Trash cans and fire escapes passed as blurs in the eyes of two cloaked figures as they ran down the numerous alleys of the streets of New York City. They breathed heavily, the tallest one holding the smaller one's hand and pulling the small one forward. Shouting rang in the distance from behind.
"They went down here!" shouted one man.
"Hurry up! Get them!" yelled another.
The two figures didn't stop running. They continued to make their way down the narrow paths between the towering buildings. A dead end halted the runaways in their tracks. They searched for an escape, any path away from their chasers. The taller stranger then spotted a fire escape to one side of the alley. The figure pointed to its companion to the ladder and helped them climb the fire escape. Footsteps echoed from the other end of the alley and the escapees quickened their pace. They soon reached the top, helping each other climb over the edge, and began to run towards the other side of the roof. As they ran, shapes within the shadows moved in the blanket of the dark. Suddenly, many hidden figures emerged from the darkest of corners. The taller runner grabbed its friend and drew them close. The emerged strangers were ninja with long shimmering swords, who wore headbands which bore a symbol of what looked like a red animal track with three toes. The ninjas' circle began to close as they inched closer and closer to their targets.
Meanwhile, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, four creatures of human size but with the appearance of enhanced turtles, travelled along the streets of New York high above the ground. As the wind blew across their faces, long draping strands of cloth blew in the breeze as the remainder of the cloth covered the turtles' eyes. The turtle in the lead wore a blue mask and carried two katanas, the next turtle wore a red mask and carried two three-pointed sais. The two turtles bringing up the rear wore a purple and orange mask, who carried a bo staff and nunchucks respectively. The turtles soon came to a halt and observed the busy scenery of their beloved city. Small dots of people roamed around the sidewalks of the main streets, lines of cars backed up for miles trying to navigate through the city, and the numerous lights of business signs flickered against the thick blanket of the night sky. The purple masked turtle was the first to speak after many minutes of silence.
"Well, the city looks very peaceful tonight," sighed the purple turtle with slight relief.
"I don't know about you, dudes. But as far as I know, coming out here to inspect the city was a total waste of time," whined the orange turtle, sitting on a power box.
The red turtle came up to the orange turtle and smacked him in the back of the head. The orange turtle grunted from the pain and looked at the red turtle with annoyance.
"Ooowwww! Raph, what the shell was that for?!" yelled the orange turtle.
"Cus no one wants to hear ya complain, Mikey," Raph bluntly rebutted.
"Alright, you two. That's enough!" warned the blue masked turtle.
"If you were me, Leo, I am certain you would have done the exact same thing," pointed out Raph.
"Hey guys! Come here!" called out the purple turtle to his friends.
"What is it, Donny?" asked Leo as the three turtles caught up with their brother.
"I think there is some activity on top of that building three blocks away from here. See it?" pointed out Don.
"Ah...just what I've been waiting for," hungered Raph as he made his way to the targeted rooftop.
"Raph! Wait!" called Leo as he and his two remaining brothers chased after their eager and hungry brother.
The three turtles continued to chase their brother until they caught up with him staring in awe at the fight scene ahead of them. Leo looked at Raph in concern.
"What is it, Raph?" asked Leo.
"They're Foot Ninja fighting those guys with cloaks," stated Raph.
"Foot Ninja? What are they up to now?" questioned Don.
"Do you think the Shredder sent them?" asked Mikey.
"I'm not sure. The Shredder hasn't been up to anything lately. So why would he do something now?" speculated Don.
The Foot Ninja continued to close in on their targets and took to the air, aiming for the strangers. Instinctively, the two shadowed figures ran in opposite directions, taking on one half of the ninja each. Despite the ninja having swords, the strangers fought and dodged the ninja with their bare hands. The taller figure swiftly blocked the swords of two Foot Ninja, but was unaware of the third ninja sneaking up from behind. The ninja swung his sword across the stranger's back and the figure cried in pain. The turtles gasped as they watched from the sidelines. The pain was so great that the figure fell to their knees, doubled over in pain. Seeing an open point of weakness, the ninja with blood spatted across his sword kicked the stranger's chest, making him fly across the roof and land several feet away. The smaller figure, also tattered in cuts and scraps, punched the ninja it was fighting across the jaw and ran over to the fallen stranger. As the figure ran, its hood covering its face blew off. The turtles stared at a teenage human girl with short mousy blonde hair blew in the breeze. She had a strong build to her body and did not wear any shoes with her torn jeans and black tanktop. The turtles were stunned by her natural beauty, the way her peach colored skin glowed in the moonlight. The girl held the fallen figure close to her as the figure tried to stand. The hood covering the fallen figure's face was also pushed away and under the hood lied the face of something that made the turtles gasp in slight shock. The figure was male and wearing street clothes, but his body and face were that of a cross of a human and a cat. Gold fur with dark brown stripes covered his body as whiskers sprouted from his cheeks. Claws spiked from his hands and feet and a tail slowly swayed from side to side. With great anger surging through her, the girl yelled a bloody cry and charged the ninja in front of her. The ninja drew back in fear as the girl's face contrasted with the moonlight. Instead of a weak little girl, the girl's eyes were of a pale yellow with black slits and her feet and hands sprouted claws from out of nowhere. As fast as light, fists were slammed across the faces of the ninja with great strength from the girl's body, knocking out a few of them. As quickly as they came, more ninja appeared from the shadows and ganged up on the girl, while the teenaged boy struggled to get up and joined in the fighting once more. Both of the fighters were draining on strength quickly and their movements began to grow sloppy. The turtles looked on in anger, conflicted in whether they should step in and help and blow their cover.
"Dudes! We've gotta do something! They're losing!" exclaimed Mikey, placing his three fingered hands on top of his head.
"Master Splinter said that we must not blow our cover. To remain in the shadows," rebutted Leo with gritted teeth.
"They'll die Leo if we don't do something!" yelled Raph, trying to call some sense into his brother.
Leo looked down at the fight scene, his hands clenched in fists while deciding their next action. He closed his eyes and deeply sighed before he spoke. He opened his eyes and prepared to spring from the rooftop.
"Alright guys! Let's go!" said Leo turning to each of his brothers.
The turtles nodded and jumped from the roof, their weapons out and at the ready. They slowly descended through the air towards the rooftop. The girl had difficulty breathing and sank to the floor, clutching her chest to try to catch her breath. A ninja with two swords slowly walked towards the girl with the swords raised. The girl stared up in exhaustion and horror as she prepared to take the blow. The boy kicked one ninja away and began to run towards his friend.
"Spirit! Spirit!" cried the boy, pushing away ninjas that tried to stop him.
The girl gazed up at the masked killer and closed her eyes, waiting for the sword to slice through. The ninja cried and the ringing of the blades through the air sounded. But then a metal clang broke the silence. The girl called Spirit opened her eyes to see a large turtle on two legs with a red mask blocking the ninja's swords. She was at a loss for words and looked around to see three other turtles fighting off the ninja. A purple masked turtle fended off some ninja to Spirit's left and an orange masked turtle did the same on the right. A blue masked ninja was back-to-back with the boy with the appearance of a house cat. Spirit turned her attention again towards the red masked turtle ahead of her, who was easily defeating the oncoming ninja. She tried to stand up, but she suddenly felt faint and dropped to the floor again. Each of the turtles defeated the ninjas with ease one-by-one and after a few minutes there were none left. The cat boy then ran to Spirit and cradled her in his arm, moving aside a strand of hair from her face, her minor cat-like features were slowly retreating back.
"Spirit, are you alright?" asked the boy concerningly.
"I feel very faint, Raidon," muttered Spirit softly. "I'm sorry that I couldn't fight any better."
"You did wonderful," replied Raidon, tears brimming his eyes. He then looked up at the turtles. "Thank you for saving us. But you should leave while you still can. More are bound to arrive shortly."
"It would not be right to just leave you now," remarked the purple masked turtle.
"Come with us to our lair. You and your friend will be safer there," advised the blue masked turtle.
Raidon stared at the turtles and then down at Spirit as he made his decision. Quickly, Raidon lowered his friend and removed a necklace from around his neck. Upon the necklace's leather string was a silver dragon pendant dangling form it. Raidon placed the necklace on Spirit and kissed her lightly on the forehead.
"You be good and stay strong, okay?" warned Raidon worriedly.
"Raindon...I love..." began Spirit, but before she could finish she blacked out and her head layed against Raidon's chest as he lifted her into his arms.
Raidon looked at the turtles with a desperate look on his face along with small streams of tears glistening on his face in the moonlight.
"Please..." begged Raidon. "Take her with you to where she will be safe. I will be satisfied to know that she is protected from those ninja."
"What about you?" asked the orange masked turtle.
"I will make a run for it and distract the ninja while you make a getaway. Please...take her away from here and out of sight. I won't let them get her," continued Raidon with a sad voice as he rubbed away his tears.
The turtles looked at each other, then back at Raidon, and nodded in agreement. Gently, Raidon placed his friend in the red masked turtle's arms. Shouts could be heard in the distance and Raidon inched his way towards the roof's edge.
"They're coming. There's not much time. Go, now!" commanded Raidon and with that, he jumped over the edge.
The turtles, after a slight hesitation, then moved over rooftops and made their way to a dark alley where Mikey removed the covering to a man hole and one-by-one, the turtles jumped into the sewers. Mikey, recovering the man hole, was the last to jump in and the turtles gazed at the girl in Raph's arms. Her cat like features disappeared completely, leaving a beautiful human girl fast asleep in Raph's arms. Raph was the first to speak.
"What do you guys think the Foot wanted with her and her 'boyfriend'?" questioned Raph, still gazing at the girl.
"Who knows? We won't be able to find out anything until she comes to. Let's start heading back to the lair," stated Leo.
The turtles began to walk through the familiar sewers, making their journey back to their home. They soon arrived to a large opening to a huge hollow cavern that contained a large pool, several rooms, a kitchen, and a large screen television. The television was turned on and on the couch was a large grey rat in brown martial arts robes with a cane to his side. The rat was watching soaps when he noticed the turtles enter and turned off the tv to join with the turtles.
"Ah, my sons. Welcome back. Have you found any problems in the city?" asked the rat warmly.
"With the city, no Master Splinter," replied Leo. "But we did run into a problem with the Foot Ninja just recently."
"The Foot? What happened?" asked Splinter curiously.
Leo stepped aside as Raph stepped forward with Spirit in his arms towards his sensei. Splinter slightly gasped as he saw the human girl in his son's arms.
"What happened to her? Why did you bring a human girl down here?" questioned Splinter sternly.
"Hey guys, you're back!" called out a distant voice.
The turtles and their sensei turned to see a human male with long black hair and a human female with red hair pulled back running towards them, calling their names. The female came up first the the turtles and did not notice the girl instantly.
"Hey you guys, glad you could-" began the woman, but she then saw Spirit in Raph's arms and gasped at her terrible condition. "My gosh! What happened to her?!"
"We shall learn about the story later. Right now, this girl needs some medical attention. Casey, take the girl from Raphael and carry her to a guest room. April, get some medical supplies and hurry to the guest room. My sons and I will see to the girl until you arrive," ordered Splinter.
At that, April ran off to the other side of the den, Casey took the girl from Raphael and, with the turtles and the rat, ran to a guest room on the same level to the far end of the lair. The turtles, rat, and Casey with Spirit rushed into the guest room and layed Spirit on the mat bed. April soon came in after with a bowl filled with water and other medical equipment and began to sort it all out. Casey looked around Spirit's body to see if there were any wounds that needed tending.
"What happened to her?" asked April, preparing some gauges and bandages.
"We found her fighting with her boyfriend some ninja from the Foot. They were losing and were about to die, but we saved them just in time," claimed Leo.
"The Foot?" questioned Splinter. "What were you doing fighting the Foot, my sons?"
"They attacked Spirit and her boyfriend brutally, Master Splinter. They would have died if we hadn't stepped in!" exclaimed Raph.
"But you do not know what led them to fighting, do you?" tested Splinter as he eyed his sons.
"Spirit went unconscious before we could ask her anything and her boyfriend ran like heck so we could get away," stated Mikey.
"So...her name is Spirit?" pondered Splinter, gazing down at the girl's sleeping face.
"Yeah, and her beau's name is Raidon. He was a mutant just like us, Master Splinter...except he was mutated as some cat of some kind," added Raph.
"Hmmmmm...then we have a lot to discuss with her when she comes to," concluded Splinter.
"Uhhh...hey, guys," called Casey as the turtles, their sensei, and April shifted their gaze towards him. "Did you guys ever notice any tattoos on...uh...Spirit when you found her?"
"No, why do you ask?" asked Leo, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, then...you should probably take a look at this," urged Casey as he held Spirit's left foot.
The turtles, Splinter, and April crawled over to where Casey kneeled, holding Spirit's left foot. They all gazed and gasped in shock as they saw on Spirit's foot a bar code with the numbers EXP00102 tattooed into her ankle. Splinter held Spirit's foot in his hand as he took in all the details of the skin art.
"What does it mean, sensei?" asked Leo as he continued to stare at the tattoo.
"I am not sure, Leonardo," stated Splinter grimly.
TO BE CONTINUED...