Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles; I just like to use them as my puppets
Prolog
The night was dark and the only ominous lighting that it gave was that of the full moon that shown ever so brightly over the roof tops. The curved figures and the twisted tips of the many houses seemed a dull cyan color as the clouds came and went with each deep breath the wind took.
A figure off in the distance leapt from one roof to another, a shadow that parted from the roof and merged with another. Elegantly jumping into the air and landing on the following building with out much of a sound, unless you counted the small jingling sound that happened each time she leapt.
The figure jumping was most defiantly female, and the many houses she leapt across were most defiantly town houses in futile Japan. The mysterious female figure crossed from one place to another with graceful inhuman ease, falling down a crack between two houses and landing with a soft thud and a jingle.
A long bushy tail with a braid at the end, and blue eyes glistened as she retrieved a pouch that was tied at her side. Opening the pouch she emptied her spoils into her feminine paws, black and wrapped from her palm down past her wrist. Jewels of blue, and green sparkled in her feminine animal hand, and her eyes sparkled with stars of success. Her ringed tail swayed from side to side, and as she crouched in the darkness over looking her stolen goods she heard feet thrust off the building she hid between. Clutching her spoils to her chest she looked up and around her with wide nocturnal eyes of ocean blue. Locks of dark jet-black hair, tied back in a pony tail with two thick locks of hair hung before her face. She stuffed her stolen jewels back into her pouch and tied it to her side pulling the sting tight around her black belt that held a whip and katana to the side. Her tail whipped in anticipation and adrenalin was high in the air making her senses sharper than usual, she'd be caught if she didn't move fast enough.
Raccoon agility came in handy for The Trickster Rona, but even she found it difficult to outrun a samurai rabbit. Holding her hand over her stolen pouch of jewels the sound of a landing made her dark ears perk up and she spun around drawing her katan meeting another blade with an echoing clank. Her blue eyes narrowed and she saw what had followed her for blocks now.
"Would you let it go? Christ!" she snarled and swiped down her sword an echoing slicing sound heard ending with both blades meeting the ground before their masters.
"They are not yours! Return them!" snarled a male voice then brought back the sword only to have it miss when Rona skipped to the wall and jumped back over his head.
Digging her katana into the wall's side, she perched herself delicately upon its protruding blade looking over her feminine shoulder back at the samurai bunny.
"Awww, aren't we distressed?" she teased and pulled herself up as the sword below cut through the air, forcing its way to make contact to her, "I swear, your missing on purpose. If you really wanted to get me, you would have done it already."
"Return the jewels." Came the echoing reply below her, the voice tight and forcing more patience from its occupant.
"You don't even know them! Why are they so important to—" her words were cut off and she tumbled to the floor the sparkling velvet pouch cut from her waist landing in the hand of the samurai rabbit. She growled and drew her sword from the wall in one swipe, retreating slightly.
"Fine!" she snarled and turned jumping high using the wall, "Keep your stupid jewelry!"
Frustrated and angered, more at herself for not leaving sooner, she leapt off and jumped again from building to building as she had before she was chased down. She landed on a house that leaned against the edge of a cliff that over looked the ocean waves, sitting her legs crossed and sighing heavily. She was slowly becoming aware of how heavy her body was and allowed her shoulders to drop and arms to lie in her lap. They ached from clenching her hands into fists and allowing her nails to dig into her sensitive palms, a lone Raccoon girl that was banished ever where else, but who had fallen in love with the sense of adventure and so lived for it. Never once knowing a day where she didn't have to run for her live, or for the live of another.
Rona The Raccoon, Ronny The Prankster, Rona The Trickster. Didn't they know that you had to be a boy in order to be a trickster? Looking up away from her empty hands, she sighed watching as the sun rose warming her cooling fur and the wind picked up the scent of her former that lingered below. Standing she waited for her joints to ease before raising her hands above her head in a sweet stretch.
So she failed, oh well, she's just do it all over again to night. Why? Because, she had nothing else better to do, and she knew how to. So why not do it again? It'd just a replay of what happened before. Why would she do it again? Because it was fun to make that bunny work, it was entertainment for her and she would do it only to give herself a form of entertainment.
Crouching again she leapt off into the rising sun to where she slept her days into nights. Off into the wooded area located outside of the town and out of the sight of the waking people that stirred quietly in the town below her soaring figure.
Chapter1— A Warning
"Mikey!" snarled Raphael as he snatched after his younger brother, "I swear—"
"You always swear, why is it any different now?" joked the younger turtle, smiling widely and jumping out of reach of his elder brother. Michelangelo had successfully tormented his elder brother to the point of frustration, his own type of entertainment when Donatello was busy with another invention and Leonardo was busy meditating.
Though currently his brother Leonardo was off somewhere and didn't bother to tell his three younger siblings or their Master and Father, Splinter, where he was going. Now Mikey was busy running from Raph while Donny attempted to drown them both out with music.
Their Master Splinter was in his own room meditating, while his children chased each other around and fought, as was expected of young teenagers when left alone with each other for three days straight.
"Missed me! Missed me! Please, don't kiss me!" begged Mickey jumping onto his skateboard and ridding away from his brother at top speed, it wasn't until he met a pole on his way to his mighty and hilarious escape that Raph let out a loud and harsh laugh.
"Looks like your kissin' the pole for now, Mikey!" he laughed harshly, hands on his hips.
"C'mon, Raph. Leave him alone." Begged Donny tired of the bickering that had been going on for an hour now.
"He started it!" snarled Raph in defiance pointing at the groaning Mikey on the ground.
"I don't care!" Donny snapped back, "I can't hear myself think with you two screaming like little girls!"
"I don't scream like a girl!" retorted Mikey pushing himself up carefully from the floor, hoping to avoid his adversary, the pole.
"Yeah, ya do, Mike." Replied Raph glancing over his shoulder to his younger brother, who made a face at him in reply to his comment.
Raph rolled his eyes and looked away from Mikey back to Donny, who was busy tinkering with his new toy. He sighed quietly and walked back to his battered and tapped punching bag, rearing back his fist and delivering another punch to the beaten bag.
Mikey threw himself onto the couch again, sighing loudly and flicking on the TV. He switched channels a moment before sighing again, and glancing around him. He sighed again, louder this time, then again throwing himself back dramatically on the couch against the pillows that were scattered every which way. He sighed louder with a groan at the end of it, throwing his arm over his head dramatically. Opening one eye, he noticed no one was paying attention to him. Disturbed, he pushed himself up and leaned against the back of the couch, allowing his arms to dangle over the edge. He glared at his two elder siblings busy with their own hobbies.
He drew in a deep breath and sighed loudly again causing his two brothers to stop momentarily and glare at him.
"Mikey!" they shouted in unison and Mikey grinned widely at the desired attention acquired.
The sound of the door sliding open and then shut again, rusted metal, against rusted metal and then foot steps walking down the shadowed hall way. All three brothers looked up looking to see who decided to join their home today. Leo stood in the pathway and looked around at his brother noticing each of their puzzled faces.
"Where have you been?" asked Mikey, the first to always speak pushing himself up from leaning against the couch.
"Out. Why?" replied Leo blandly.
"Out with your bunny buddy again?" asked Raph as he threw another forceful punch at his punching bag that rattled in silent agony.
"How is Usagi-san, anyway?" asked Donny in attempts to start up a conversation with his estranged elder brother.
"Fine." Replied Leo, "What are you guys doing?"
"Nothing." Replied Mikey darkly, but his normal peeping voice didn't allow such a shadowed tone to exist his vocal cords.
"Mikey met a pole."
"What?"
The similar sound of a door sliding opened interrupted the sibling's conversation of Mikey's new friend, Mr. Pole. Their aged Master stepped out of his room, fresh from meditation and looked around the room at his joyous sons and met the eyes of his eldest. Leonardo.
"I have returned, Sensi." Leo said breaking the silence that so often times followed the entrance of their Master and Father.
"Come, my son." beckoned Master Splinter with a wave of his clawed hand.
The three brothers watched as their eldest brother walked to their father's chambers and looked back to one another.
"Whoa." Spoke Mikey first looking to his brothers, "Mondo creepiness."
The two other brothers sighed and returned to their tasks at hand. Mikey sighed in annoyance and allowed himself to turn around and become entertained by the flashing colors on the television screen.
"We trained." Replied Leo to his Sensi when questioned on his visit to Usagi's home.
Splinter looked up to Leo now, something told him different but he decided not to question on it. He pushed that questioning matter aside, happy that his son found a way to return from one place to another and acquire new friends in the process.
"I see."
A silence followed and Leo took the hint to leave and stood bowing.
"I'll tell you next time, Master." He replied quietly, and felt the reply of a soft warm hand on his head.
"As long as you are home. Take your brothers out; they have been here for three days waiting for you."
Leo looked up, blinking at his father figure. Three days cooped up in the home with nothing to do but bother one another? He knew Raph had gotten out once or twice only to make a mess of things. Donny almost never took the chance to go out unless it meant to ask April for more electronics to play with and Mikey—well Mikey only went out for pizza. Leo stifled a smile when the mental image of Mikey making his own pizza when he wasn't given money to buy it appeared in his mind.
He gave another bow.
"I will, Sensi. I'm sure they could all use a little bit of fresh air."
Splinter smiled vaguely and nodded for Leo to continue on his way out. As Leo existed his face met that of a day old pizza, which stuck to his face like spider web to a dead fly. Leo grimaced and felt the shuddering disgust of the aged pizza ring up his spine as he reached up and pulled the greasy mess from his face.
"BULLS-EYE!" screeched Mikey loudly jumping into the air, pumping up his fist. The pizza returned like a boomerang to Mikey's face making a disgusting splat when it hit.
The two remaining brothers screamed with laughter, pointing at Mikey with one finger. Raph doubled over and Donny used the chair to balance himself gripping his sides with laughter. Mikey grabbed the ruined pizza from his face and narrowed his eyes playfully at his elder brother who smiled and placed his hands on his hips, proudly.
"FOOOOOOD FIGHT!"
The unanimous scream signaled for Splinter to take shelter in the far end of his room, allowing his screaming children to fight over spilt pizza before he became part of the mess. Cheese was so difficult to get out of ones fur.
Day turned to night and the turtle's shadows crept out from the man whole and crawled up and into the shadows where they would be hidden from human eyes. Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donny all were excited to see what the night would hold today. Every now and then they were drawn back to their home by boredom or some other kind of distraction. Weather it be a retreat or by their own will, they always found some kind of way to entertain themselves.
"I bet I could beat you!" teased Mikey to his elder brother Raph.
Raphael let out another loud bellowing laugh, "Yeah right!"
He raced after his brother and each jumped in unison into the air and landed with equal grace on the following building. Donny and Leo raced closely after them, jumping with equal grace and landing just as beautifully. To further tease his elder brother, Mikey waited for another landing to tackle his sibling to the ground, the two other boys became entangled in the mess of shell and color cloth as the two came rolling under them.
They stopped, laughing at the pain that rang through their arms and legs from the colliding concert against their rough skins.
Leo sighed pulling himself from the wreckage and standing up holding out his hand for whatever brother decided to grab it first.
"When you three are done messing around," He commented helping Donny to his feet as Mikey and Raph scrambled up after him, "Let's see what we might get tonight."
"A bruise?" assumed Mikey rubbing the back of his head.
"A bump, in your case." Raph said playfully bopping his brother on the head.
"Ow!" whined Mikey loudly gripping his head dramatically, "I'm telling Master Splinter!"
He cried like a child and the three brothers laughed at their youngest brother wonderful rendition of the spoiled little baby, as he rolled around on the floor throwing a mock temper tantrum. Failing his fist and kicking his feet, playing a way to perfect spoiled brat. Raph breath to laugh further as a shadow jumped across the buildings caught his attention. The second eldest stopped laughing first and the other two followed. It took Mikey a while to notice that his brothers had stopped paying attention to him and he too drew his attention up to the heavens and the mysterious figure that had appeared.
The shadow leapt back and stood in the shadows a moment.
"What was that?" asked Leo quietly squinting in the darkness.
"Looked like a person." Donny observed quietly.
Mikey jumped up and looked over the ledge at the disappeared shadow that had been playing jumping bean across the buildings.
"Maybe it was a cat." He guessed with a shrug.
"Yes, Mikey. It was a 5 foot cat." Snarled Raph sharply.
"Why not? We have a 4 foot rat living with us." Mikey replied turning to look at his brother with a shrug.
"There is a lot of scenes in that." Donny added nodding, looking to Leo who nodded in agreement.
"Let's check it out." Leo declared and the three brothers leapt after him without hesitation.
As the figures soared over the buildings after one another, the figure that they followed had long since stopped moving and remained hidden within the shadows. They finally came together, landing gracefully at their fighting positions looking around in the tense darkness at the building roof top.
"I don't see anything." Whispered Donny looking around him, his eyes darting to and fro between his brothers and the darkness.
"Hold it." Leo ordered and the brothers stood stiff and at the ready, as each examined their surroundings.
The shadow emerged, blending out from the darkness that had once kept it hidden. Standing erect and stiff, with his shoulders braced and stiff as if he too was ready to attack.
"Leonardo-san?" spoke a rusted familiar voice.
The brother's dropped their stance slightly in confusion, looking to Leo who stood up and placed away his swords.
"Usagi?"
"What?" replied the three brothers standing up and looking between each other and then at Leonardo.
"What are you doing here?" asked Leo stepping up to Usagi in confusion, holding up a hand.
"I came to deliver a warning." He replied the rabbit samurai stepping up to Leo.
"A warning?" stammered Leo blinking and cocking his head back, "What is it?"
"Lord Hebihe has placed a bounty upon you. I have already acquired the first of many assassins summoned by him."
The silence that followed was broken by Mikey clearing his throat loudly, and Donny's shuffling feet.
"Assassins? Acquired? What?" Mikey asked looking from face to face, his hands held out to his sides and scratching his head with one in confusion, "What are you talking about?"
"Lord Hebi wasn't caught then." Leo assumed glancing down and then back at Usagi, "Do you know them?"
"I have met one, so far. She is an outcast in many towns and cities. She fits her job well." Usagi held up a single finger and his eyes glazed slightly in remembrance of the trickster assassin.
"Who is she?" Leo asked his brother's glaring at the back of his shell angrily. He felt the heat, but ignored it, currently more occupied with what was going to happen to him and his family next.
"She is known as Rona The Trickster. She is skilled in her thefts and has stolen a very valuable jewel from a family in order to prove her loyalty to Lord Hebi." Usagi explained and Donny stepped forward holding up his hand claiming the attention surprisingly better than Mikey could have.
"You mean to say," Donny stated matter-of-factly standing between his brother and Usagi, "That there are people coming from another world to kill you?!"
Leonardo felt suddenly aware of where he was, and glancing around him at his siblings, who stared angrily at him from behind, then back to his other brother who had spoken. Oops, another thing he forgot to mention. A giant snake lord who had a mighty big price on his head.
"But they can't come here unless they know the way, right?" asked Leo looking back to Usagi who shrugged and held up his hands.
"It is sad to say, that you and I are not the only ones who know the way into your realm, Leonardo-san."
The silence thickened and Mikey gave a loud groan making Raph flinch uncomfortable glaring at his younger brother.
"Would somebody please explain to me what is the deal with the assassin personas!?" he begged pathetically, feeling his brain throb from the current panicked thoughts that bounced around his skull.
"Leo!" snarled Raph gripping his fists tightly, "Spill it, bunny! We ain't got time for this!"
"I came to warn. In all hopes, she has not already gotten his far." Usagi added in glancing at Raph carelessly then looking back to Leo.
Leo remained silent and glanced down at the roof top they stood on. Donny waited in anticipation watching his elder brother's steady breathing and looked to the other two. Raph was shaking he was so angered, unable to control the growl that escaped his mouth of gritted teeth. Mikey stood, unawares and beginning to lose interest in the topic of conversation, and so glanced away from Donny's gaze.
"Leo?!"
The brother's shouted and Usagi began to feel the awkward presence that had begun between them as Leo thought. He kept his gaze on Leo not daring to glance away and meet the other brother's stare. Leo remained in his thoughts for a long while before looking up at the others.
"Let's head back. We'll figure something out, maybe we can find her before she finds us."