I do not own TMNT.
The woman sprinted down the street, swerving around trashcans and praying with every step that she had lost her pursuers. But no. There was a soft whoosh of air and a shadow materialized in front of her. She shrieked and tried to skid around him, but he was much too quick. The giant turtle possessing the orange mask lashed out an arm to catch her wrist.
"I caught her!" he yelled triumphantly. "Guys I-AAHHH!"
The girl had whipped out her one weapon, a tazer she'd modified earlier that week. Modified, because ordinary tazers didn't do shit to these monsters. She slammed the business end of it up against his side, in the swath of green flesh shielded by neither shell nor plastron. The turtle staggered back before dropping to the ground in a convulsing heap. The woman took off.
Two more shadows appeared beside the first. "Since when do tazers do THAT?!" exclaimed the turtle lying on the pavement.
"She must have modified the device to deliver a much more potent shock," said the more slender of the new turtles. Most of his shell was covered by a computer tech pack and high tech goggles sat on his head. An old pair of glasses rested before his greenish-gold eyes. "She is most resourceful. It is a shame that I calculate the odds of our masters killing her at 95.8%; I would love to observe her intelligence more."
"Come on," said the larger turtle. He had deep blue eyes and a pair of katanas strapped across his shell. "Shake it off and get moving Mikey." He and the other turtle exploded into a sprint down the street after their fleeing target. The turtle who'd been stunned hauled himself to his feet, mumbling all the while about stupid humans.
The mutated terrapins were much quicker than humans. They gained on their target with alarming speed as she fled for her freedom and her life. So close, she was so close! If she could just get to the end of the block, she would be safe. At least she hoped she would be safe.
"Where the hell is Raph?" muttered the larger of the two ninjas.
"Does it really matter Leo?" asked the teched out mutant. "We will be on her in 17 seconds. This hunt is all but over."
The woman bounded up the steps to the warehouse. The two turtles were mere meters away. With one hand she pushed the door open and with the other she whipped out a camera. The flash was blinding as she snapped a wild picture in a last ditch attempt to throw off her pursuers.
Years of hiding from the incrimination of photography were what caused the ninjas to instinctively dodge to either side. This split second of hesitation was what the woman needed and had been praying for. The heavy metal door slammed shut and the deadlocks slid home, not even a full second before the mutants reached it.
The blue eyed turtle snarled a curse in Japanese and hurled a fist at the door. It dented the metal, but the door held strong.
"You still haven't caught the bitch yet?" came a voice from behind. The turtles turned to see the largest of their band.
"We'd have her if you had been doing your job!" retorted Leo. "Where the hell were you Raph?!"
"Making sure she wasn't headed for the river," growled Raph.
"Just get this door out of the way," snarled the blue eyed turtle. Raph smirked and cracked his knuckles. Three blows and the door came off its hinges. By now Mikey had caught up. The turtles drew their weapons and crept into the warehouse.
"Get the fuck off our turf you freaks!" roared a voice. Gunfire followed. The bullets bounced harmlessly off the turtles' plastrons, something their masters had discovered with glee long ago. The brothers charged forward. Weapons slashed through the air as they decimated the two dozen members of the Purple Dragon gang attacking them. The fight didn't last long; they were used to fighting punks with guns.
"What's a beauty like her doing in with the Purple Dragons?" asked Raph as they surveyed the carnage. For nearly a year now, the brothers had been forcing the assimilation of New York City's gangs into the control of the Foot Clan. The Purple Dragons were one of the few still resisting, something they were only able to do by being brutally ruthless.
Leo lifted one of the few live Dragons up by his sweatshirt and slammed him against the wall. "A woman just came in here. April O'Neil. Where is she?"
"Not here," sneered the man. Leo pressed the blade of his sword to the mans' throat. "Really, she's not here. We were the diversion she needed to get away from you, a diversion we were happy to supply to cause you four freaks some shit."
Leo threw the man away with a snarl. "Search the building!" he ordered. Within minutes it was confirmed: the target had slipped through their fingers. Again. Leo moaned and ran his hand over his face. Master was going to be pissed.
"Remind me, how long have you four been searching for this woman?" asked the Shredder. The armored man paced slowly before his assembled and kneeling students. All four stared straight ahead, not moving a muscle.
"Two weeks, Master," replied Leonardo.
"Two weeks. It's never taken you more than two days to find and take care of your targets. So tell me, what is taking so long with this woman?!"
"She is a much more resourceful than we anticipated," said Leo. "But that is no excuse. We will get her soon."
"I seem to recall you saying something similar last week." A blade slid from the gauntlet on one hand.
"Master," said Leonardo quickly, "as leader, any and all failure is solely mine. Please allow me to accept my punishment now."
"Very well," said the Shredder coldly.
Mikey and Donnie closed their eyes, knowing from bitter experience that any interjection on their part would only worsen the situation. Raph grit his teeth and stared unblinkingly at the sword rack on the far wall. They still heard the blade thou, as it slashed through the air and entered the flesh of their brother. A deep cut opened on the green scales of Leo's left arm. The blue banded terrapin clamped his jaws shut to avoid screaming.
Anything for your brothers is worth it. He repeated the well-worn mantra silently. Anything for your brothers is worth it.
"Find her and bring her to me. You are dismissed," growled the Shredder. The brothers bowed and filed out of the dojo. They walked the two flights of private stairs to the level of the New York City skyscraper that was completely their own. 49 stories above the pavement, it boasted a spectacular view of the surrounding area. One way glass ensured that no one saw inside. There was a kitchen, four large bedrooms, a state of the art entertainment center, private dojo and a fully stocked nursing station. The floor below it was devoted to Donatello and his experiments.
No one could deny that it was a beautifully gilded cage.
Donatello dragged Leonardo swiftly to the med-bay, where he set about stitching up his brothers' arm.
"With our healing powers it'll be gone in just a few days," Donnie assured the leader. "It won't even scar." Once it was done, Leo thanked Donnie briefly and headed to the dojo. "You'd better just be going to meditate," yelled the purple masked turtle. He received no indication that he had been heard.
Donatello sighed and gazed down at the bloody wipes he'd used to sterilize the wound. He saw way too many of those. The familiar frustration bubbled up within him. They shouldn't have to live like this. They shouldn't have to constantly live in fear of their masters. He shouldn't have to be stitching up one of his brothers every other week. His thoughts wondered to their most recent target, April O'Neil, and his lip curled. It was because of that bitch that they were in trouble. Why couldn't she just roll over like a good little rabbit and let the wolves take her? She had to know they'd get her eventually.
Donatello didn't acknowledge Michaelangelo as he stalked past him to the stairs leading to his lab. There was no sign of Raphael; he was probably beating up the punching bag in his room. Donnie slammed the door to his sanctuary and walked to the bank of computer monitors covering one wall. Pushing his glasses further up on his beak with a well-practiced flick of one large finger, he settled into his chair and woke his computers from sleep mode. He had a target to track down. Again.
Leo knelt on the floor of the dojo and focused on his breathing.
He knew his injuries hurt his brothers as well, but what could he do? Allow their flesh to be torn and their bones to be broken in the place of him? Never. Leo would take any wound for his siblings, because he loved them. Loved them more than anything else in the world. Because he could not let them experience the agony their master gave him.
Because his father had told him to protect them.
Leo remembered Splinter. He remembered the rat tucking him and his brothers in at night, telling them stories of great warriors from Japanese folklore, showing them the very first baby katas designed to build flexibility and balance for the years of harder lessons to come.
They'd been five when he'd died. He'd gone out one night to gather food and had been attacked by gang members. Or so Sacks and Shredder had always told them.
Eric Sacks had found them. When the brothers had awoken in the morning to find their father still gone, they'd panicked. For most of the day they paced and voiced their deepest fears of what had happened to Splinter. Then, in the afternoon, Sacks had appeared. He'd knelt on the floor, coaxed them out of their hiding place and told them what had happened. How he had been an 'old friend' of Splinter. How Splinter had come across ninja from the Black Lotus Clan, a brutal group of ninja mercenaries he and Sacks had a history with. How Splinter desperately called him for backup. How he had arrived too late. How he'd realized the turtles would be all alone now. And he'd comforted them as they sobbed and screamed and promised them that he would care for them. Sacks had taken them back here where he and his master, the Shredder, had 'raised' them.
Leo wondered more and more if they had been truthful. When Sacks had first taken them in, he'd been too young to consider the possibility of him lying. But a decade of life under the rule of Shredder had taught him much. From the time they were old enough to go out in the field, they had searched the city for the Black Lotus clan members that had killed their father. They had long ago rooted out and eliminated the enemy ninja operating in New York, but everyone they interrogated denied any and all knowledge to a mutant rat named Splinter and the ones who had taken his life. And then there were the ethics of his masters. Splinter had taught them kindness, honor and respect. Shredder only taught cruelty.
Leo shook his head. This kind of thinking never got him anywhere. Like Sacks always said, the Black Lotus Clan were masters of deception, even by ninja standards. He should just be grateful for the food and the training he was given. He and his brothers were so, so lucky for him to have come along and rescued them. Splinter was in the past, where they could never get to him again. His love and influence were nothing more than a dying light. Leo owed everything to his new masters and would gladly serve them to the end.
So why did he long so much for something he would never have again?
In case it's not obvious, Shredder killed Splinter.