtles walked over to the leopard. Donnie kneeled down next to her. "What is an African Leopard doing in New York?" "I don't know Don, but that Kraang must've hit her pretty hard to knock her out." "You're not kidding she's almost as big as Master Splinter." Mikey walked over to her and sat. "Awww, she's kinda cute when she not trying to kill something." Raph rolled his eyes and looked away, not really caring about the cat or what it was doing here. Donnie looked at the bump on her head. "She's going to be out for a while with a hit that hard." Michelangelo seized the opportunity. "We should take her back to lair!" Raphael rejoined the conversation by smacking Mikey. "Oww." "Are you kidding? We just watched her rip apart 40-some Kraang. What part of that is a good idea?" Leo glared up at his younger brother. "Well Raph, then what do you think we should do?" He thought for a moment before answering Leo. "We just leave her here." Donatello stood up and faced Raphael. "What if the Kraang come back?" "We could….take her to the pound." They looked at him. The red masked turtle threw his hand in the air. "Whatever! I don't care. It's your call Leo just make it fast, I am not sitting up here all night." Leo looked back to the cat then at Mikey, who was giving him big sad puppy dog eyes. "Okay, we'll take her back to the lair, just until she feels better, and then she's free to leave. That okay with you Raph?" He nodded not making eye contact with Leo. "Then let's go back already." Raph started walking, leaving Leo, Donnie, and Mikey to carry the cat. Mikey and Don both tried to pick her up, but to no avail. Leo sighed and moved them aside. He bent down and picked up the leopard, putting her over his shoulder. The three turned and followed Raph back to the lair.

When they returned to the lair they saw April waiting for them. She stood up when Raph and Donnie walked in. "Hey guys! How was patrol?" Raph ignored her and sat on the couch. "It was good." Donnie replied. April walked over to him. "What's with him?" Donnie sighed as he cast a sideways glace at his hot-head older brother. "You never know with that guy, you just never know." As Leo and Mikey walked Don turned back to her. "Hey April will you go get Master Splinter for me? I have to help the guys with something." "Sure," she said as she walked towards the dojo to get Splinter. Donatello went into his lab and came back out with a hospital-like table and some tools. He put the table under the small light by the wall behind the couch. "Lay her down over here Leo." Don called as they walked into the living room. Leonardo put her down carefully adjusting her paws and tail so that they didn't hang off the table. He got a pillow from the couch and put it under her head. April returned with Splinter. He walked over to his three sons. "Hello boys, how was patrol?" Leo stepped forward "Well sensei, that's kind of what we wanted to talk to you about." Leo stepped aside revealing the unconscious leopard lying on the table. Splinter nodded and walked over to the cat. He ran a hand through her fur and felt the bump on the back of her head. He opened one eye and looked at its dilation before turned back to his sons. "Where did you find her?" "We were by the fortune cookie factory when we heard the Kraang. We decided to check it out. She was on the old abandoned apartment building fighting off more than 50 of them." "So you four decided to help her?" "Hai, sensei." Splinter nodded as Leonardo and Michelangelo walked into the kitchen, while Donnie started to run tests on the cat. Master Splinter walked up to him. "So Donatello, how did you know she was not a wild animal?" "Well…for one thing when she pinned Leo to the ground she didn't claw him to pieces. There was like a moment of hesitation deciding friend from foe." "I see, have you ever heard the phrase 'There's more that meets the eye'?" "Yeah, but I don't get how that fits in here." Sensei chuckled and lay a hand on his shoulder. "You will in time." Splinter walked back into the dojo to continue meditating, leaving a very confused Donatello to continue his work. When he was finished he took the samples he collected and went back into his lab to analyze the data.

Within a couple of hours he walked back into the living room. "Hey everyone! I have some new information on our guest." Mikey and April walked into his lab followed by Leo. Don looked over to where Raphael was sitting on the couch. "Raph, you coming?" He got up and walked over to Don. "Sure, why not." Donnie followed Raph into his lab where everyone was already waiting. Leo looked at him "Don, I don't want to be that guy or anything, but why are you experimenting on our 'guest'?" "Scientific Curiosity." Donnie smiled. "Ok, so I called you here because the question kept bugging me 'What is a leopard doing in New York City?' anyways I decided to run some tests." He pulled down the screen for the projector and turned off the lights. "Here's what I found. So this is the bone structure of a fully grown female leopard." He clicked the remote. "This is the bone structure of the one we found. These are the similarities of the structures." He clicked the remote again and the charts became highlighted. "As you can see there are only a few similarities." That captured everyone's attention. "These are the similarities between the bone structure of our leopard, and that of a human." The chart becomes highlighted again. Everyone becomes shocked at what they see. 94% of the chart was highlighted. "But! That's not all I found." Don clicked twice on his remote. "This is the sample of DNA I took from her. Here's where it gets weird. It contains both human and feline DNA." Leo walks over to Don. "So basically what you saying is that she's a mutant." "Well, not exactly. You see there is no trace of mutagen in the DNA, which leads me to believe that she has never come in contact with it." "So why were the Kraang attacking her, and why is her DNA mixed?" Donnie shrugs. "I don't know, maybe we can ask her that when she wakes up." Raph glares at Donnie. "How do you even know she can talk?" Donnie smirks and clicks the remote, which brings up another x-ray. He points to the screen. "She has vocal chords." A little weirded out Mikey gets up and walks towards the door. "I don't know about you guys but I could go for a pizza right now. I'll be right back." He exited the lab and everyone turned their attention back to the screen. Before Donatello could continue Mikey frantically calls from the living room. "Dudes! Come quick!" Everyone ran out of the lab and burst into the living room. They're shock at what Mikey was pointing to. He was pointing to the empty table under the light. "I think we have a problem."