Phoenix Feathers

Chapter 2.1

Home Invasion

"April, stay behind me."

It was all Amber could say before her basement was flooded with Foot ninja. Oh, how she wished she had started with her weapons katas! She took one last note of April, she was backing into the far corner, disturbing her neatly folded stack of towels in her flight and making them spill to the floor. Amber then launched herself at the nearest Foot.

Punch, slash, sweep, repeat. She fell easily into her basic tonfa kata, only without her weapons. It was clear to her that even though the Foot had numbers in their favor, they were nowhere near as well trained. A whistling noise from April's direction made her look up in time to catch the pair of sai that had been hanging on the wall beside her younger friend. Amber twirled with them, using the extra momentum to slash them through the neck of ninja who had tried to sneak up on her. It seemed like two more just took his place, however. Sweat pooled at the base of her spine with all of her exertion. She was tiring, even as she gracefully danced with the sai in her hands. Eventually, however, there were just too many of them, too many small slashes and lucky hits. Too much, too many, and her effort seemed to be too little. Amber collapsed, clutching her sai close. She wanted to continue to fight, but she was weakened. She watched the Foot drag April from her corner and up the stairs. She hadn't been able to protect her friend. Amber had failed.

And it almost killed her.

OoO

Chapter 2.2

The Flour Arrangement

(LAUNGUAGE WARNING)

"You need to stop being such an asshole all the time, Raph! Mikey was just playing around with you!"

"He COVERED my FACE in MAKEUP! I look like fucking LADY GAGA!"

"Well, it could be considered an improvement!"

"Yeah, let's all laugh and put makeup on Raph! Why don't we ever laugh and put makeup on Leo?"

While his two oldest brothers argued, Mikey had quietly retrieved a sack of flour from the kitchen and snuck into Raph's room. What he wouldn't give for Raph to have a ceiling fan, but he would make do with the small standing fan his brother had salvaged. He carefully coated the grate and blades with the fine white powder, getting it all over himself in the process. He them attatched a small bag of flour to the back of the fan, right where it would blow all over Raph when he turned it on, and covered it up with one of the many dirty work-out towels randomly laying around the room. Smiling to himself, he quickly took the rest of the flour back to the kitchen and began cooking before Donnie's voice floated in.

"Guys, we got Foot Clan activity!"

OoO

Chapter 2.3

Splinter's Ghost

The turtles had gathered around the woman in the needle room, waiting for the lecture that was sure to come from their senei. Splinter, for his part, was beyond shocked. Here she was, after all these years. The woman who had given of herself to breathe life into them. By rights, she would be the turtle's mother in a way. His too, but as they seemed close in age it would be more proper to consider her as a sister. Leonardo shifted uneasily, making Splinter's eyes turn to his eldest son.

"Sensei, I'm sorry, but we couldn't just leave her there. Please understand.."

The old rat raised a hand to silence the apology. "You have done the right thing, my son. This woman is as far from a threat to you and your brothers as I am. Allow her to rest, my sons. I must meditate now. Alert me when she wakes."

Splinter glided out of the needle room and into his private rooms. He thought he'd never see the kind woman again. Hell, he had thought she may have burned in the fire that little April had rescued them from. When the young girl had appeared in the blazing lab, unattended by her female guardian, Splinter had assumed the worst. He had mourned the loss of such a pure soul and vowed that he would do what he could if April was ever in trouble in honor of the young woman's memory. Indeed, there is much to think about.