"I just dont understand!" Mikey exclaimed into the New York midnight air. "How come Donny gets to stay home while we're out on some stupid night patrol?" His other two brothers looked at him from their post. The town was silence except for the distant honking cars.
"I told you, Mikey," Leo sighed, exhausted from Mikey's excessive complaining. He usually whines, but tonight more than ever. "Don is setting up more security equipment at the lair. With Shredder on our tails this close, we cant be too careful. Besides, someone needed to teach Master Splinter how to use them. We dont want him setting off our traps." Leo scratched his head. His little brother usually loves patrols. Why was he complaining so much? He probably had some show at the lair he wanted to watch.
Mikey pouted. "Well it's not fair," he mumbled, kicking a crushed soda can off the roof. The can bounced off a parked car on the street below and cracked the windshield. The car's alarm pierced the night, resulting in several lights from the adjacent apartment building flickered on.
Leo narrowed his eyes and shook his head. For a ninja, Mikey was pretty careless sometimes. "Oops?" the orange bandana-ed klutz grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."
"Keep it down, will ya?" Raph growled. He whopped Mikey upside his head. "We're not trying to wake up the whole city here!"
"Ow!" Mikey rubbed his sore head and glared at his brother. "I said sorry. Why do you have to be so mean?"
"I'll show you mean!" Raph retorted in his deep, gruff voice. Mikey let out a "meep" and leaped behind Leo when Raph reached for his sai.
"Quit playing around!" Leo said. "We have to move." A crowd of people had formed around the noisy car and were looking around.
"Running from Mikey's mistakes," Raph huffed. "As usual." He and Leo leaped off the roof.
"I dont always screw up..." Mikey mumbled, and, with one last glance at the car, followed the two. The brothers leaped from roof to roof, observing the streets for any sign over Shredder's men with only the sound of the wind whistling in their ears.
A couple blocks over, Mikey stopped abruptly. "Hey guys..." Mikey whispered. The other two halted and turned a couple rooftops over. Mikey held one green finger over his lips , and used his other hand to point over the ledge towards the ground.
Leo and Raph exchanged questioning glances, but joined Mikey and peered over to where he was pointing. "Our friends are here," Mikey whispered. "But they're not for us!"
Down below, a dozen Foot ninjas trailed loosely behind a dark haired teenage girl in worn and tattered clothing a few sizes too large for her. Her bare feet lift tiny marks in the dirt as she walked. She seemed totally oblivious to the fact that she was being followed.
Leo watched calmly for a few moments before he finally came to a decision. "They're not for us. I say we leave while we're not spotted."
"What?!" Mikey cried. "How could you say that? We cant just leave her!" Even Raph was caught off guard.
"We dont even know if she's in trouble," Leo justified. "She could work for them. It could be a trap for us, and we'd walk right into it. You KNOW how badly the Shredder wants us." Leo turned around to lead his brothers away, but Mikey jumped to the roof in the opposite direction to follow the ninja parade down the street.
"Trap or no trap, we have to help. Raph?" Mikey looked up at him with big pleading eyes. Raph scratched his head.
"I dont know, Leo," he said. "I'm kind of with Mikey on this. If the Foot ninjas are involved, it cant be good news."
"Exactly!" Leo said. "We have enough to deal with, including NOT being caught by the Foot!"
Mikey jumped one more rooftop to keep up with the Foot. By now, the Foot had drawn their weapons. Time was getting short. If they were going to save her, they'd need to move soon! The girl gasped and turned around to face her attackers. She knew she was caught. It was inevitable. The Foot encircled her, ensuring there would be no escape. She let out pitiful sound of defeat. Besides the one flickering street lamp they stood under, the street was pitch dark and abandoned.
"Mikey..." Leo growled warningly as Mikey reached for his nun-chucks. "It's too risky! What if someone sees us?"
"Problem solved!" Raph yelled, throwing his sai at the street lamp and knocking out. Darkness engulfed the street just as the ninjas lunged in for the kill. The girl's scream was only drowned out by Mikey's cry of "Cowabunga!" as he leaped into the circle. Raph also let out a noise of glee as he joined the fight.
Leo silently cursed his brothers. He expected this such blatant disobedience from his hot-head brother, but from Mikey? Oh they were so getting a lecture when all this was over. HE was the leader, and they were supposed to respect his decision before they get caught up in something that he couldnt get them out of. Leo sighed, but followed his brothers down. They created a circle with their shells to the girl. In no time at all, the three brothers had the ninjas defeated effortlessly.
"That's what im talking about!" Raph cried victoriously as the ninjas retreated. "A good ol' fashion Foot beatdown always puts me in a better mood. Too bad Donny missed it, huh Mikey?" Raph laughed, but Mikey rolled his eyes.
The girl remained on the ground from where a Foot managed to land a hit on her before the brothers jumped in. "Who are you?" she stammered. The street lamp started to flicker back on. The brothers concealed themselves in the shadows before the light stayed on. The girl stood up and glanced around at her sudden solitude. As far as she knew, she was all by herself again. Or so the turtles thought. Until she turned to face exactly where Leo was hiding. "Who are you?" She asked again, directly at Leo.
Leo remained silent. The girl's annoyance showed on her face as she put her hands on her hips. She faced Raph. "I know you're there."
"You got to admit," Mikey whispered. "She's good." As much as Leo wanted to be mad at his brother, he was right.
"Can you come out so i can thank you properly?" She asked. Her voice was sweet, but strong.
"Its best if we didnt," Leo said, hesitantly. Confusion replaced annoyance on her soft featured face.
"You saved my life," she said quietly. "I cant even thank you?"
"You might be... shocked by what you see," Leo said.
"We're not exactly normal," Raph added.
The girl smiled. "Well no one is exactly normal."
"Ugh!" Raph cried out. He wanted to punch the wall. "We scare people, okay? We have a very frightening appearance. Why are you being so pushy?"
"We're kind of a secret," Leo explained. "That you cant see."
"I dont frighten easy," she said. "And i assure you, your 'secret' is safe with me."
"How can we be so sure?" Leo narrowed his eyes at her.
She smiled sweetly and pointed at her eyes. "Because I'm blind." she said. "I cant see a thing."
The words slowly sank into the brothers. For the first time, they noticed her bright blue eyes were hazy and never focused. When she looked at them seemed to look through them.
Mikey was the first to step out and the others soon followed. They were out in the open with a human and she didnt freak out in the least bit. The lack of reaction was actually quite refreshing.
"Can i have your names?" She asked.
"My name is Leonardo," Leo said. "And these are my brothers."
"Rapheal."
"Im Mikey."
Her eyes followed them as they introduced themselves. "Brothers?" she repeated. "It must be rough having to other brothers."
"There's actually four of us," Leo said. The girl gasped.
"Four?" She whipped around, seemingly searching for the brother she hasnt located yet.
"He's not with us though," Leo explained. "He's back at our lair."
"Oh," She calmed down a bit. She faced Leo and bowed. "My name is Sorahaku, or Sora for short. Thank you Leonardo, Rapheal, and Mikey. I am in your debt."
Leo bowed back, wondering if she even knew he was doing it.
"You study Bushido, right?" sora asked.
"Yeah," Leo said, surprised. "How did you know?"
"I did too," Sora said. "Back when i could see. I could tell you did too by your foot work."
Mikey waved his hand infront of her face. "How could you tell if you're blind?"
Sora caught his hand in midair. "You dont have to have eyes to see Mikey," Sora said. "I can feel vibrations in my feet." Sora wiggled her toes. "I can also hear very well."
"Well Sora," Leo interrupted. "You can repay your debt by telling us why the Foot were after you."
"I dont remember," Sora said sheepishly. "I actually dont remember a lot."
"Tell us what you do remember," Leo said.
Sora nodded. "Well... I was born in America. But my family moved to Japan when i was little. I dont remember why though. When we got there..." Sora scratched her face. "Um."
"Its okay," Mikey said.
"Then somehow i was back here. I was running. There were these people after me... and there was this man. He was angry. He wore this spikey armor. His name was... Sh..."
"Shredder?" Raph cried.
"Yeah! that's it!" Sora exclaimed. "Shedder. He threw this gas at me. It blinded me. And that's when I lost my memory. Ever since then, they have been chasing me. That's all I know."
"When was this?" Leo asked.
"A couple months ago."
"Where have you stayed?" Mikey asked.
Sora looked around and shrugged. "Where ever is warm."
"Family meeting!" Mikey cried, huddling his brothers together. "We cant just leave a blind girl on the streets with Shredder after her!"
"She cant stay with us!" Leo said. "I dont trust her. What if she worked for him?"
"No way!" Sora cried. The three brothers turned from their huddle and looked at her confused. Sora pointed at her ears.
"Good hearing remember?" she smiled. "I was running from him. That man is evil. I would never work for him."
"Come one, Leo," Mikey pleaded. "She's be the perfect house guest. She can't see! She won't even freak out when she sees... er... when master splinter comes in."
"Maybe she should stay with April," Raph suggested.
"No way!" Mikey said. "We put April through enough already. besides, what if the foot find her? She needs someone to protect her!"
"What if the Foot finds US?" Leo asked. "You never think things through mikey-"
"Excuse me," Sore interrupted. "but I don't need 'Protecting'"
Raph laughed. "I beg to differ!" Sora glared at him.
"Leo, just trust me!" Mikey yelled.
Leo sighed. A heavy silenced passed over the four of them as they passed glances amongst each other. "Okay fine!" Leo finally said. "She can stay the night. Then I will talk to Splinter about this in the morning!"
Sora grinned. "Oh thank you Leo!"
"Yeah!" Mikey yelled. "Slumber party! We're going to stay up late, watch scary movies, do each others nails...oh..." Sora glared at Mikey. "Sorry. I forgot." Sora rolled her eyes.
"You might find our home a little odd," Leo said.
"That's what you said about you," Sora grinned. "But i have yet to believe it.
Leo walked behind his two brothers and their new friend as they walked to their hideout. I don't like this, he thought to himself. There is just something off about her. I don't think she's telling us all that she remembers.
Leo glanced up at Sora. She laughed with her sweet but strong voice at a crack Raph had made at Mikey. Her long dark hair swished behind her with her strides.
Why can't they see what I see? And why do I get the feeling we just got ourselves into something much bigger than we can handle?
He narrowed his eyes at her. I will get to the bottom of this Sorahaku. You better count on it.
Sora glanced back at Leo and smiled.