Loud noises and dim lighting were what greeted her as she began to wake up. At first all she could hear was the sound of rushing water, but soon she could hear a what sounded like Guitar Hero, and someone's immature voice yelling "Aw yeah! I beat your ass good didn't I Raphie-boy?"
"Shut up, Mikey or I'll be the one beatin' yer ass, literally" a heavy New York accent threatened
With a groan, she opened her eyes and rubbed her head. The first thing she saw was a fuzzy blur of green and purple that shouted "Hey guys, our mystery woman is awake!?
"How she doin', Don?" the New York accent came closer as her vision focused
She was in some sort of large underground space, sparsely decorated with torn couches, an extremely old box tv, and a flimsy looking table. Her main focus, however, was on the beings in front of her.
She simply eyed the four of them for a second before shaking her head with a sigh. "What the hell kinda drugs is that psycho injecting me with now?" she muttered, wincing as she sat up. Her leg was bandaged just below her shorts, and her shoulder as well, she noted internally.
The turtle with the orange mask widened his eyes "Whoa dudes she didn't even freak out. That's a major first"
"She's one of us, Mikey" the purple turtle rolled his eyes, and focused on her "What's your name?"
"Mona" she stared at her green hands unhappily "Mona Lisa". Glancing up at the four of them she added "I'm not hallucinating, am I?"
"Unfortunately, no" the purple turtle grinned wryly "My name is Donatello and these are my brothers. The one in the blue is Leonardo, the super annoying one in the orange is Michelangelo-"
"Hey!" the orange turtle protested "I'm not annoying! I'm super cute" he winked at Mona "You can call me Mikey"
Donatello pretended to gag and continued "And the one with his arms crossed looking like he wants to kill everyone is Raphael"
The turtle with the red mask grinned and said in his accented voice "Thanks fer the intro, geek wad"
"Hot head"
"Dork"
"Enough!" a raspy voice said firmly and Mona turned to see an ancient rat descending the rickety staircase.
"This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder" she sighed
The rat bowed "I am called Splinter, Ms. Mona Lisa. I am their father and teacher" he gestured to the turtles.
"Now that we're all acquainted" Leonardo said seriously, raising an eyebrow "Would you mind telling us why you were tied up in the Manhattan college building?"
"This crazy guy, Captain Filch kidnapped me from the college" Mona leaned her head back "He performed experiments on me". Tears began to well up in her eyes "Turned me into this" she gestured distraughtly to her entire body "A green freak". All of the turtles winced at her words and she added "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just...hard, ya know?"
Donatello smiled a little "Trust me we know better than anyone what that feels like"
"I don't know what I'm gonna do" Mona wrapped her tail protectively around herself "I can't go home like this, I can't go to my job, or school..."
"Sensei, she can stay here can't she?" Leo turned to Master Splinter
"Please, Sensei?" Mikey begged "Can we keep her?"
Mona flushed "That's very considerate, but I couldn't; I mean I hardly know you guys"
"That is true" Splinter nodded "My sons, why don't you tell her our story? I will be in the dojo, and when you are finished you may come speak with me, Ms. Mona Lisa"
"Just Mona is fine" she blushed "And sure I guess"
As Splinter walked away, Mikey got extremely excited "Can I tell her the story? Can I?"
"Mikey!" All three of them groaned in unison, and Donnie pinched the bridge of his nose "Just go"
"Okay!" Mikey rubbed his hands together. Hands, Mona noticed, that only had three fingers, "So, me and the dudes were like babies, right? Just four normal turtles goin' about our business, when all of a sudden we got covered in this ooze stuff, what's it called, ummm…"
"Mutagen" Donnie interrupted
"Right!" Mikey brightened "So then we got turned into human turtle dudes, and Master Splinter took care of us 'cuz the mutagen turned him from a human into a human-rat. And he taught us all our ninja stuff". He imitated a karate pose "Hi-yah!"
"You guys are ninjas?" Mona grinned a little "I find that hard to believe; aren't turtles supposed to be slow?"
"Oh, you should not have said that" Leo chuckled "Guys, why don't we play a little game? First one to get Mona's bandana off her neck without her noticing wins"
"We're gonna make you eat your words, Mona Lisa!" Mikey laughed as the four of them threw down smoke pellets.
Mona coughed, waving the smoke away to see that the turtles had vanished. "Guys?" she called uneasily "Mikey? Donatello?". Those, unfortunately, were the only two names she could remember; the red and blue ones hadn't talked as much.
Something raced behind her and she spun quickly, but there was nothing there. Glancing down, she realized her bandana was missing. "Hey, give that back! I believe you, alright? You're ninjas"
"Come an' get it, Lizard Girl" the accent called out and Mona glanced up to see the red turtle up in the rafters. He had his arms crossed, leaning against a support beam, grinning and waving her bandana tauntingly. Mona's heartbeat sped up a little; in that position all of his muscles were very well defined, and he looked kinda hot. What? she thought to herself, Turtles are not hot, Mona.
Mona moved a few steps back and took a running leap at the wall, fully expecting an embarrassing moment where she hit the wall and slid down it. But that wasn't exactly what happened.
Mona opened her eyes, surprised to find herself suctioned to the wall with the webbing between her fingers. Grinning, she scaled the wall up to the rafters, landing on the same beam as the red turtle.
He looked impressed "I didn't know ya could do that"
"Yeah?" Mona panted "Well I didn't either. Lizard Girl-1, Turtle Boy-0"
"I got a name, ya know" he said, ducking back as she tried to grab the bandana
"Um..." Mona lunged and missed again as he sidestepped out of the way with ease "Donatello?"
"Nah" he laughed as she tried to grab him again
"Leonardo?"
"God, no"
She took a step toward him again, but her foot missed and she tripped, plunging over the side of the rafters with a startled yelp. She didn't fall far before a pair of strong green arms caught her and pulled her back up.
Mona stared into his emerald green eyes and asked breathlessly "Raphael?". The green eyes crinkled as he grinned and put her back on her feet.
"That's my name, Lizard Girl. Don' wear it out"
She dusted imaginary dust off of her skirt, trying to think of a witty response, and when she looked back up he was gone.
"Hey, where's my-" She glanced down at the bandana that was back around her neck "Oh"
Mona climbed back down to the ground level and found the orange and purple turtles playing Guitar Hero. Mikey and Donatello, she corrected herself
"Mona" a voice said and she turned to find that the turtle with the blue mask had come up behind her silently
"Hi" she smiled awkwardly "Leonardo, right?"
"Just Leo is fine" He smiled a little "You should probably go talk to Master Splinter now"
"Probably" Mona agreed. Leo went to watch the guys play Guitar Hero and Mona headed towards where she had seen Master Splinter disappear, glancing around disappointedly for Raphael.
She knocked nervously on the door to the dojo and slid it open when Master Splinter called "Come in"
"You wanted to talk to me, Master Sliver?"
"Splinter" he smiled a little as she blushed "I wish to let you know that you are welcome to stay here as long as you like. My turtles, although they are teenagers, are honor bound and will not bother you. And if you ever need someone to speak to, I am always open. I know better than anyone, what you are going through". He sighed deeply "The transition from human to animal is a difficult one, and although you lose many valuable human traits, you also gain new, useful animal traits"
Mona nodded unhappily "It hasn't been very easy so far, but I'm getting more used to it" she twitched her tail
"So, would you like to stay here for a while?" Master Splinter asked kindly
Mona hesitated and then smiled shyly "Sure I guess. Thank you for being so hospitable"
"You are very welcome, Mona Lisa"
