Heyas!I've been wanting to writ a sequel for my earlier story, The Mermaid and The Angel so here it is... mostly cause inspiration suddenly ambushed me. For those who may have been waiting, thank you for your patience.

The Mermaid And The Angel II – The Slave Trade

Chapter 1

No Mercy

Mermaid could hear their cries for help. She heard the soft, sometimes alien whimpers. But she never saw them…

Until one day, she was dragged out of the cage, and the blindfold was taken from her eyes.

They all stood, in a row. Different, and yet they all shared a common trait; none of them were human. Not completely, and yet more human then their captors.

Some were females, some were males, but all were slaves, like she was, prisoners of a sinful trade.

Mermaid wanted to cover herself, as hungry eyes raked over her pale and reptilian body.

The first slave to be sold was a red fox-woman. She was sold for nearly 15 million dollars.

The second… she would never forget him. He was a golden lion tamarin mutant. He was so young, only 15, it seemed. He was scared, but angry as well. He was gagged, heavily chained, lest he escape with his incredible agility.

The third… she had never seen a creature like this before. All she could figure was that the blue-skinned woman was not from this earth.

Mermaid felt herself pushed forward, as she was called next. She trembled and her large, sad eyes begged and pleaded for mercy… any mercy… anywhere.

She found it not. The man who bought her, smirked as he took her into his room the next day, and she trembled as he threw her roughly onto the bed, his eyes filled with lustful greed…

Mermaid woke with a gasp, grasping the sheets around her as the sounds of cries for help still rang in her ears.

Raphael groggily woke as she trembled violently, and he murmured," Babe? What's wrong?" as he enveloped her in a hug, his nose nuzzling her soothingly as she turned to him, moaning," Memories… things I want to forget continue to plague me, Angel."

"Sh… it's ok, Mermaid… it's ok," He soothed, kissing her gently and holding her carefully and protectively," They'll never hurt you again, Mermaid… never…"

"Raph… The slavers… The Trade… It's still there." She cried softly.

Raphael stiffened slightly, but he continued to hold her as he murmured quietly," We can fix that… I know we can… But let's wait til tomorrow, Mermaid. Just try to sleep."

She snuggled into him, and that was how they both fell back into sleep… but Raphael's dreams were now haunted. Memories… Finding Mermaid for the first time, seeing the terrible abuse she had gone through… She wasn't the only one who needed to be saved… there was a trade… and it needed to be stopped.

For a few months now, he and Casey had haunted the lower parts of society, trying to discreetly find out more about this non-human slave trade.

Raphael cursed his luck… if that wretch, Craven, were still alive, he might have been able to drag some information out of the miscreant… but no.

They would have to start from scratch, as it were.

Mermaid and he were now married. They had yet to produce children, which was ok with Raph, though he wouldn't mind having a few sprouts to look after. The thought of Mermaid bearing his children sometimes gave him adrenaline rushes as he wondered what fatherhood would be like.

Poor Mermaid… maybe having some children would take her mind off her dreadful past…

But somehow, Raph knew that only she could set herself free from the memories. Until then, he would do everything he could to support her and to keep her from harm.

"I love you, Mermaid… my wife… my precious, precious wife…" he murmured into her ear as he heard her sleepy intake of breath, fluttering into the night like a dove set loose from it's cage.

8~8~8~8~8~

Casey slouched in his posture as he muttered," I don't understand what we're doing here…"

Donatello looked over at Casey with a hint of annoyance," Casey! If you really want to find that underground slave-trade, then we have to do some research!"

"Look, it's not that, it's just that I…"

He paused as Leatherhead walked into the room. He knew better then to open his mouth when the big croc was around. There had been… incidents… before, and Casey could understand why the croc was so short-tempered.

"Ahem, uh, I mean, uh, continue!" Casey grinned shakily.

Leatherhead looked at Donatello, who sighed and muttered under his breath as he turned back to the computer. Leatherhead reported quietly," I may have some valuable information in regards to our search."

Don swiveled in his chair as he looked at Leatherhead expectantly.

The big croc began slowly," I was in the city dump, trying to find some spare parts for my computers, in case they fail again, when some humans began to approach my location. I hid, of course, and waited for them to leave. But they didn't. One of them, had a strange smell to him. He smelled of… females. But not human females. The other, sounded and acted like someone who works for the government… specifically, Agent Bishop. They were speaking of a business transaction. The one who was not the agent asked if the package was ready to be picked up. The agent replied that it was and wanted his money. I didn't see anything, but it seems that the man asking for the package received his payment… over 20 billion dollars. And I heard a comment. The one who was the employer, joked," How does it feel to be selling life forms?" The agent responded that they weren't human, so it did not matter."

Leatherhead watched as Donatello's eyes widened," LH! You just found our lead! This has GOT to be connected with the slave trade Mermaid was part of!"

Leatherhead nodded," To think, I stumbled upon it by accident…" he muttered before adding," I can take you right back exactly to the spot where they met."

"Good. We''ll set up a surveillance system around the city dump… Man, of all the locations for a top-secret rendezvous…"

Casey had his bat and he whooped," LET'S BUST SOME SKULLS!"

Leatherhead and Donnie both stared at him. He looked back at them," What?"

So... how is it? Please let me know!