Freedom or Family
Prologue
Sack Genetics Corporation
Test Subjects
Name: Gina Abram
Power: White wings, six feet in length tip to tip
Name: Shawnee English
Power: Feline ears and tail. Extreme agility, heightened hearing, smell, and sight.
Name: Terra Brant
Powers: Fire abilities, Ninja training, bladed mastery
Name: Jennifer Bourne
Powers: Telepathy, Psychometry, Telekinesis, unknown if she will develop more
Disability: Either Schizophrenic or Autistic, no clear diagnosis
Four Girls who had been nothing now are something more than just girls.
After Eric Sacks had been arrested, and Shredder was taken into police custody, the girls were handed off to Master Shredder's trusted employer, Baxter Stockman to oversee. With the advancement of genetics, it has been determined that Subject Jennifer has developed farther along than the others. Subject Gina and Subject Shawnee have not produced any genetic developments, no more than what they already are. Subject Terra can manipulate fire but that is as far as the testing has come for her.
It has been determined that prior to testing Subject Jennifer was probably already showing powers but on a much smaller level. Further testing will only be the answer to why this may have been. Was she born this way or was it developed through rigorous training and testing?
Coded Log: 2042
Chapter One
Michelangelo was a mutant ninja turtle on a mission.
He licked his lips as he looked down at the pizza in his view. Just one bite was all he needed. A single bite before he was forced to go train in the dojo with his three other brothers.
"Mikey!" Raph yelled.
Almost there. He opened the box, his hand was near to picking up a slice of ripe golden cheese pizza. Nearly there, almost there.
Raphael grabbed the back of Mikey's bandana and pulled hard on it, pulling him away from the uneaten box of pizza.
"Come on, Mikey, time for training."
"But, but, but, my pizza." Mikey stammered out.
"You know what Master Splinter will do. I would rather not spend another eleven hours in the Hashi again." The red-banded brother replied pushing him from the kitchen area of the lair.
"Oh." He frowned at his brother.
"Dude, you need to man up," Raph said as they neared where the dojo was located.
"Why? Not like I want to grow up to smell like you." Mikey then laughed.
"Well then maybe you should be smarter, you're always messing up. What if something really bad happened?" Asked a different brother.
Their two other brothers, Leonardo and Donatello, were already in the dojo when Mikey and Raph walked in.
Sour face and all, Mikey looked at his brother. "Why? I like keeping it real, Dude."
Donatello rolled his eyes behind his glasses.
Their master, who was their teacher and their father, walked into the dojo. "What seems to be the trouble, my sons?" The giant mutant rat asked.
Raph shoved Mikey. "Just Mikey. He's being an idiot again."
"No, I'm not."
"Yeah, you are."
"My son?" Master Splinter said as he looked at him.
"I don't want to grow up, I want to stay young forever."
"Turtles do live longer than humans. We'll be old, yes, but…" Donnie stopped when he realized where his talking was leading.
Leo looked down.
"Get in teams of two. Donatello, Michelangelo against Leonardo and Raphael. We will work on grappling today, in case you lose your weapons during a battle." Master Splinter said, his tail twitching slightly.
The four of them groaned but they soon teamed up to face their opponents. It was Raph against Donnie and Leo against Mikey.
Mikey knew that he was going to end up on his shell in no time flat.
"Jennie, I want you to stay here." Terra said as she looked at the auburn haired girl.
Jennie was sitting on some crates in the warehouse they had been holed up in for the past month. The four of them had found it on a full moon night but that was okay, Jennie liked to watch the moon change night after night. But with all the windows meant that someone could see in so they had to be careful, especially if the Foot were after them.
Gina was up at the windows, her white wings would twitch if she caught sight of something.
Shawnee's tail swished as she kept an eye out at the front of the warehouse near the loading bay. Just outside the tall walls and high windows was the Hudson River that ran along Manhattan. The City that Never Sleeps was a good monicker because no one slept in that side of the city as it were.
"Jennie, say you will stay here," Terra said.
Jennie saw that the sun had gone down, which meant that the others would be going to scout out for things.
"I'll mend the clothes," Jennie said, though it was barely above a whisper. Anything could happen, she reminded herself.
"Thank you," Terra said as she sheathed a small blade into a sheath on her belt. "We'll be back in a couple of hours. Can you keep your mind open until then?"
Jennie nodded as she stood up and headed over to the clothes pile.
She knew where the three of them were going because she could hear Terra's thoughts. Gina was going to scope out a park nearby, Shawnee was going to find some garbage cans to root through near the clothing stores a mile away from the warehouse, and Terra was going to make a mile long round near the warehouse to see if any of those ninjas had found their trail.
It was hard keeping a winged woman concealed but with her wind abilities, Gina was capable of outmaneuvering people. Shawnee's super agility and her feline qualities could get her out of a scrape. Only Terra and Jennie looked somewhat normal.
Finding a needle and thread, scissors and a few needed buttons, salvaging the cloths was something Jennie didn't mind doing. It was something to do to keep her worries off of her but she knew it wasn't possible, she had to keep her mind on The Foot. If the Foot found them, then they would be in real trouble this time.
The three others only had been gone for a little bit when a thought slipped into her menial labor. She looked up.
Someone was outside, near the docks that went into the river.
Found
Girls Found
Come to me
Jennie walked to a small window and looked out. Even if it was dark out, she should see what was light around someone. And there was a small craft that pulled up, people getting out.
Bad
Ninja
The Foot
The words flittered through her brain as she read the man on the dock. They actually found where the four of them had been hiding.
Running to the rope and pulling on it, a red banner unfurled and then she ran to the front of the warehouse to escape. She needed to go to the park, that was where Gina was going to be.
"Hey, I found her!" Someone yelled just to her right.
She looked at him and pushed, pushing outwards and sent him into the nearby brick wall so she could run across the barren street.
Terra had taught her how to run. But if there were more, how was she going to outrun them? They were ninjas, trained to be warriors. She was just a mental person with mental issues.
She stopped and had to think, but the more she tried that the more voices entered her head, thoughts of nearby people, of people walking and people in their homes. Husbands yelling, children scared.
Slapping herself in the head, she leaned against a brick wall hoping that the ninjas didn't see her.
"This way!" A man yelled. "She went this way."
She looked and now there were two of them running down the alley towards her.
Fear inched its way into her brain as she used her mind to move the heavy trash dumpster to block their way. Then she ran.
Two streets over, making sure that cars were not coming, either way, Jennie ran. But so did the ninjas, their orders were ringing clear in their minds.
Get. The. Girls
She skittered to a stop, only because she didn't know where the park was. In her fear, she had forgotten where Gina had gone to stake out. She cast her senses out, feeling for her friend's mental signature, but she only heard back the ninjas as they ran down two separate alleys towards her.
Looking both ways, Jennie ran across the street and into a nearby alley but at the end was nothing. There was no exit, just a brick wall. Trapped. She was utterly trapped.
"Down here." A voice at the opening of the alley said.
There were six of them, six Foot ninjas. All she could see were their eyes. But she could hear their thoughts as loud as talking.
Subject Jennifer has been found.
"Come here, girl." The tallest said.
She shook her head. Why, why did she go down this alley? Why didn't she just try to get a police officer?
"The police will never help us." Shawnee had said once. "We're freaks, they won't help us. No one will. We're on our own now."
The ninjas kept walking towards her. She looked away. There was nothing that she could do, there was nothing she could do.
"Hey guys, miss me?" Someone from overhead said.
In the dark, a large figure jumped down and landed between Jennie and the ninjas. It cast a shadow down on her but from where she was, she could see a pattern on it's what was it… Shell? It had a shell? Like a turtle?
"It's one of them freaks." A voice from the back of the pack said.
They surged forward but the thing was faster. Even if he was faster, he was a little sloppy. Terra was more skilled than he was, from the amount of practice Jennie watched her friend.
One of the ninjas kicked something out of her savior's hand. It landed near her feet. Yet, even with one less twirling weapon, the creature still fought back, laughing the entire time and whooping with glee every time he had knocked out a ninja.
"Whoo!"
Jennie jumped and covered her ears when that creature yelled in happiness. Though, she realized, she couldn't hear his thoughts, not like the ninjas or the people in the buildings around them. There was dead silence from the thing that saved her from the Foot.
"Hey, hey, sorry about that, sweetheart." The thing said as he inched closer.
She looked at it. The bald head, wide features of a face. In the very low light she couldn't see much of his features but from the looks of his arms, he was well trained, and strong maybe.
She looked down. She eyed the weapon, a set of nunchucks, that was laying in the shadow of the alley nearby.
"You don't have to be afraid. Actually, you're the first human to not scream. If you had been rescued by my bro Raph, you would have had a heart attack, no doubt about it."
Something cracked and the creature dipped its head to listen.
"Aw man, Leo, come on." He whined.
Jennie looked while the creature stood sideways. Even if her heart
"Well, I did take out a dozen Foot Ninjas on my own. Ow!"
She heard someone yelling out of what looked like a radio attached to his shell. Who was he talking to?
"Yeah, yeah, I'll tie them up and call Casey. But um, someone may have seen me. AH!" He yelped as another loud voice came through. "Dude, dude, settle down, she hasn't said anything. She's sort of, well, not talking. No, no, not fainted, and no, Leo, she wasn't hurt by the Foot. Gosh, what's with all the questions. Yeah, yeah, regroup."
Jennie almost smiled at his weirdness.
He turned back to her. "So, uh, I have to go." He rubbed the back of his head. "Thank you for not screaming in my face, you know."
She looked towards him, mostly at the orange bandana that was covering his face. He had a wide nose, but it wasn't a human nose. Though he sounded like a very bad surfer from those old surfer movies she watched back in the Facility, she caught the shadowed bright blue eyes that the creature had. Nice eyes, not mean like the ninjas.
And just like that, he had left. Jumping from one fire escape to the other, he clambered back up to the rooftop and disappeared in the night.
Jennie pulled her sleeve over her hand, picked up the fallen weapon and ran out of the alley, hoping that none of the ninjas were going to wake up and find her again.