In the vast city, no one noticed one small wreck. No one really cared about the one teen girl who lay severely injured inside the car. No one except the two mutated turtles that could only think about getting her out before the fire reached the gas tank.

Adrenalin pushed through Raph as he gained ground on the car. With Donatello on the other side, trying to get the door open, Raph simply reached the point where the rag top met window-shield. He gripped it and ripped the contraption off the vehicle, exposing the bloody girl inside.

Red glistened in the disheveled blonde hair of the girl. Upon pulling her back from the wheel, eliciting a groan from the young woman, Raphael could see that she was about the same age as Don and himself. A large gash ran down her forehead, the skin inflamed and turning a sick blackish-purple as he watched.

"Don, she's conscious," Raph said. His brother made his way to the driver's side of the vehicle and looked down at the bruised sea-foam eyes that looked up at them, half-lidded and bloodshot.

"Get her out of there, Raph," Don snapped, amber eyes flicking over to the ever-growing flames. He obeyed immediately, Sai suddenly in his hand and slicing the fabric of the seat belt that the girl was trying to grasp at. Once the fabric was cut, his arms were around her, lifting her up and out of the seat and instantly dashing away from the car, the entire hood now engulfed.

No sooner had Don and Raph got about 50 feet away, the tank exploded. The boys rolled into the fall, Raph keeping the girl clutched safely to his chest, his shell and arms taking most of the assault from the asphalt. When the two came to a halt, he carefully lowered her to the ground, listening to every instruction Donatello gave to him.

The girl's eyes locked on him and her hands held weakly to him. Raph felt a tinge of panic.

"You're gonna be OK, sweetheart. Don't worry. I swear," He reassured her quietly, his voice rough as he looked to Donatello for confirmation. The other turtle was frowning, his brow scrunched up in worry as he slowly shook his head, telling Raph without words that he wasn't sure she would make it.

"Her pulse is extremely weak, Raphael. A-and there's so much blood..God, the blood," Don murmured, moving to retrieve the sterile cleansing clothes from the pack on his hips. Gently, he wipe away the blood from her eyes.

Her face was terribly bruised, but even so, Raph could tell she was beautiful. Golden curls, tainted and wet with shimmering blood, tilted green-blues eyes that were made even brighter by the broken blood vessels against them, and clear, ivory skin that was more exposed with every swipe of the towelette.

She had a full mouth, the kind like the girl Raph had seen in Blood and Chocolate and a small, slightly tipped nose. If he remembered correctly, she was the type of girl who April was always raging about. The popular, rich girl. The one that, had he met her in any other situation, she wouldn't be looking up at him with so much damn admiration.

Her thin fingers gripped at his forearm as hard as she could. Raph felt his heart pounding against his plastron. Was this what all the superheroes in Mikey's stupid comics felt when they rescued the beautiful damsel? He wasn't all to sure he liked it.

The silence was deafening around them, the cracking and popping of the inferno behind them didn't reach the brothers ears. Don had his Cell out, talking quickly into it before hanging up and replacing it back into its case.

"The ambulance is on their way. We can't leave her till they get closer. She has a better chance of us being here while she's in shock," he stated, digging in the little pack he always had tucked near his shell. Pulling out two small white packets, he crunched them in his hands before slipping one into the small pockets of her jacket.

"Heat packs. She needs to stay warm," he offered to Raph, who was looking a little overwhelmed at the moment. The red-masked turtle nodded and pulled her closer, covering more of her body with his in attempt to give her his body heat, forgetting that he was cold-blooded.

"How..Why did she.." Raph asked, his eyes still locked to the girl's. Don looked over at the car with a frown.

"The most likely scenario is that the brakes gave out. I can't catch the scent of alcohol or any drugs on her," He said quietly, examining the girl once again without physically touching her. He couldn't do anything else to help her at the moment. He prayed the ambulance would get here soon.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, A loud wail of sirens reached the boys. Cherry and blueberries lit the sky down the road, growing larger by the minute.

"It's time to go, Raphael," he said quietly, getting up and slipping into the shadows. Raph didn't want to go, it felt wrong, leaving her here on the pavement in the dark. But he knew it would only cause more trouble if they were to see him.

Cursing under his breath, he slowly placed her completely on the ground and stood up. About to race into the shadows, he heard something that ripped at his chest.

"Rapha...el...stay...please.."

The voice was sweet but broken and gurgled. His head snapped back to look down at the girl. Arms stretched out towards him, shaking pitifully, the bloodied and battered girl called out to him.

"Oh, man," Raph hissed, feeling a hole open up in the pit of his stomach. He swallowed and heard Don's voice his at him again from the shadows. How could he do this?

Quickly, without thinking, he knelt beside the girl, his mouth near her ear.

"I'll come see ya. Stay alive," He said, lingering for only a moment before turning into one of the many shadows of the night, his heart pounding as he raced with his brother back to the lair.

NEW YORK CITY CENTRAL HOSPITAL 4:32 AM

FIVE DAYS LATER

"So I put my faith in something unknown."

Sarina opened her eyes, not daring to move her body in the slightest. The hospital room was dark and quiet. Her parents had paid for a single room, making sure she had plenty of room for the main vases of flowers and balloons that had been sent to her from people she hardly knew. People that only cared because of who her parents were and what her social status was.

The steady drip, drip of the IV made her look to the left, swollen eyes finding the digital clock on the bedside table. Four in the morning and she was awake. Again. The pain pills kept the pounding in her head at bay but did little to help her sleep.

She remained still, her eyes moving to the large window overlooking Central Park. The moon hung low and a few stars were out. It looked like any other night. But then again, the night she'd wrecked looked like any other night. She still couldn't believe that the dealership hadn't caught the faulty brake pads on the vehicle. Knowing her parents, there was probably already a heavy lawsuit of some kind on the company.

She sighed quietly, content on watching the moon (there wasn't much else she could do) and wondering about the strange creature that had pulled her from the car. Her memory was fuzzy but she remembered the rough skin, the green skin, and those horribly bright green eyes. She also remembered a name.

Raphael.

What had he been? Was he even real or a figment of her imagination? Her mother, who had called but couldn't come in because of her busy schedule, told her that the paramedics had found heating packets in her coat and that a lot of blood had been cleaned from her face.

That meant he was real. There was no way she could have cut her seat belt, tore the roof of her car off, crawled from the wreckage before it exploded and then proceed to cleanse her own wounds. Not with a head wound that resulted in a concussion, a broken arm and three broken ribs. Someone, or something, had pulled her from the wreckage. And she would be forever grateful to whomever it was.

The 17-year-old knew that she had to keep up the perfect mask her parents had created for her but the constant charade ate away at what happiness she had felt as a child but dying was not in her future agenda and she barely escaped that last fiasco.

The blonde's mind wandered back to the green man, gazing out the large window absently, when the figure suddenly dropped down, clinging to the outside glass like a formidable demon. Sarina's mouth popped open as her eyes grew wide in a mix of terror and shock. What the hell was clinging to her window.

In the bright moonlight, she made out a three-fingered hand, a shimmer of green and red and knew almost immediately that it was Raphael, whatever he may be. She couldn't move, fear gripping at her chest, causing her breathing to become labored.

The large thing, hesitated, watching her with those green orbs. He's gauging my reaction, she realized through her terror. Somewhere, the Perfect Sarina surfaced, pushing at her to relax.

"Always be calm and smile. That's what matters in public. Control those wild tendencies."

Her mother and father had drilled that into her head and for once, she was grateful. She couldn't smile but she was instantly ice. Perfect.

The window slid open slowly.

"I ain't gonna hurt ya," a rough voice with a Brooklyn accent stated, "I was just...I just wanted to see how ya were."

The creature stayed on the window sill, gripping it with one hand as he waited for her to respond in some kinda way. Fear pushed up in her throat and she felt like she was going to hurl her hospital dinner everywhere. But she pushed it down and shook her head. He didn't sound like he wanted to hurt her, besides he would have done that the night of the car accident if he'd really wanted too.

"Raphael," she croaked out. He tensed in the darkness.

"Y-you...come in. You don't have to stay on the sill. You'll fall," she said quietly, trying to keep her voice level.

The room wasn't flooded in light but it was illuminated in a white glow and as he stepped from the shadows, her heart pounded. He wasn't human. He had a humanoid male body, but his chest and stomach were covered in a pale plastron and what could only be a large turtle shell on his back. The expression of irritation and anxiousness on his face was very human-like, even some features of his face. He was built better than most of the young men she knew; sculpted and extremely toned muscles lined his body, threatening violence. Sharp tools were tucked into the simple belt he wore.

The only other articles he wore were knee and elbow pads. And a ragged red mask over his eyes. He was taller than her and broader. Her mind reeled. He was magnificent and hideous, beautiful and terrifying. He was her savior.

Sudden hot tears burned in her eyes as she looked at him, her breath hitching violently.

"Thank you, Raphael. Thank you so much for saving me," she choked out, her fear lingering but quickly being drowned out by overwhelming appreciation of the creature in front of her.

Raphael's face registered sudden shock at her tears and words. He looked away, his defiant gaze now wandering as a blush crept to his face. What a weirdo, the teen thought.

"Hey, relax, it was nothing. Would've done it for anybody," he said, his tone embarrassed and awkward.

Then she smiled at him and his heart dropped. Through her tears and bruises, that smile blazed out at him. Sarina managed a quiet, strangled laugh before she winced, her ribs hurting.

"Well, still. You have no idea how grateful I am to you."

He shrugged and silenced reigned between them for a while.

"So, uh, how's the head?" He asked, breaking the silence. Sarina reached tentatively to the stitched up wound.

"It's not so bad now but I'm on a lot of pain killers so. 17 stitches to close it up," she told him, watching his green eyes study her. He was so strange-looking.

"I gotta tell ya, sweetheart, you look like shit," he blurted, his eyes going wide as soon as he said it. Sarina, insulted, just looked back at him in mutual shock before busting up in laughter again.

"Well, you don't look so hot yourself, buddy," she retorted, grimacing as she laughed, pain spreading in her face and ribs.

He smiled then, laughing, his voice gravelly, and she couldn't help but realize how it changed his features, making him more human, more of a teenager like herself. In a strange way, he could be considered attractive.

"My name's Sarina Windsor," she said, her eyes dancing, making Raph's stomach fill with ADD bunnies.

"I'm Raphael...but, I guess you can call me Raph."