Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…

Yeah I know I lied again. This story is defiantly not getting done by tonight. I'm blaming my sister on this who decided to go home and tell Mom I was coming up to before clearing it with me. (Shoots sister and angry glare). However, I guess Ben is one hunderd and fifty dollars richer, wish he would share...

Anyways, the story is pretty much typed so the rest of it should be posted by this weekend (as long as I have no other roadtrips). Also, for those of you following Coffee Cups and Late Night Talks a new chapter will be posted in the ext few days. I have also decided one-shots are the bane of my life because I have another to be posted sometime this weekend or early next week.

Also I should apoligize to Windwalker, I had little scene breaks in the story but I guess they didn't upload properly.

Sharpshooter

Chapter 3

It wasn't one of the mutants. The person's steps were too loud. The stride was off as well. They footfalls were longer, indicating that the person had longer legs and was therefore taller then the terrapins. She continued to act out of the ordinary as the chase continued over the rooftops.

She put on an extra burst of speed so she could clear the gap and scramble up the last few feet to the next rooftop. The roof held a water tower and a shed as well as several large fan units and ventilation shafts. That would be where she would take out her unwanted tag along. Permanently if need be.

She made the jump with ease and pulled herself up the last few feet with the grace and agility of a cat. She stayed low as she went over the roof, casting about the different random hiding places and finally choosing a ventilation cover that's fans weren't going at the moment. She tucked herself down in the shadows and waited.

Sure enough the person followed, having some difficulty when they pulled themselves over the ledge. It was quiet as the person moved about the rooftop looking for her or any sign of her. As he got closer to her hiding place she slipped further back into the shadows and listened for the person. She kept him on the opposite side of the vent cover as she crawled around behind it. When she reached the opposite side of the fan she peeked around and rolled her eyes at who it was.

Casey Jones stood with his back to her looking around to where she had originally had been. He did a quick look over the roof as if expecting her to stand up and wave to him. She remained still as his eyes passed over her several times. Her dark clothing and hair made it hard to see her in the gloom. The fact that she only had one eye peeking out at him didn't help him much.

Finally he stopped scanning the rooftop and mumbled, "Damn." With a sigh he reached for something in his pocket. Artemis watched as he fought with his pant pocket's material for a few moments while it held onto whatever he was reaching for. Finally he pulled it free.

Moving with the stealth of a cat, Artemis crept from her hiding spot and slipped up behind the man. As the cell phone opened in his hand, Artemis came to stand directly behind him. In one swift movement the assassin brought her hand down in one quick motion. Casey grunted as pain erupted in the side of his neck briefly before his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed to the roof.

Artemis stood above him calmly, her hand still in the air from the simple karate chop she had given the man. As she stood there she wondered if the man had seen her at April's store. If he had, he might have guessed that she was planting bugs. She thought about the file that had been given to her by Karai and then dismissed the notion of Casey guessing about the bug planting. According to the Foot, he was a brawler and an exceptional fighter but not much of a genius. Besides, he had been making enough noise following her that she would have heard him well before then.

She sighed and walked away from the prone man. The bonus money was a tempting offer but she just didn't see the point in killing him. He wasn't originally in the contract and he was too much of an easy kill for her. Besides it was late and she was more interested in going to bed then killing someone.

She turned and began to walk away with her arms folded up behind her head. She rolled then twice and was satisfied to hear several pops. "I'm getting to old for this," she mumbled as she approached the edge of the roof. Right before she could jump off the building a startled scream pierced the night air. "CASEY!" She ducked back and plastered herself in the nearest shadow of the tool shed in less then a second. She stayed low and silently pulled one of her T-Bird Fives free. She clicked the safety off and waited.

Seconds later, a pair of twin thumps and a mad scramble of feet sounded on the opposite side of the tool shed. She peeked out around the shed with her gun held at ready and watched as two of her targets fell to their knees beside their friend. The movements were jerky and frantic as they rolled over the human and checked his pulse and vitals. One turtle -the one with his back to her- ripped the hockey mask from his face and roughly grabbed his chin.

"Casey! Casey! God dammit! Wake up you sack of shit! Casey! What the hell happened? Case-" he raised his hand as if to slap the unconscious man but was restraint when a gentle hand caught his wrist.

"Raph," said the turtle that Artemis now identified as Donatello. "He's just unconscious. He should be fine when he wakes up."

She looked over the other turtle and subconsciously tightened her grip on her firearm. Raphael was the last turtle she wanted to get into a close quarters fight with. Without the specialized arm guards that were still in the design stage back at her shop, she knew she would be a pincushion in seconds. According to the reports on him he specialized in close quarters combat.

She must have a made a noise or Raphael was just overly tense because he suddenly jumped up and whirled towards her hiding spot in a blur of motion. He stare evenly at the shed and drew his sais, clutching them so that his fingers rested between the prongs. Artemis stayed still and unmoving, calmly watching the turtle as he started to slowly advance on the shed.

She debated whether or not she should shoot the turtle. The shot would be clean and easy, a simple step around the shed and he would be dead. The problem lay in the other turtle that would no doubt move when his brother's head exploded with the sound of a gun shot. The rooftop that helped her to hide from Casey would then give the advantage to Donatello.

Her eyes briefly flickered from the turtle approaching her to the turtle still kneeling next to Casey so she could try and judging the time window she would have to hit him before he could get to cover. She did a double take when she realized that he wasn't there. She gritted her teeth behind her lips as she looked back to Raphael who was still advancing.

As swiftly and silently as possible she reached into her belt and pulled out the Peacemaker. She knew that Donatello was trying to flank her and because her lack of attention he was most probably almost on top of her by now. She knew that she couldn't give herself away this early in the game. It had been bad enough that one of there allies had seen her. Even if it was only from behind and for a few blocks, the vigilante would no doubt describe it to his buddies.

With it too early to kill and finding herself out flanked, Artemis found herself readying to withdraw. With years of practiced she loaded one of her specialty gas bullets into the empty chamber of the Peacemaker with her free hand. The procedure was relatively quiet but with his full attention on the tool shed, Artemis was sure Raphael heard the soft clicks that the gun produced.

"Alright, whoever you are," the red masked turtle growled. Artemis hated it when she was right. "Come out here where I can see ya." She took a deep breath, tightening her left hand around the Peacemaker, she was going to have to do this fast.

Raphael was just opening his mouth again when he saw a blur of movement and heard a loud crack as someone half leaped out from behind the shed. He didn't get a good look at the figure or even have a chance to say anything as something hit him right in the throat. The projectile was small -maybe about the size of a tootsie roll- but the velocity at which it was traveling made it feel like Hun had just punched him in throat. He grunted in pain but the air was suddenly filled with smoke and instead of oxygen he found himself coughing and gasping trying to drag air into his startled lungs.

Donatello who had been sneaking around to try and out flank whoever had hidden behind the shed just heard Raphael grunt in pain as smoke suddenly exploded from about where he had been on the roof. What had really scared Donnie was a loud crack that came seconds before Raph's grunt and the smoke.

Someone had fired a gun.

He stayed low as possible and went to go around the vent he was hiding behind only to jerk back behind the relative safety of it when the gun went off again. It was fired three times in rapid succession from somewhere near the shed. Panic and worry began to seize him but Don forced himself to stay calm. Hopefully Raph and Casey were all right. He would do no go to them if he was shot.

Even though the smoke clouded his vision he had memorized where the structures were when he had first jumped to this roof. The wild card was the unknown gunman. He could move anywhere at anytime and the flimsy aluminum vent covers offered little protect from any of the bullets.

Slowly and cautiously Don slipped around the vent staying very low and using all his skills in stealth. He took his time as he headed to where Raphael and Casey were listening carefully for any sounds from the gunman. However, all he heard were the hacking coughs his brother was admitting as he tried to clear his airways. Silently Don breathed a sigh of relief that Raphael was still alive and by the sounds of it still breathing.

"Don!?" Raph called between his tortured coughs. As far as he could tell the shoots had been fired towards where Don had been sneaking up on the back of the shed. The well being of his brother became more important to him then his own. He knew that if that gunman had any skill he would be able to target him on the sounds of his voice alone and he didn't give a flying piece of crap. "Where are ya!? Donnie!?"

The smoke had begun to dissipate and Donatello briefly looked around to see where the gunman was. Other then his brother waving his hands around in front of his face to help clear the smoke faster the rooftop was empty. He glanced around at the rooftops nearby but they too were empty. He calmly stood from his hiding place and approached his brother as he tucked his bo staff away. A swift glance towards Casey's prone form showed him to be in the exact position and shape they had first found him.

"Yer alright?" Raph said with a grimace as he rubbed at his sore throat. Talking was obviously bugging him and his voice was more gruff then it usually was.

"Fine. You?" Don said as he watched his brother rub at his throat. He didn't see any blood but by the looks of it Raphael had been hit with something.

"Something hit me," Raph said still rubbing at his throat. He pulled his hand away briefly and looked at his palm to see if he was bleeding.

Donatello glanced down at the ground and looked around for anything out of the ordinary. He noticed next to his foot was a small grayish lump that was completely alien to him. He knelt and lifted the strange object examine it more closely. It reminded him of the instant Pillsbury 'pop and fresh dough' cans that Mikey sometimes used when he wanted to add a quick little something to a meal but didn't want to spend the time to make it from scratch.

"Hey Don. Stop thinking for a second and wake up this goofball so we can figure out what is going on." Raph said as he moved over to Casey. He took a fist full of his shirt and held him up. "Yo Case. Wake up and tell us what the hell is going on."

Don ignored his brother for a moment, tucking the odd shaped cylinder into a small sealable plastic bag he carried around in his belt. He then headed towards the shed and peeked around the back wall to see if anyone was still hiding there, though he doubted it. Sure enough the gunman was gone. Donatello was about to turn back to his brother when he noticed three large holes in the brick shed's wall. Each hole was about size of a cup saucer and was slightly above chest level to him.

"Whatcha looking at?" his brother's scratchy voice came from behind his back as he walked over to see what Donatello was looking at. He regarded the holes in the wall that Donatello was currently sticking his index finger into. "Why'd he shoot the wall?"

Don frowned as he pulled his finger out of the hole. "I'm not sure," he said with a frustrated sigh.

"Then what's you're best guess? I know you got one of those."

"The only reason that I can think of is that the gunman knew I would act more cautious and move about slower if I knew they had a live firearm. You were out of commission from whatever this thing is," Don held up the capsule, "To give them the time to escape he need to slow me down considerably. Since he didn't know were I was he obviously fired off three warning shots."

"So where this guy go?"

"He could've gone anywhere," Don said glancing around at the nearby rooftops. "With the two of us blinded by the smoke and leery of being shot he could've taken off in any direction."

"Peachy. Now what then, Einstein?"

He gave his older brother a withered look, "Casey might know what was going on more then we do. Our best bet is get him somewhere safe –probably April's, it's closer- and wait for him to wake up. Think you can carry him?"

"Why do I have to carry him?"

"Because –as you always have a habit of pointing out- you're stronger."

Raphael was seriously debating wiping that smirk of his brother's face but decided against it. He wasn't sure if that gunman had actually left and the sooner he had Donnie and Casey out of the open he would feel better. He stomped away from Don, who was pulling out his shell cell to give Leo and April a call and let them know what had happened, and grumbled under his breath. He hoisted his human friend up onto his shoulders and let out a mild curse when he saw that his golf bag was still laying on the rooftop.

"-thanks April. We'll be there soon." Don reached passed him and stood the gold bag up, dropping the hockey mask he had retrieved inside it. He slung the bag up over his shoulder as if it was his duffel and he flipped his phone shut. "April is getting the first aid kit and Leo and Mikey are on their way."

"Great," Raph said as he shifted the dead weight around on his shoulders so it rode better. "I told this nitwit to stay inside for the rest of the week. Ya think he would listen to me for once?"

Donatello wisely kept his mouth shut as they headed for April's apartment. Occasionally he would glance over his shoulders or look around at the surrounding rooftops. The gunman was most likely long gone but it paid to be prepared just in case. He didn't want them to become ambushed out in the open like they were but it was faster to get to April's over the rooftops and he was worried Casey had suffered a concussion.

Artemis released as shaky sigh as the two turtles made a beeline for their friend's home. She had been worried that she wouldn't be fast enough to avoid being seen by Raphael before she was able to fire the smoke capsule. Since both of the turtles kept calling her a gunman she could only assume that it had worked.

She drew herself up until she was crouching on the roof of the water tower instead of lying on it with both guns at ready. She could just see the turtles as they bounced over the rooftops back the way she had come from. Their movements were too erratic for her to get off a clear shot as the moved away. She thought she could hear a little voice in her head telling her she should have at least killed one when she had a chance but quickly shook that thought away. She was not ready to try and take any of them in hand to hand combat just yet. It was all she could do to scale the side of the water tower without attracting their attention.

The turtles were no longer in sight. She stood up and slipped her guns away into their respective holsters. Her wrist popped as she pulled her hand away from the Peacemakers holster and she sighed. All she really wanted was to go to bed. She had already had a long night. However the information she could learn at the apartment that night was just too good to pass up so with a suffering sigh she headed back to across town towards the O'Neil residence.