First. Ever. Fanfiction.
Please review - critiquing encouraged. I have wonderful plans for this story so 'encourage' away.
"Mikey, how many times have I told you not to bring pizza on patrol?"
The guilty turtle froze, a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and extra mushrooms halfway to his mouth, before turning to face his eldest brother. Leo sighed from where he was crouched on the rooftop, and stood up from where he had been surveying the streets, turning to face his orange-clad brother with a look of resignation.
"I count thirty-seven times – this month," a voice chimed in from above, as Donatello jumped from a cistern and landed gracefully next to Leonardo, a wide grin on his face. "Not including the times Mikey finds pizza in a dumpster and eats from there or the time he 'borrowed' some pizza from the Purple Dragons when they were busy facing off Raph. Including those, I think it's somewhere in the fifties."
Mikey raised an eyebrow at Donnie and smirked, "Oh yeah? Well, what about when I took the pieces of pizza you had hidden in your 'man-purse' last night?"
"It's a satchel!" Donnie snapped. "And that was you?! I thought it had fallen out when we were fighting off those gangsters!"
Mikey shoved the whole slice of pizza in his mouth and grinned as Donnie grimaced at the sight.
"Listen to me, D," he responded through a mouth full of pizza, "It's. A. Man. Purse. The purse of a man – well, turtle. A turtle purse. The turtliest male of purses in existence. And also, the pizza did technically leave you when you were finishing off the guy with the baseball bat, but that's because I figured you were busy and my belly was going 'bleughge–'"
"Michaelangelo," Leo interrupted, clearing his throat loudly, causing the two younger turtles to look to him expectantly.
"No more pizza," he flat-lined. "Understand? No food beyond the lair or April and Casey's place. Now, we'll do one last sweep of the area and then head back in for the night. It's getting late. You two circuit that way and I'll catch up with Raph and meet you halfway."
With that, Leo flipped and landed on the next roof and began jogging towards where he last saw his red-banded brother, listening as, for the third time that night, Mickey challenged Donnie to a race. Noticing a flicker of red to his left, Leo changed direction and headed towards the roof edge, coming to a stop by Raph, who was carefully watching something in the streets below.
"What the shell's a little kid doing out wandering the streets this time of night?"
Raph's gruff voice echoed Leo's thoughts as their eyes followed a young, gangly boy walking through the alleyway below them.
"He's not that young. Looks about fourteen. Maybe he's lost?" Leo replied
"Ain't acting like he's lost. He's been heading dead north for nearly half-an-hour."
Leo only nodded. "I've got Mikey and Donnie scouting the area one last time, which should take about ten minutes – maybe fifteen if Donnie takes some time to strangle Mikey. We'll follow the kid and see where he goes until they join up with us, then we'll figure it out from there."
Raph lips twitched as Leo spoke.
"So, I guess Donnie found out that Mikey took his pizza last night mid-fight?"
Leo groaned and nodded. "Yeah. And Mikey keeps calling Don's satchel a man-purse."
"It is a man-purse."
Leo paused for a moment. "Yeah, it is."
Raph exchanged a look with Leo as a laugh from the alleyway below echoed up to the roof. The brothers immediately turned to the source of the sound and saw a group of Purple Dragons blocking the mouth of the alleyway, preventing the boy from leaving.
"Goin' somewhere?" one of the goon's sneered.
The boy looked up from the ground, clearly surprised to see people in front of him. "Huh?" he blurted, looking around in confusion.
The Dragons exchanged glances and began stalking towards him, grins evident on their brutish faces.
"Where's ya mommy, boy?" a lanky dragon sang, cracking his knuckles.
The teenager stopped in his tracks, eyes wide and hands shaking. "I–I was just going home," he replied. "Leave me alone," his voice cracked as he stumbled over his feet, backing away from the men before him.
Leo was furious. And if Raph's growls were anything to go by, he was just as angry. Picking on a helpless, teenage boy unprovoked was below even the Purple Dragons – or so they had thought. Signalling at Raph, the two turtles unsheathed their weapons and made their way down the fire-escape.
The young boy had his back to the wall, watery eyes watching the Dragon's form a semi-circle around him.
"Cryin' like a baby, ain't he?" a short, tubby Dragon cackled. "You wan' ya bottle, baby?"
The men hooted amongst themselves as the boy cowered with his head down and hands in fists by his temples.
"Oi! Pick on someone your own size, ya losers!"
Raph's angry voice carried through the alleyway, announcing his Leonardo's presence towards the middle of the alleyway.
"Urgh! These guys, again! Get 'em!" the leader of the group ordered and pressed his forearm against the boy's neck, pinning the panicking boy to the wall.
The other Dragon's surged forwards, pulling various weapons from their pockets – a switchblade, knuckle dusters, even a baseball bat. Leo and Raph flew into battle; Raph working on taking out the majority of the Dragons and Leo heading towards to teenage boy, still pushed up against the wall.
Leo was watching the boy carefully as he worked through the throng of fighting towards the pinned teenager. Delivering a perfectly executed split kick to send two Dragons flying to opposite walls of the alleyway, and flipping over another Dragon whilst disarming him of his steak knife mid-air, Leo was making progress, but not fast enough.
Unaware of what was going on, but hearing the sound of brawling, Leo watched as the boy's terrified, tearful face morphed into a look of fierce concentration. Gripping the wrists of the man before him he used the wall for leverage and brought his legs to his chest and kicked out, sending the Dragon flying. Landing awkwardly, the boy regained his balance and careered over to the fallen leader. The leader's face grew red as he watched the boy moving towards him. Grasping for something in his pocket, the Dragon roared wordlessly at the approaching figure and made to stand up. The boy leapt forwards and dropped onto the Dragon's chest, his left knee digging heavily into the man's ribs, preventing his ascent and trying unsuccessfully to pin the man's hands by his side. Failing to overcome the man's greater strength, the teenage boy used his elbow to hit the man's temple with all his might – once, twice, three times – and the Dragon's arm's fell senselessly to the side.
Quickly reaching into the unconscious man's jacket pocket, he extracted what the Dragon had been trying to grasp – a vicious-looking hunting knife. Fumbling with the heavy blade at first, he managed a grip on the handle, whirled around to face the fighting, and threw it as hard as he could at Leonardo. Leo, mid-round kick saw the knife leave the boy's hand and deftly flipped to one side, landing lightly in a crouch. Turning his head, Leo saw the heavy wooden handle of the blade smashing into the temple of the lanky Dragon, fighting Raphael.
Raph spun around, irritation on his face as he glared at Leo for finishing off the last of the Dragon scum for him.
"I had it, bro!" he shot at his brother. Grumbling, Raph scanned the alleyway, checking for other threats, then froze as he noticed the teenage boy's wide eyes, flicking between Leo rising from a crouch in the middle of the alley, the bodies strewn at their feet, and himself, with his bruised knuckles and vicious-looking sai clutched in each hand.
The boy startled at the sound of Raph's voice, then whipped his to look at Leo as the turtle lifted his weapons to sheath them in their respective scabbards behind his shell.
"Oh my god!" he squeaked.
The Apprentice