A/N: Hello there! I love TMNT, the 2003 version is one of my favorite adaptations of all of the turtleverse creations because of its accuracy towards the comic books. This story will be taking place in the 2003 verse with a few added details from other turtleverses such as the comic books and possibly the movies. I havent decided if I will take it towards human TMNT boys, but it is a possibility, just as a warning. Rated T for language.
As the Turtles find themselves deeper in trouble with their enemies, they find themselves near surrender. That is until they find the biggest playing card possible to aid them in the war that wages on around them. Charlotte is happy with her quiet life, which is quickly thrown into array by the turtles. She must soon come to the realization that her survival means everything, and to survive, she has to understand. And to understand, she must learn to get over her fears of the only things standing in the way of her death. The Turtles.
There's this insane mix of adrenaline and power that comes from walking down the streets of New York City alone at night. Mind you, it's not the smartest thing for a 5'6 brown haired teenager to do, but when you make it to your apartment and you close the door behind you, there's that twisted sense of survival. Kind of like, "Fuck you world, I survived!"
Mind you, I was still walking at this point in my empowerment of the evening.
It was fall. The wind was bone chilling and the drizzle slapped against my black umbrella as I walked down 7th avenue towards my apartment on 6th. I cursed myself for only wearing my red zip up sweater and my pair of holey jeans. To make it worse, my chucks were soaked all the way through to my socks as I marched the 20 minute walk home. It was one of those unforgiving fall weekends that made you wish you were held up at home in front of a fireplace with a book.
I was heading home from working the midnight shift at 'Second Time Around,' a second hand antique shop down on 8th. I had been working there since I turned 16 a year ago. The owner was a really sweet lady, but I didn't see much of her. She was always picking around for new items to bring into the shop, and so she left me to take care of the place most of the time. It paid well at least, and most nights the walk home wasn't too nasty. 'Most nights' being the operative words in this particular case.
See, personally, I never minded living in Midtown. But there's no one who can forget its rating as one of the worst parts of New York City for crime. If I had parents, I'm sure they wouldn't let me walk around at night time alone like my brother allowed me to However, when you live with a 22 year old university student, the last thing on his mind is where his baby sister is at any given time.
It seemed to be getting colder the further I walked, but I didn't doubt it was because of the wind picking up speed. I tucked my umbrella handle under my armpit and stopped against a wall for a minute so I could unwind my ear buds from my cell phone and shove them into my ears. I turned up the music as loud as it would go to block out the whistling of the wind and the screeching of the tires. I started to walk again as I picked my song.
I cursed as I miss stepped over a piece of concrete and right into an ankle deep puddle. The muddy water splashed up and soaked through my jeans to my knee. I jumped to the side and shook my left leg violently to dispel some of the nasty water. This turned out to be a bad call as my cell phone flew out of my pocket and ripped the ear buds from my ears, going tumbling into an ally way.
"For fucks sake!" I snapped my umbrella closed and stormed into the ally, searching for the phone. My hand was just reaching down for the hard protective case as I noticed five pairs of boots surround me and heard a series of deep, guttural laughter.
"Looks like we got ourselves a new catch, Dragons." I heard a chain rattle as it was snapped taunt in the hands of the deep, husky voice that spoke.
I swallowed and didn't move. My left hand wrapped around the phone and my right hand felt sweaty and strained from gripping the umbrella so tightly. I stood slowly, as if any quick movement would spring the thugs into action. I looked around. There were four men, all stocky, two tall, two short, and one woman. All were wearing leather and jean with soaking multi-coloured hair and dragon tattoos that snaked up and around the skin that was showing. Their eyes glinted with menace, and they all held weapons that ranged from baseball bats to chains to large pieces of metal.
The Purple Dragons.
As I lifted my hands, my legs started to shake. "Look, guys, I don't want any trouble. I have no money, I don't have a purse. I'm only 17. I just want to get home."
"'I'm only seventeen! Please don't hurt me!'" The men laughed as the woman mocked me. "Honey, you shouldn't be out this late so young. You could get hurt!" She laughed and wound up her baseball bat, ramming it into my side and knocking me to the ground, sending all the air out of my lungs and my phone skidding off into the darkness.
I wheezed and rolled onto my back, gripping at my knee that had been shredded in the process of being knocked onto uneven New York concrete. "P-Please. J-just leave m-me….alone." The words were hard to get out as I tried to regain my breath.
One of the taller men laughed, pushing his blue hair out of his face. "And let a sweet thing like you pass us by? Sorry baby," He grabbed me by my neck and lifted me till my feet were off the ground, causing me to choke. I clawed and his hand with my free one, but he just squeezed tighter, pinching my skin and causing my face to turn red from lack of breath and the constriction of my air way. "You're all ours tonight."
Panicked, I swung my umbrella around and made contact with his head. It didn't hurt him, but the contact surprised him enough to drop me. I feel to the ground, landing on my ass as I threw my foot upwards and made contact between his legs. He cursed and dropped like a rock.
I rolled over onto my stomach, coughing and gripping at my neck. I regained my feet just in time to feel contact with my stomach from one of the shorter men, sending me back down. "Not so fast, bitch. Ain't nobody treat my boy like that." I rolled to the side just in time to avoid a swinging chain that would have made contact with my head.
I stood as I rolled, blindly aiming the umbrella at one of the men. His bat and my umbrella came into contact like the start of some hilarious sword fight. The strength of his weapon flung mine out of my hand and skidding into the dark to join my phone. I started backing up as they surrounded me again, but my stomach dropped when my back hit wet, cold brick. I swallowed as my hands started to shake. My empowerment was gone.
"Please. Just let me go." The tears started to fall.
They all laughed and the man with the blue hair raised his crowbar into the air. "Sorry babe, no can do."
I threw my hands up to cover my face in a futile attempt to protect myself as the crowbar started its decent to my face…
…but the contact was never made.
Confused, I dropped my hands and watched as four of the men were snatched back into the shadows and the crowbar clattered to the ground feet away.
"It's the freaks!"
"Run for it!"
"Holy shi –"
As my eyes made contact with the woman who remained in front of me, I could hear the tell tale grunts of the men getting a major beating. She launched herself forwards, her face twisted with rage, her fist making a direct hit to cheek. Screaming in anger, I reached up, grabbed her hair and dropped and rolled, smashing her head into the concrete. I could taste the blood pooling into my mouth.
With one hand still knotted up in her hair and the other a fist pulling back, I looked down at her with a sneer. "You shouldn't be out this late, bitch. You could get hurt." I drove my fist into her face, knocking her out just as a baseball bat made contact with my temple. I felt myself fall to the side, my cheek falling into a puddle. I just managed to make out four shadowy figures surround me as everything went dark.
"Well what were we supposed to do? Leave her there for when the Dragons woke back up?" The voice sounded almost Brooklyn, gruff, deep and powerful.
"Do you remember when you took me here? Remember how well that worked out?" That one sounded really familiar. A woman's voice.
"She's right, Raph. The girl will probably remember us as her attackers, not her savours." That voice was soft, intelligent.
"Master Splinter isn't gonna be too happy with us, dudes."
"Guys, enough. It's our job to save people. We saved her. We're just going to have to deal with the repercussions." The chatter of the others stopped after this voice spoke. I could tell why. It was a young voice, but demanded attention. "We're just going to have to make her understand that we mean her no harm, and hopefully that will be enough to allow her to put our appearances at rest."
As I came back to full consciousness, I started to notice more things. I noticed that I was laying on something soft; a couch maybe. I noticed I could feel pain just about everywhere. I could feel bandages on my side, my cheek and my fist. I felt the most pain around my neck, where the bruising was making it hard to breathe. I choked a little bit as my eyes began to flutter. I moaned as my hand moved up to touch my tender neck. I rubbed my eyes and started to sit up. "Where am –" My eyes opened and I looked around.
"WHATTHEFUCK!" I jumped backwards, fell off the couch and hit the ground hard. I rolled onto my back and scurried backwards until I ran into a corner. The reason for my fear? The fact that in front of me stood four tall, green, humanoid creatures that looked quite a bit like turtles.
Instantly all four turtles dropped their weapons to the ground, holding their hands up high as if to show me they meant me no harm. One in a blue mask stepped forwards, kneeling down in front of me. This only caused me to shrink back further into the corner, my face contorting with fear casing my wounds to re-open.
"Please, Miss, we mean you know harm. I know we look…different. But we won't hurt you." It was the same commanding voice from before my eyes opened. "My name is Leonardo, and these are my brothers." As he turned around to motion to them, my leg swung out and round housed him in the head, sending him sprawling backwards. I jumped to my feet and ran.
"GABRIEL." I irrationally screamed my brother's name as my apparently bare feet slapped against the stone floor. I ran towards a door and threw it open, only to find a bedroom. Cursing, I looked around wildly and noticed and entrance out. I raced through the center of the huge, circular room, jumping down into a kind of shallow pit in the middle of the cave, running past punching bags and staffs and towards the door. I was just reaching it when something large and green cut me off. This one was wearing an orange mask. "Listen dudette. That's the way to the sewer. You probably don't want to go that way."
I shrieked and backpedalled, making contact with another green figure. I wiped around to see one with a red mask, his hands crossed across his chest, looking down at me. "Just chill the fuck out."
I turned and ran again. Past the two other creatures and towards another hopeful exit. Instead, I ran into the one person I least expected to see.
My boss. April O'Neil.