Um, hey. This is just an idea for a story I started on a while back. A friend of mine on here is going to be helping me write it, and I'll work on it whenever I can. I hope you like this.
MikeyX K, remember when you asked me about writing a story? This is one of them.
Chapter 1
Another school day, another day of torture. Merliah leaped off the bus steps and raced in the front door, slamming it behind her and flying up the stairs two at a time. She ran into her attic room and shut the door behind her. She dropped her backpack on the floor and collapsed onto her bed.
Today had been a particularly bad day. She still wasn't feeling well, and her English teacher had singled her out for not being anywhere close to done with her assignment. Merliah hadn't been the only one; half the class had still been struggling with the difficult writing prompt. But her teacher knew that she struggled in and hated this class (Merliah was quite vocal about it sometimes) and took joy in lobbing project after project at her, then making her look like a fool. The teacher loved to torment her, and so did the students.
To put it mildly, Merliah was not normal. It wasn't just her name; Merliah was a class A dork. Her favorite thing to do was read books, mainly si-fi and fantasy. She didn't watch things like Pretty Little Liars or Twilight, opting instead for shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and TMNT. She avoided parties and dances and social situations, period. Not that anyone ever invited her. Her sense of fashion also didn't win her any points in popularity. Jeans and sweatshirts, all dark colors like blue, green, and purple. She also wore black glasses and an amyhest pendant on a leather necklace everyday, and the same pair of scruffy Nike tennis shoes.
But above all else, strange things happened around her. Merliah couldn't explain how suddenly everyone in the class lost their voice after laughing at her drawings that were supposed to be private, or how the fire alarm went off the minute Merliah's report was due (the one she hadn't finished yet). All she knew was that she would be really upset, then a tingling feeling would buzz in her chest and spread to her arms. Then the weird things would happen.
Word spread fast in school, and gossip like that was never forgotten. People would stare at her as she walked by, and taunt her and trip her and "accidentally" pull her wild red hair. The teachers tended to look the other way. In private, they agreed with the students. There was something strange about the girl who spent her lunch time reading instead of talking to friends. The only sympathetic soul was the librarian, Mrs. Reily. Merliah visited the library often and Mrs. Reily was always happy to help the polite girl who was always alone.
For Merliah was alone. At school she had no friends, and at home she had no one. She lived with an aunt who didn't quite know what to do with her and really didn't care, even after 5 years, and a cousin who lived to torment her. Merliah was unhappy and hated her life with her aunt.
After the accident, Merliah had retreated into her books and fantasy shows even more. She hated her reality and absolutely loved escaping into others. She loved Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but her all-time favorite was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
She had stumbled upon it one night while channel surfing and had instantly fallen in love. She loved Donnie's genius inventions, Mikey's happy childlike attitude, Raph's deadpan sarcastic humor, and most of all Leo's fearless leader act. She had quickly become obsessed and start watching the version from 2003 as well. She couldn't get enough turtle power, and on days like today, it was the only thing that could cheer her up.
Pulling out her tablet, her favorite possession, she opened Youtube and, after a moment of thought, searched for TCRI. She was in luck. The full episode was online. She tapped it, and smiled at the familiar opening. This was not the first or even the tenth time she had seen this episode.
Smiling, gasping, laughing, and squealing in all the right places, enjoying watching the plot unfold, acting just as surprised as the first time she saw it, Merliah was absorbed into this fantastic version of New York. She absolutely loved the turtles.
Finally, the climax of the show. The portal was opening for the second time and something else was coming through. The turtles were defeated and weathered. They were losing against the rock creature alone. There was no way they could take what was coming through.
Merliah sighed. She wanted to be there so much; anything but this cruddy life. She wished she could escape to this New York and never look back. She wished with all her heart she could go there.
Then it happened. That tingle began in her chest, buzzing and bubbling and building with ferocious intensity. It rolled in her chest, then spread to her arms and legs. She had never felt the feeling so strongly before. Something was going to happen. Something big. The lightbulbs in her lamp flickered, then died with a zzzzztt. Her tablet glowed in her hands, a complete whiteout spreading over the screen.
"What?" Merliah barely had time to gasp before a purple swirl filled the screen. It looked familiar. Cautiously, she reached out a hand to touch the screen. Instead of feeling the smooth screen, her hand went right through.
Now most people, if their hand went through a solid object, would panic and scream. Merliah was one of those people. "Ahhhhhhhh!" She screamed, and her scream got louder and higher as she felt her arm getting sucked in. She tried to yank it back, but it stubbornly refused to come back. Her elbow was gone... her shoulder... her head was sucked in... her entire body was swallowed into the swirl of purple. Millions of shades of colors swirled around her. Every fiber, every molocule, every atom of her being was torn apart, then reassembled, then torn apart again. Thousands of scenes, familiar and foreign, flashed before her eyes. If she had a body, it was surely pinwheeling. How else could everything be rotating at impossible speeds around her? It lasted a second and it lasted an eternity.
Suddenly it ended, and Merliah landed flat on her back on a hard surface. "Owwww." She moaned, sitting up and rubbing the back of her head. "What the heck happened?" She opened her eyes and a new question dominated that one. "Where am I?"
Her attic bedroom was gone. She was in a trashy alley in a huge city. She could see skyscrapers in the distance and crumbling buildings all around her. One thing was for sure. She wasn't in Montana anymore. She unsteadily got to her feet. She needed to figure out where she was. Then maybe she could find a way to get back. The sound of a door slamming open stopped her in her tracks. A door leading into the alley had opened to reveal 3 street thugs carrying huge garbage bags bulging with boxes and other things. They laughed as they trooped outside, pleased with the easy steal, but hastily stopped as they saw Merliah, who was staring right at them, frozen with fear.
"Well what do we have here?" One of the thugs smiled in a sly, evil way.
"Uh, I, uh . . . I haven't seen anything!" Merliah pleaded, a horrible feeling growing inside her.
"Oh, but you have. And, well, we can't have you telling anyone, now can we?" The same thug, the leader Merliah guessed, said. He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Silence her."
The two other thugs lurched towards her. Merliah backed up as far as she could, until her back slammed against hard unforgiving brick wall. The thugs were getting closer, closer, ever closer. They both reached into their vests to pull something out.
"Ahhhhhhhh!" Merliah screamed and instinctively shut her eyes and threw her hands up in front of her. The tingling feeling suddenly rose back up inside her with strength and purpose. It flew down her arms and into her hands like a live current, leaving, yet never ending. A crackling sound filled the air and heat surrounded her. The next thing she heard were screams and gasps from the thugs.
Slowly, confused, Merliah opened her eyes and gasped herself. She was surrounded by a ring of fire, protectively encircling her from one side to the other. Reeling in amazement, Merliah lowered her hands and lost focus on the situation around her, staring deep into the flames. Before her horrified eyes, the fire began to flicker and shrink. She quickly lifted her hands back up and concentrated on the flames, imagining them getting bigger and stronger, and watched as they did. She was causing this. She was creating the fire.
The thugs were still there, staring at her in undisguised horror and fear, frozen in place.
Slowly but surely, though, Merliah began to feel weary. She had no idea how much time had passed, but the flames begin to die along with the tingling feeling of power inside her. Scared, Merliah tried to recapture it, but it was no use. The flames gave one final sputter, then flickered out existence. Nearly exhausted, Merliah slumped against the alley wall.
Warily, the thugs approached, and when the fire did not reappear, confidently strode to her, preparing to strike. Merliah screamed, and the biggest thug pulled out a machete.
"Hey!" A voice called, completely new, yet bizarrely familiar. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size? Or are defenseless girls the best you can do?"
"Yeah you punks! Seriously, a blind dude wasn't weak enough?" A new, gruffer, and agonizingly familiar voice called out.
Four figures dropped from the rooftops, all muscular and bulky, but cloaked in shadows.
"It's the freaks!" One of the thugs yelled.
"Get'em!" The leader shouted, pointing to the shadows. The thugs rushed into the fight, and the four stepped out to meet them. Merliah's eyes grew to the size of pizza pans at the sight of them. Her heart skipped a couple of beats and her mouth flew open. It - it - it was them.
The teenage mutant ninja turtles.
Bubbly, grinning Michelangelo. Tall, lanky Donatello. Powerful, tough Raphael. Fearless, brilliant Leonardo. They were real, right in front of her. Coming to her rescue.
Backing away to get a better stance and view of the battle his brothers were fighting, Leo stood a foot away and took time to glance at her. "You okay?" He asked kindly, smiling gently to show he meant her no harm.
Merliah looked up in awe at him and whispered one word. "Leonardo."
Leo's eyes grew to rival hers in size at the sound of his full name coming from the mouth of a total stranger. "Wh-what? H-how did you know - "
One of this thugs, noticing the blue leader was distracted, took that chance to break away from the fight, where the others were wrapping things up, and tackle the turtle. He pinned Leo to the ground and raised his machete high above him, prepared to bring it down on Leo's head.
"No!" Merliah shouted, and summoning the last of her energy, threw a hand out in front of her once more and felt the rush fly down her arms once more. To the great surprise of her and everyone around her, a current of powerful water flew out her hands and hit the thug directly in the chest, engulfing him completely and shoving him off Leo. He tumbled head over heels, then landed unconscious on top of his cohorts, also lying unconscious on the ground.
Leo stared at the half-drowned thug along with his brothers for a few seconds, then quickly scurried to the girls side.
"How - what - are you okay?" Leo asked her, all of his questions fighting each other to be asked first.
Merliah swayed in her crouching position, completely drained. She collapsed, caught by Leo. "Leonardo." She whispered under her breath, before everything faded to nothing.
Leo stared at the girl lying (asleep? Unconscious?) in his arms. She knew his name, his full name. How? He had never seen her before in his life. And the way she had saved him with the water, and the fire she had conjured. Just who was this girl?
"Leo? Come on, let go of her." Raph leaned over his shoulder and looked over the girl clutched in his brothers arms. "We gotta go."
"Right." Leo rose to his feet, carrying the girl bridal style. "We're taking her back to the Lair."
"What?" His brothers gasped in usion.
"Uh, are you feeling alright Leo?" Mikey asked him.
"Leo, we can't bring a complete stranger back to the Lair." Donnie said, the voice of reason.
"Donnie, you saw what she did with the fire and water. She's also in no state to be left alone. And there's something else."
"What?" Raph asked.
"She knows me, apparently. She said my full name, twice. She called me Leonardo. But I've never seen her before."
His brothers offered no more resistence. They raced to the nearest manhole and Leo gently carried the mysterious girl in his arms through the sewers, pausing only to push her glasses back up her nose.
When they reached the Lair, Leo laid her down on the couch and sat down next to her. Mikey brought him a blanket and he covered her up. Now the only thing left to do was wait for her to wake up.
So Merliah is my OC, so she's the one thing I own in this. All will (hopefully) be explained in the next chapter. Well, at least a good deal of it.
Review, PM me with ideas of you like, and have a great day!
