Chapter one
"I can close it!" Natasha's voice shouted through my ear piece. "Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down!"
My heart beat in relief, as I fired another shot from the repulsor I wore.
"Do it!" Steve responded.
"No, wait!" Tony cut in.
"Stark, these things are still coming!"
"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."
I watched as Tony flew towards the missile and veer it off it's intended course; towards the portal.
I angled my own suit, that I wore, and pushed Tony out of the way, taking over the job of angling the bomb.
"Ali, what are you doing?!" Steve yelled, "It's a one-way trip!"
I blinked the tears from my eyes; knowing that I was going to die.
"Close the portal behind me," I ordered, my throat threatening to choke up.
I flew up higher and higher, gaining speed with each second; while Tony and Steve protested in my ear. I went through the portal, my communications cutting off. The suit began to freeze. My heart thumped wildly. I looked up. My eyes widened. The black sky was filled with ships. A cluster of the Chitauri.
I let go of the missile and fell as the suit failed. I heard the explosion and saw some of the ships destroyed, before I started to black out.
"Close it." The last thing I whispered, before I slipped into consciousness.
#
Muffled voices reached my ears. I followed them, trying to wake up. As I did so, the voices became clear.
"I don't understand why we brought her along," snarled a voice. It sounded like someone in their mid-to-late teen years. "She's human. Another human would have helped her."
"In this weather, at this time?" replied a second, male voice, "She's lucky we found her when we did."
The angry one tsked.
"What about she was wearing? Doesn't that strike you as odd?"
"Have you looked in a mirror lately? Odd is part of the job description."
A growl came from person A.
A bump had me jolt to one side, before settling again. I was in a van; or something similar. It wasn't the first time I had been in one after a mission. A low groan emitted from my lips, ceasing the bickering. My eye was opened and a torch shone in it. I raised a hand and pushed the bright device away.
"M ne," I spoke.
I had meant to say 'I'm fine', however, my mouth wasn't responding well to what I wanted it to do.
The one with the torch seemed to understand what I said though.
"You're not fine. You've got a nasty bump on your head. You shouldn't move."
Despite the recommendation, I pushed myself up into a sitting position. He kept insisting that I lay back down. I rubbed my head, wincing as my fingers brushed over my wound.
"I appreciate that you helped me and all, but I-"
I cut myself off as I looked up to the face of the people. Except they weren't people. They were humanoid turtles.
My body stiffened, the longer I stared. There were four of them. The purple eye-masked turtle knelt in front of me. A torch in his hand and a first aid kit next to him. The red- masked turtle stood close by. His arms were crossed over his plastron. The orange- masked one was behind him, sitting down on the other side of the van. The blue- masked turtle was driving. Each one wore a weapon. Katana, nun chucks, sai and a bo staff.
I must have been staring for too long, as the purple- masked turtle cleared his throat to speak.
"Don't be scared. I know we must seem…different, strange even, to what you're used to; but I promise, we aren't going to hurt you."
I gave a glance around the three before me, before turning back to purple.
"Actually," I responded, "It's more like a typical day for me."
"I knew it," red snarled, "She's working for Shredder."
He pointed an accusing finger at me.
"Who?" I questioned.
"Don't play the innocent game. If we are normal to you, you've been around mutants before."
I flinched at the word.
"I prefer the term advanced, thank you very much."
Red made to move forward. Orange stopped him, by grabbing hold of his arm. I sent a glare at red; daring him to come closer.
"I Donatello," purple introduced himself, "What's your name?"
"Clara," I lied, using one of my aliases. "Clara Stephens."
"It's nice to meet you, Clara. Can I ask you a few questions?"
I shrugged.
"Don't see why not," I responded.
Donatello stood up and moved over to a metal suit. My suit.
"When we found you, you were wearing this. Why do you have it?"
"Hobby."
Red gave a mutter, which sounded like 'liar'. Donatello ignored him and continued.
"Who gave it to you?"
"A friend."
"This friend, what's his name?"
"I'm not telling you that."
"Clara, we're trying to help. We need to know who gave the suit to you. Was it a man named Baxter Stockman?"
"Just give me the suit back and I'll leave. I have people who are probably freaking out right now and need to know that I'm okay."
"As much as I would love for that to happen, we have to make sure you won't tell anyone about us."
I frowned.
"I thought advanced people were common knowledge."
Donatello shot me a look of confusion.
"What are you talking about?"
I opened my mouth to respond, when something rammed into the side of the van. My head snapped back, hitting the metal body of the vehicle, before I was thrown forward. I landed on my knees, while the three turtles in front of me tried to steady themselves. Blue tried to get back control of the van. Red was the first to recover. He glowered at me, before storming over.
His three-fingered hand wrapped around my throat and heaved me to my feet. I was shoved against the wall.
"We got company!" Blue shouted out.
"No shit," red snapped back.
His grip on me tightened. I opened my mouth, gasping for air, as black spots danced in my eyes. I gripped his wrist and twisted hard. Red gave a yelp of pain; his grip loosened. I pushed his arm to the side and brought my knee up; striking him in the stomach in three quick successions. He let out a huff. Pushing him away, I lunged for the suit. I struck a few buttons and a timer started to count down.
A hand grabbed the collar of my shirt and threw me to the back doors. I was slammed against the handle. Pain throbbed through my back. I landed on my feet, unsteadily. Looking up, I saw red being held back by Donatello and orange.
"Let me go!" red ordered, "She led them right to us!"
"Raph, we don't have time for this!" blue called over his shoulder.
The van was rammed again. I stumbled. Getting steady again, I spun around. Taking hold of the handles, I threw the back doors open. A few motorbikes rode behind us. The riders wore black outfits with a red trident symbol on their left sleeve. The second the doors were open, they rose a hand. Each rider held an assault rifle.
With a gasp, I threw myself to the floor of the van. Bullets rained over top of me; pinging against the metal body. A burning sensation went through my thigh, just before the gunfire ceased. I bit back the scream that threatened to escape from my lips. I clenched my teeth; making a weird hissing noise as I clutched my wound.
Looking up to the turtles, I saw that they were getting into different areas of the van. I crawled over to the suit and peered at the countdown. Twenty seconds remaining. Getting behind it, I pushed it forward with my un-injured leg. Scoot, push, scoot, push. I kept doing so, until it was at the edge of the van. With a final push, it fell out. I sent a silent apology to Tony.
"What're you-" red started.
The suit exploding cut him off. The explosion knocked a few of the riders from their bikes. The other three swerved to avoid the fireball and sped up towards the sides of the vehicle.
"You were gonna blow us up?!" red screeched.
"No. At least I wasn't until you attacked," I snapped, not bothering to look at red. "That is on you."
"Enough!" commanded blue. "Fight later. Get the foot off our tail."
"Whatever," red mumbled.
Red got into a chair. It lifted him up and through a hole in the roof. I ripped a strip off the hem of my shirt; tying it around my leg. I hissed when I tightened the knot. I then got to my feet, favouring my right leg over my left and limped over to blue. I sat in the passenger seat.
"Anything I can do?" I offered.
"How good's your aiming?"