Raph had just smacked Mikey upside the head for the third time since they had started sewer patrol.
"Ugh," Mikey rubbed the back of his head with hands.
"Can't believe I got stuck with you again. Shut your face before I shut it for you."
"Whoa!" Mikey examined suddenly, pointing at something ahead.
Raph was too and angry to care. "What did I just say?!" he shouted, holding up his fist.
Mikey ignored the threat and started jumping on the tips on his toes still pointing. Raph was surprised by the sound of a sharp bark and jumped slightly before looking for the sound. A short fluffy white dog came running up to them, barking the whole time. Mikey watched it with a smile as it circled him, barking up at him. It occasionally tried to nip at his feet, which he quickly pulled back but it did not seem to make him any less excited about it. "He's so fluff!"
"What's it doing down here?" Raph thought aloud, not really interested in what Mikey thought.
The dog suddenly noticed Raph and gave him the same treatment, running around his feet and barking. "Maybe he fell down an open manhole cover!" Mikey had to yell to be heard over the shrill barks, echoing through the sewer tunnels.
Raph closed his eyes briefly before sighing and turning suddenly to the dog. "Shut up!" It jumped back but kept barking, now low on its front paws, ready for a fight.
"You don't have to be a jerk."
"He's asking for it."
"Come on, doge." Mikey held his hands out toward the dog that had still not stopped barking but kept backing up.
"I wouldn't," Raph said calmly, crossing his arms.
When Mikey came closer, the dog turned and bolted back the way it had come. "Wait, doge! I just want to love you!" Mikey went chasing after it, "and maybe squish your cheeks but just a little!" Raph begrudgingly walked after him.
The dog stopped at a ladder, one front paw on a rung as it looked up at an open manhole, barking at it. "What happened, doge?" Mikey asked as he slid to his side. "You fall down this well?" The dog finally stopped barking and observed Mikey, waiting to see what he was going to do but he was only examining the open manhole. The dog barked once followed by an aggravated growled, as if he were not getting what he wanted then pawed at the rung on the ladder. "Is your person out there?" Another bark. "Come on. We'll go see."
"What're you doing?" Raph had finally caught up to him.
"This doge wants to go back up. I think he's separated from his person." Mikey lifted it under one arm then flung himself up the ladder astonishingly easily with one hand.
Raph went running to the ladder, trying to catch him before he got out. "Mike-!" Mikey squinted at the daylight in the topside parking lot. He felt the dog squirming against him and set him down on the concrete. "Mikey!" Raph called him with a whispered shout from just inside the manhole. "Are you insane? It's daylight out. Don't answer that. Mikey!"
The parking lot was behind a small cluster of businesses. There was lamp store that hardly got any business, a book trading store and restaurant. Though there were cars going by not too far away, none seemed to be paying Mikey any mind, not even when he got up to follow the dog further down the lot and into the alley beside the building. The dog went between two massive trashcans. "What's back there?" Mikey whispered to the dog as he went to see.
"Hey!" Raph slammed his hand onto Mikey's shoulder, turning him around. He was quietly screaming, clearly trying not to be heard down the sidewalk. "Quit playing with that thing and get back inside!" Just beside Mikey's arm, he could see the dog licking at what looked like a pile of clothes on the floor. He pushed Mikey aside to see that it was a person wedged between both trashcans as though they had been shoved in there so as not to be instantly noticeable. The left arm was hanging over the back into a puddle of dark coagulated blood. The dog was licking a spot on the back right beside a kunai wedged deep in the skin. "Whoa… Mikey, look."
Mikey carried the dog back down into the sewer and Raph picked up the limp body. It was that of a seemingly Mexican girl with long black hair, now crusty with dried blood. She was wearing a purple hoodie, which was three times too big for her with black tights and brown mid-calf combat boots. He could see her breathing but it was very weak and she was completely unresponsive. He took her straight to Donnie, who was quick to see to her but equally as quick to criticize Raph for bringing her.
"What was I supposed to do, huh?" he asked Donnie, gripping the edge of the gurney. Donnie was on the opposite side, screwing the IV tubing into the catheter on the back of her hand. "Just leave her out there to die?"
Donnie's eyes narrowed as he looked up at Raph. "She could still die here too. She's lost a lot of blood. She's cold and we don't know exactly what happened to her."
"That's why I brought her to you! You're the smart one. Fix it."
"We're not talking about a computer or car. You can't just bring a person back once they're gone."
"She's not gone yet, right? So do something about it."
"What did you think I was doing?! Sitting around twiddling my fingers?!" He shut his eyes tight, as if to calm himself. "I'll do what I can but I can't… promise anything." Raph seemed to want to say something else but decided against it and walked out. "And keep that dog of hers out of here," Donnie added. Once Raph was out, Donnie turned the girl further onto her side, cutting her sweater and camisole as he prepared to remove the kunai from her back.
The girl had been laying on the gurney in Donnie's lab for nearly a week. Her condition had stabilized when Donnie began administering a synthetic oxygen carrier of his own creation but she had yet to wake up. Unable to x-ray her or diagnose any symptoms, Donnie concluded she either had a concussion or was in a coma. She moved occasionally and reacted to touch but he could not wake her.
She had turned, trying to lie on her side and felt a sting at her hand. The pain roused her and her eyes shut tightly before opening slowly. She looked down at her hand, seeing the IV in it. Her free hand went to take the tape off slowly and pull the needle out, wincing the entire time. When it finally came out, she set it on the gurney beside her. She noticed her shirt and sweater were gone. A white sheet was all that was covering her upper body. She tried to turn onto her stomach to see what was around. As her back twisted, a deep throbbing pain made her freeze with a gasp. She pushed down the sheet to try to see her back but could not manage it. She ran her fingers over the spot instead and felt a disgusting pattern of hard threads. She kept her back stiff, supporting herself on one of her elbows to examine the area.
No one else was in the lab but she knew it was not a hospital. Everything looked so makeshift that she started to wonder if the stitches on her back had been done with a needle that had also pierced ears. The area certainly did not look sanitary and she thought that maybe some serial killer was on their way to harvest her organs for dinner. Before she could react to that thought, the door opened and she stood even more still than she had been before.
Donnie walked in with Mikey. He was holding a sketchbook up, showing Mikey something in it and explaining the features of it to him. "It's kind of big so I'm going to need your help getting it out into the living room."
"Oh man, this is life changing!" Mikey exclaimed running up to a short grey and red machine and throwing himself on it.
"That's a generator, Mikey. It's over-" Donnie froze when he saw her staring at him over the screen of his laptop. They silently waited to see what the other would do. Donnie thought he should go first. After all, she was certain to be much more afraid of him than he was of her. "You're awake." He immediately criticized himself for such a pitiful first statement. It was hardly a conversation starter.
"Where's my book?" she said without moving.
"Ah, I don't… uh, excuse me for a second." He turned around, heading back to the door of the lab and leaving. "Raph!"
Mikey stood up off the generator and smiled at her. "Hey. How's your back?"
"Fine," the girl lied quickly. She did not want these creatures thinking she was an easy target.
"I'm Michelangelo. The cute one," he announced, squishing his own fat cheeks.
"Why am I here?"
"Don't you remember? We found you totally jacked up between some trashcans. We were hoping you knew who did it so we could return the favor."
"You found me," she repeated as if to remind herself of what he said. "Was I alone?"
"Do you have a doge?"
"Yes, yes," she agreed hurriedly. "Was he with me?"
"He led me to you. He's sleeping in a doge crate in my brother's room right now." The girl sighed heavily, able to breathe now that she knew he was safe. "So you don't remember who jacked you up?"
"No, I remember that. I just didn't know what I was doing here because I remember being left for dead."
"So then who-?"
Mikey stopped when Donnie returned to the lab with Raph and Leo. The girl's attention went back to them. Her dark eyes followed them intently but she did not move at all from the position she was in until Donnie started to approach her. She slid herself off the opposite side of the gurney, pulling the sheet with her, holding it to her chest, ignoring the throbbing pain at her back.
"Whoa, hey," Donnie held his hands up. "Don't move around so much, okay. You'll tear through the stitches."
"Don't-" she warned him, holding her hand up when he tried to approach her. "I want my doge."
"Well, I appreciate the gratitude," scoffed Raph. She did not bother reacting to the statement.
"I'll get him," Mikey announced.
"No," the girl told him quickly. He was only a few feet away from her but she had talked to him and now, she felt slightly comfortable around him. "Someone else go."
After Raph brought her the dog in the crate, she took him out to ensure he was in good health. As she was rubbing her face against him, she was shamelessly approached by the one in a blue mask, which to her seemed more like a ribbon. It seemed relatively pointless to her. A mask was irrelevant when you were a turtle humanoid. "You want to tell us what your deal is now?" Leo asked.
"What do you want to know?"
"How about you start with a name?"
"Whose name?" she asked condescendingly. Leo frowned but the girl did not seem concerned with it. She shot him the same agitated look. "Can I go now?"
"That's probably not a good idea," Donnie told her. "You arrived here in a pretty dangerous condition. Whoever caused it could be looking to finish the job."
"They're not," she answered flatly. "They got what they wanted."
"What? That book you mentioned? Raph, did she have a-"
"There was nothing," the turtle in red answered curtly.
The girl sighed, "great, okay. I'm ready to leave. Where are my clothes?"
"Uhh…" Donnie looked to a corner of the lab, rubbing the back of his neck. "They kind of had to be cut off so I could stitch you up."
She threw her hands up, "of course. Well, thanks for bringing me to life." She set her dog down on the floor and walked out of the lab. It followed her quickly.
"That's it?" Mikey sounded surprised, throwing up his hands. "We're just going to let her leave?"
"We can't make her stay. I mean… she's been through enough for… whatever reason she doesn't want to tell us," shrugged Donnie.