A/N: Hello! This is the first chapter of my first TMNT story. C: And I know some people like the 2003 version better and some like the 2012 version better. Sooo, this story is a mix of the 2003 and 2012 version. For example, if you like Mikey's catchphrase, 'Cowabunga' he'll proudly annoy the pee out of his brothers with it. If you like his newer one, 'Booyakasha' he'll loudly shout that one too. The same goes for their looks, even though I like to think of Raph being the taller one of them. ;) This mix of versions also applies to my future TMNT posts. (Nice, cute stories focused on just two brothers or all of them.) Ok! Sorry for rambling. Enjoy!

"Tullius!" I get down on my hands and knees to peek under my bed. "Tullius?" When I see only darkness and not my cat's little, furry face, I sadly stand back up again. This is when that thought crosses my mind. I turn slowly around to my open window, my brows furrowed with worry. "Oh no…" My heart begins to race and I scramble for my window. I look out onto the fire escape platform, hoping to see Tullius, but he wasn't there. I whimper, thoughts of him falling from the platform then wandering around in the cold, dark of night filling my head. I should have checked to see if my window was completely closed before I left for school, but I didn't. My new cat I had just received for my 17th birthday, was gone, nowhere to be found. I had looked all over the apartment, under all the beds, dressers, and I also looked in all the closets. He wasn't in any of those places!

I run my hands down my face in frustration, having spent hours looking for him after I got home from school. "Aw, man." I ease myself onto my knees again, resting my arms and chin on the window seal. "Where did you go?"

Outside a cool wind blows, bringing goose bumps to my light, peach colored skin. I shiver and cross my arms over my chest, using my hands to rub my arms. This forms the picture of Tullius in my mind again- cold, hungry, and alone. My frustrated expression fades, a dejected one replacing it. "What should I do? Where on earth could he be?" Right as I finish saying this, I hear a faint meow. I jump up. "Tullius?" I poke my head out the window. I hear another meow, but it was louder this time. I quickly climb out my window and onto the platform. "Tullius!"

"Merrow!"

I turn towards the iron steps that lead upwards to the roof of the building; It sounded as if he was above me. A broad smile spreads across my face and I start to jog up the steps, skipping a few along the way. "I'm coming, Tullius!" I shout excitedly.

My family's New York apartment being on one of the higher floors, it doesn't take me long until I'm on the last set of stairs.

I think to myself, 'Whew. Little guy must be tired from traveling all the way up here.'

I watch my feet race up the last set of steps, trying hard not to trip up; I have to admit that I'm not that great on my feet. Finally, I soon see roof top underneath my left foot. I go to lift my head, only to have my right foot get caught under the last step. I yelp loudly and land flat on my stomach, my knees getting a good skinning in the process. "Uuh…" I moan, "Gosh dang it." I painfully lift my head and wince when I try to get up on my knees. The tip of my nose also starts burn; I must have skinned that up real good too. Now on my knees I hold my face in my hands, my breathing heavy and shaky. "Geez..." I shake my head when tears start to form in my eyes. "No, no, no. I gotta," I wearily look up. "find Tulli-" Just then my words get caught in my throat, and my eyes grow wide. My mouth drops open and I instantly forget about my pain.

Four human-like turtles, all of them wearing a different colored mask, stare back at me from a few feet away. I stare back at them in dumbfounded shock, wondering if I'm seeing clearly.I blink hard and rub my eyes, but when I opened them again they were all still standing there! I have never seen such a strange sight before… Well, in real life anyway.

Then to my surprise, one in an orange mask causally turns to one in red and says, "Whoa, she's actually not screaming and running away."

At that I briskly stand and stumble backwards a bit.

'What does he mean by screaming and running away?!'

"Good goin', Mikey, ya scared her." The red banded one grumbles.

"I'm pretty sure we're all scaring her, Raph." The purple clad turtle replies.

I look at them all in disbelief, and that's when I notice a small, furry animal in the hands of the orange masked turtle. I gasp when I realize who it is. "Tullius!" I step forward. "Please don't hurt him! He's mine!" I squeak.

"Tullius? Who's that?"

"The cat you're holdin', dipstick."

I stare at them in distress, a begging look clear in my eyes.

'I just want my cat back and to get out of here!'

The one in blue notices this and speaks up, "Alright, Mikey, give her kitten back. You've had it long enough."

"Aaww… Alright." He smiles and gently pats Tullius on the head. "Well it was good knowing ya little guy." Tullius replies by brushing his head against the palm of his hand, and I must not be seeing clearly because this guy seems to only have three fingers.

The turtle-guy thing looks to me again and grins slightly before slowly making his way over to me. I gulp and feel my hands start to shake. The closer he got, the more realistic his costume looked.

"Sorry." He stops in front of me and holds out my kitten, a sheepish smile on his face.

'Ok, now I must be hallucinating because that looked like a real, genuine smile. How is the face of his costume moving so darn realistically?'

"U-um, it's okay. Thanks." I stammer.

I go in to hurriedly grab my kitten, but just as I'm about to take him back a pink beam zips between us! The turtle jumps back with my kitten and lets out a girly scream. I let out a high pitched 'Eek!' and almost jump out of my skin.

"Crud! It's the Kraang!"

I look to see human-like robots jumping up onto the roof top. The high-tech guns they hold in their hands shoot out pink beams all over the place, leaving holes in anything they hit. Their skin is blue and see through, showing their metallic but simple skeleton. Their round, mechanic eyes are cold and lifeless as they stare at their target. I gape in terror as pink, blob creatures with sharp eyes and pointy teeth sit in their stomachs.

"W-w-what-" I lift a trembling finger to point at them, my brain and nerves almost paralyzed with fear. Now, after all that has happened, I ultimately release a bloodcurdling scream.

The turtles jump into action, pulling out all kinds of different weapons. One pulls out two katana swords, and another pulls out two sai. My eyes stay glued to them until I come to my senses and run for cover; I found and hid behind some sort of large pipe sticking up out of the roof. Here I crouch and watch, stunned, as all the turtles beat away at the robots. They move quick and precise, delivering hard blows to the robots with ease. Their moves look so fluid and… ninja like.

In all this commotion and trying to get over my nerves, I happen to spot Tullius that had also hidden behind a pipe. I take a deep breath and burst into a sprint after him, hoping and praying that the beams wouldn't hit either of us. Fortunately for me, and I guess for those turtle guys too, there weren't that many robots to begin with. Before I had even reached Tullius they were finishing up on the last few.

"Cowabunga!" The orange banded turtle knocks down the last robot with a finishing whip of nunchucks to its face.

The other three look at him with puzzled expressions, all at the same time repeating, "'Cowabunga'?"

"Yeah! Catchy, right?"

"No." The red clad turtle responds bluntly.

"C'mon guys. We should get out of here."

"But, Leo," The orange masked turtle looks my way. "What about her?"

Purple clad brows furrow slightly. "She'll be alright, Mikey. Plus she found her kitten after someone rudely kept it to himself."

"Whaaat? He looked lost and lonely!"

"It doesn't matter anymore, guys. We should leave now before more Kraang show up." The blue masked turtle jogs over to the edge of the building and cautiously looks over the side. When he doesn't see any Kraang, he motions for the others. The three follow his lead down the fire escapes into a dark alley.

"I'm so glad I found you!" I bend over to pick Tullius up, elated at finally having the chance to hold him again. "I'll make sure to-" He jumps away from my hands and races off. Baffled, I stare at him for a split second before groaning, "Tullius! What is wrong with you?!" I race after him as fast as my legs could go, my scraped knees giving me a hard time. "I'm really beginning to think you don't like me! At all!" Tullius reaches the fire escapes and swiftly maneuvers down them towards the ground, while I practically stumble down them. "Owie, ow, ow, ow." I repeat under my breath.

If I place my footing wrong, I'm done for. I'd have much worse injuries than just scraped knees.

"Mikey! Stop foolin' around and get over here!"

"Okay, okay! One sec, Raph."

The turtle with nunchucks does a back flip off the last platform and sticks the landing with a victorious grin. The other turtles roll their eyes and head for the closet manhole. Just then, my trouble maker of a cat makes it to the ground and runs after them. I soon drop down to the ground with a grunt, my knees starting to hurt worse. I try to avoid thinking about the pain and look to see the group of turtles going into a manhole. My eyes open wide in horror.

"H-hey! Wait!" I sprint again. "My cat! He's following you!"

My cat reaches the manhole and pauses for a second, giving me enough time to grab-!

Tullius jumps down the manhole, just a few seconds away from being in my grasp. I didn't have time to react to him getting away this time, because then I realized, I had just made a huge mistake.

I scream a blood-chilling scream and close my eyes tight. My hands desperately claw at the air for something, anything, to keep me from falling; The only thing my fingers could find, was the emptiness of the air around me. I fall head first into the manhole as my feet hit concrete, sending a bone, shattering pain through them. My heart leaps into my throat and I wait for my body to feel the cold floor of the sewer below. My mind then turns into a blank sheet of nothing, as if protecting me from thoughts of what was about to happen.

Unknowingly to me, someone in the sewer catches sight of my falling body and runs towards me with open arms.

"Aaaand I gotcha! Whew. Cutting it close there, huh? …Hey. Hello…? Earth to red!" He pokes my pale cheek, referring to my auburn hair.

"Geez, Raphael, don't yell at her. She may be in shock. Give her some time to come around."

"Yeah, dude, she just about fell to her death."

"That isn't something you joke about, Mikey."

"I wasn't joking, Leo! You know I'm not like hot head over here."

"Shut your trap, Mikey."

I barley open my eyes, my ears picking up familiar voices all around me.

'My family? What are we doing on the street? No. I… I fell? Where is Tullius? My heart is beating so fast… I'm scared.'

My thoughts are a confusing, jumble of mess, so I randomly pick one to focus on and whisper, "M-mommy?"

"Aaw! She must think you're her mommy, Raphie. Hee-hee."

"Mikey! You-!"

"Raph! Remember you're the one holding her! Be careful!"

"So! That doesn't mean I can't teach Mikey a lesson at the same time! …And I ain't no mommy."

"Ha-ha!"

'Wait, that doesn't sound like Mom. .'

I fully open my eyes now; My vision clears up to reveal a familiar, red masked turtle staring down at me, and with an irritated expression plastered to his face too. Sour expression aside, I gaze up at him in utter awe, my whole body beginning to tremble from the nerve wrecking fall. A wave of relief also washes over me and I start to smile, my thought's finally sorting themselves out.

'Even though I wish it had been my Mom that I had heard, he caught me. I didn't hit the ground. I'm. . I'm okay!'

Tears sting the corners of my green eyes, and I choke out a soft, "Thank you."

The turtle's expression changes into astonishment for a moment, but he shakes his head and puts me down.

"Are you okay?" The orange banded turtle studies my face with a worried frown, the other two turtles standing next to him.

I grin and wipe at my eyes, my legs wobbling like jelly. "Um, I'm okay." That's when I feel my feet and toes start to throb in pain; They had hit the side of the manhole as I fell. I peer down at them, afraid that the slightest move would send a jolt of pain through them.

'What if I broke one of my toes? I can't get out of here like this. .'

I raise my head with a quiet sigh to see all four of the turtles staring at me. "…So…" I shyly fiddle with my fingers. "Who exactly are you guys? I mean, are those costumes? If not, then, well, you all possibly can't be. ." I struggle to find the right words to say; I'm not that great at socializing with people I've just met, or in this case, I'm even worse at talking with turtles I've just met.

"Well, I'm Leonardo," He starts and points to the other turtles as he introduces them, "and these are my brothers Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. But you can just call us Leo, Donny, Raph, and-"

"Mikey!" Michelangelo interrupts proudly.

Raph smirks. "Actually, you can just call Mikey 'goob', 'cause that's what he is."

Mikey narrows his eyes at him and sticks out his tongue. I can't help but grin at this; Maybe these guys aren't so strange after all… Just maybe.

"And I think we should leave the telling of what we are to our father." Leo smiles thoughtfully. "He really explains it the best."

'Uh-oh, I wonder if their Dad dresses up as a turtle too?'

"Yeah, just follow us." Donatello gives me a friendly grin before turning with his brothers.

I stare at the back of their seemingly realistic shells as they walk off into the dark, smelly tunnel, my heart almost beating out of my chest. Honestly, this whole situation is really starting to scare me. I just can't wrap my brain around all that had happened. I mean, what are they doing in a sewer? Why are they dressed like that? Why were there robots? Does this have something to do with the government? Or did I just accidentally walk onto the set of a movie scene?

More and more questions painfully swirl around in my head, the last one being, 'Should I follow them?' as they all stop to turn and look at me.

"Um, what is your name?" Leonardo questions.

I reply slowly, "…Grace."

"Well, Grace," He grins gently, my eyes showing conflicting emotions. "I know none of what has happened tonight makes any sense, so… If you want to leave, you can. We won't hold you back or anything like that."

I think about what he just said for what seemed like a good while, but eventually I smile sheepishly. "Even if I wanted to leave I couldn't." I wince in pain when I try to wiggle my toes, the feeling almost bringing me to my knees. "I hurt my feet pretty bad on the way down here." After the feeling of that much pain, I decided that I'd just have to trust these guys for now. Surely everything will be okay, I hope.

The four brothers walk back to me, a concerned look on Donatello's face. "Do you remember what happened to them as you fell?"

"I believe they hit the side of the manhole."

"Ooo! Ouch! That must've hurt." Mikey grimaces. Raphael elbows him hard in his plastron, making him grunt.

"Did that hurt, Mikey?"

"…Meanie."

Donatello rolls his eyes at them and turns his attention back to me. "I can check your feet for injuries at our lai- I mean home, if you want." Donny corrects himself, thinking 'lair' would worry me even more.

"Uh, okay. Thanks." I smile then feel myself being swiftly lifted up off the ground. "Whoa!"

"I'll take you there!" Mikey smiles brightly and heads for their home with me in his arms. Leo tells him to chill out and to be more careful with me, while I feel myself grow embarrassed; the first guy to hold me is a turtle, and the first guy to carry me is a turtle. . Or just guys in extremely realistic costumes? I still don't know the answer to that yet.
After stopping for one of the brothers to pull down on a pipe, a wall lifts to reveal an old, abandoned subway station.

'...What just happened? How did-? The wall just- Up like that?'

Mikey sees my bewildered expression, and leaning his head towards Leo, he whispers, "She's totally scared and confused out of her mind, man. Should we really bring her in here?"

"I know but we can't just let her walk off if she has broken bones. It's our fault she's like this; We should've been more careful and stayed towards the shadows." He whispers back.

Michelangelo nods his head. "Yeah, I guess… I guess this whole thing is my fault." He frowns, sadly hanging his head. "Sorry Leo."

"It's alright Mikey; it's not just your fault." Leo gives him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up over it… Ha, what am I saying? Of course you won't."

Mikey rolls his bright blue eyes. "Haa-haa, veeery funny. Seriously though, I didn't mean to cause this much trouble."

Leonardo chuckles. "I know Mike don't worry. I believe you."

I heard the last part of their conversation as they walked into the station, the regretful tone of their voices slowly beginning to change my thoughts about them, and for the better.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter! Please review and leave some constructive criticism. I would greatly appreciate it. C:

-KadynG