Chapter 1: Rooftop Epiphanies

"C'mon, m'lady. You have to trust me. An ambush is exactly what we need." A purple ombre-haired girl stared at her screen with a small grin, hearing the cute, nerdy voice on the other side of the messenger service. Their video screens were never on with each other, but that was at her dear gamer friend's request. Hey, she was fine with that! Cassidy didn't need anyone looking at her face online. The two of them had been talking and playing World of Warcraft together for three months now. It had started off slow, but now they played and spoke everyday. She felt like she knew him, even if she couldn't see him.

"I do, m'lord," she laughed a little as she pressed the enter button and began the attack on the computer-generated ghouls, leading the way with her Night Elf huntress. A few moments later, as she focused on her kill strikes, a shaman came running ahead of her and spoke a powerful spell that felled the rest of the evil creatures.

"Yes!" they both cried joyfully. She did a happy dance in her seat before sighing and leaning back.

"We did it!" she smiled softly. She heard keyboard clicks on the other side, and then loud voices in the background.

"Yeah, we did. Thanks for the distracting assist," the young man on the other side answered her with a contented sigh. In response, she put her head on her hand and stared into space. She could listen to him speak all day. And sometimes, she did. They could sit and talk tech for hours on end, until he had to leave unexpectedly. Though, she was now beginning to get used to it.

"No, thank you! This was fun, as always!" she responded giddily. "I'm glad I finally found someone to play WoW with who is actually decent."

"DONNIE, c'mon! April is waiting!" she heard a gruff male voice in the background of her team mate's computer and raised a brow, pulling her hair back.

"DONNIE!"

"Jeez, Raph! Don't get your bandana in a wad! I'm comin'! Cass, I've gotta go. Will you be on later?"

"I hope so," she smiled at her messenger screen, though she knew he couldn't see her. It was a bit disappointing that she couldn't see him. He seemed like a really sweet and clever guy.

"Okay, Cassidy! I'll be back in awhile!" Even though she couldn't see him, she could hear the grin in his voice and felt her heart skip a beat at the second mention of her name. She laughed and shook her head after he signed off, and she stood up to stretch. The young teenager left her room and headed downstairs to grab some dinner. However, when she reached the living room and saw her drunkard father asleep on his chair next to the TV, she bit back a growl of frustration.

"I'll go out and grab dinner, then," she muttered to herself, snatching her coat from the coat rack, grabbing her purse with her keys, and leaving, heading into the crisp night time New York City air. She walked with purpose, wanting to grab dinner and head back home to read some of her new book and hopefully talk to Donnie again before bed.

"Hey there, hot stuff." She tensed up at the male voice coming from the shadows, wondering whether or not to turn back and head home. She didn't even look over but kept on walking, choosing to ignore her ex-boyfriend. She had a restraining order against him, but he didn't seem to be honoring it. He jogged ahead of her and blocked her path, and she reached into her purse for her pepper spray. She always carried it with her.

"Leave me alone. You have a court ordered restraining order, you sick bastard," she warned, her eyes narrowing cautiously. He put his hands up in mock surrender.

"Aww, Cassidy...I'm just wanting to talk...c'mon...talk to me, Cass..." Yet, as he talked, three more guys stepped over to where they were standing. She glanced at each of them, trying not to appear scared. She made her decision quick just as one of them grabbed her. Her hand gripped the bottle and ripped it out of her purse, spraying the first face she could, kicking one of the guys in the shin, and booking it down the alleyway, which she prayed was a shortcut. Cassidy heard cursing and then quick footsteps as they chased her, and her speed increased with her panic.

"Help!" she tried to scream just in case anyone was around to hear her. As she ran, no one came to her aid, and her hopes of getting out of this unharmed were dropping. She thanked her mother for enrolling her in track when she did, as she was able to run without running out of breath for a little while.

"Give it up!" she heard taunting behind her but never gave in, seeing a ladder ahead of her and deciding to climb upwards. Maybe if the guys were as drunk as she hoped they were, they wouldn't be able to climb as fast. She snatched the ladder and ascended up the rungs, screaming as a hand yanked her ankle and twisted it painfully. She held onto the ladder for support, tears of pain in her eyes, and lashed out with her free foot, feeling it connect with her attacker's nose. He released her, and she immediately continued to climb. About two minutes later, she was on top of the building and panting, finally out of breath and freaking out. The men were still climbing. She regretted her decision to come up here, as she now had no escape, and the men were not as drunk as she had first believed.

"Hey, bitch!" she spun around to see one of them coming at her and backed up, shaking her head.

"Go away..." she spoke, her voice catching in her throat from fear. He smirked at her and kept walking. "Leave me alone! Someone help me!" Her back struck a pole behind her, and before she could move, the man's hand closed around her throat. He pushed her forcefully back against the pole, and black dots danced in her vision. Her fingers clawed at his hand as she struggled to breathe past his crushing of her windpipe.

"Hold her still," the second man was holding his bloody nose, glowering at her. She tried to headbutt the man in front of her and started to kick. He pulled something out of his pocket and held a knife to her throat. Cassidy began to cry, moving away from grabbing hands, and they laughed.

"If you didn't want attention, Cassidy, you shouldn't have dyed your hair crazy colors and walked around alone at night, especially dressed in that pair of jeans. It screams desperation," her ex growled as he hit her across the cheek. The pain around her throat lessened, and she cried out as his hands found her jacket and began to yank it off of her.

"She screams desperation? She screamed for help. If you want a definition of desperation and stupidity, look in the mirror," A deep and threatening voice spoke behind them.

"You don't touch women like that, scumbag. You made a huge mistake," another voice boomed from the opposite side of the roof. They didn't even have time to turn around before chaos erupted. A large wooden stick stretched out and slammed into her ex's side, sending him flying across the rooftop. The knife left her throat, and she collapsed to her shaking knees, unable to support herself any longer. A kind face appeared in her vision, and she could only stare at the face of a giant turtle.

"What the-?" she was startled.

"Get behind that wood pile. Go!" the green creature urged her gently, touching her shoulder with his hand as his other held a long sword. A blue mask covered the top part of his face, and she swallowed hard but nodded at him, half crawling and half limping to safety. She turned herself around to watch the scene, and she gaped with both terror and awe as three more of the enormous creatures appeared and began to throw and kick around her attackers.

"Yeah, boyyy! Nice shot Donnie!" The turtle with the orange mask hollered as the other one pushed that same stick into the ground and used it as leverage to propel himself into the air and body slam one of the men. Her eyes followed him, her mouth going dry in an instant.

"Donnie?" she whispered to herself, feeling a tightness in her chest as the conversations on her computer from earlier rushed through her mind. A few moments later, as the red-masked and largest of them finished knocking the last man unconscious, she felt her head spinning and had to put her head between her legs to keep from passing out. She felt a hand on her shoulder again and looked up after a long moment of heavy breathing. Gorgeous and concerned eyes the color of moss stared back into hers from behind a purple mask and a set of taped up glasses.

Oh, God...the username plumtechiemonster makes sense now...she thought to herself.

"Just breathe. You'll be okay soon. Trust me," he soothed her, and she listened to his voice, hanging onto every word. Somehow, she couldn't help but to

"D-Donnie?" she asked in a hesitant whisper. "I do..." He gazed back at her, his own recognition of her voice starting to show in his expression.

"They called you Cassidy...you can't be..." he blinked a few times, pushing up his glasses nervously as his hold on her tightened and he moved closer. "Oh, God...Are you all right?" He noticed that she was looking at him with an unidentifiable expression, and his own face fell, though he couldn't bring himself to let go of her yet.

"You...you're..." she tried to find the right words, but he thought the worst.

No...she's going to flip out and call me a freak..this is why I didn't want her to see me...no no...his eyes dropped from hers, downcast and already rejected.

"You're a ninja?! I was wondering how you could be so frickin' epic at WoW!" she hit his arm once, glaring at him. "That's kind of cheating, dingbat! No fair!"

"Wait...what?" his mouth dropped open like a fish. He was floored. Not one word came out of her mouth about the fact that he was a turtle.

"Woah, bro...You know this chick?" Mikey asked as he jumped down in front of her and stared at her for a moment. "She's hot!" Donatello glared at him and shoved him away from her before Raphael and Leonardo came to join them by her side.

"Are you okay?" Leo bent down and asked her, his voice worried but his eyes wary of her. She was a stranger, after all. She tried to stand up to prove that she was all right, but her knees wobbled, and she fell to the ground. Donnie took hold of her again out of instinct, glancing her over for any other damage.

"My ankle is killing me," she responded with a gasp of pain, holding it. Donnie's hand moved from her shoulder to the bruise on her cheek, and she winced away from him when his green skin made contact with her soft beige flesh, but it wasn't from disgust. Both of them looked into each other's faces, and she saw his Adam's apple bob once as he eyed her purple hair with fascination. Her eyes glanced over his skin, noting the way it rippled with every movement, and she wasn't scared. Okay, so her internet friend turned out to be a muscled, turtle-humanoid creature with a massive shell on his back and amazing martial arts skills? Why not...there were crazier things, right? He was actually pretty damn cute looking at him like this. She must have hit her head pretty hard...

"You're a shaman in real life," she whispered to him, and he smirked in response.

"Nah. I wish I was...I'm more of a paladin," he responded, releasing her with a soft smile. He leaned over to inspect her ankle, pausing when the scents of her overwhelmed his head. She smelled of vanilla mixed with flowers, and he almost took a deep inhale until he realized that he also smelled fear, and so he stopped himself to continue with her ankle. She was still shaken up about what had just happened.

"We need to move..." Raph grumbled low in his chest, folding his arms as he stared down at her.

"Her ankle looks twisted...she may not be able to walk on it..." Donnie reported to his brothers with an uneasy stare.

"Then we'll make an anonymous call to the police," Raph suggested, but Leo glared at him and shook his head in warning.

"We don't just leave people who need us. Does she look threatening to you?" he told his younger brother, gesturing to the wounded and scared teenager. Raph grunted in response and shook his head.

"We'll take care of you. It's okay...those guys won't be touching you ever again," Donnie promised his wonderfully beautiful friend, who looked up at him and then over at the small pile of unconscious men. And then, gazing back at his fierce and protective stare, she knew that he meant every word.