Note: I do not own any of, or anyone related to the Turtles. They're Mirage Studio's property, not mine. I am getting no money whatsoever for writing this story, so please don't sue me! Kapeesh?



Chapter 4



As they rounded the last corner, Leonardo motioned them all to stick to the shadows as he went to investigate. The small building was dark, but the stale smell of cigarette smoke still lingered in the air. Sneaking around to the front of the bar, he was surprised to see that no one was around. A bright, neon sign reading the word 'closed' hung on the window, the only light emitting from the room. He crept back to the others' hiding spot signaling to come forward. "You sure this is the place? It looks pretty closed up to me."

"Of course I'm sure," Jazz whispered back harshly. "Look, lets just go check around, if no one's there, it shouldn't matter, right?" She walked up to the door and yanked on the handle to find it locked. Digging through her jeans, she found a small pocketknife and began messing with the lock, not worried about being in plain view of anyone who passed. She kicked the wood and threw down her knife when her attempts failed. "Damn door."

A figure in a hat and trench coat came behind her, gently pushing her out of the way. Raphael grinned when the lock gave off a satisfying click, and twirled his sai in the air before replacing it in his belt. Jasmine pushed passed him into the space, nearly tripping over a chair, the others following close behind. The turtles cringed when her voice echoed through the silent room. "Chad! Parker! You back there?" To the turtles' relief, there was no reply.

"Keep it down, will ya? We don't exactly want to attract the whole neighborhood," Raph said, exploring their surroundings.

"This is just great." The phrase lacked enthusiasm. She began searching for something behind the counter while the rest of the group scanned the room for any clues to the situation.

"Any where else they might have gone to?" Donatello asked, turning back to the girl.

After having found what she was looking for, Jazz came back up and took a seat at the barstool. "Not that I know of; our back up plan has always started with meeting up here." She fiddled with the top of her beer bottle until the cap popped off.

Michaelangelo lifted a sweater from a seat near a pool table in the back and tossed it to Leo. "Looks like someone has been here not too long ago." His brother nodded, examining a broken bottle around which the floor still had traces of liquid showing. Obviously, no one had bothered to clean it before their departure.

"It doesn't make sense, though. Even if they hadn't come back here, Parker would still have been around. He never closes shop this early; usually, he doesn't close until dawn, then opens back up around eight." She took a long swallow and set the drink aside, noticing everyone's eyes were on her. "What?"

"Got any more of those?" Raphael asked, indicating the beer.

"Raph." Leo warned before turning his attention back to the girl; she couldn't be older than eighteen. "Aren't you under age?"

She shrugged. "Seventeen; so what? You're not gonna stop me, are you?" The two stared each other down for a moment before dropping the gaze.

"Anyways, it's none of your business what I do."

"If you're staying with us it is, and from the looks of things, that's the way it's going to go." From the tone in his voice, she felt it wouldn't be wise to contradict him.

The uncomfortable moment was broken by Donatello's voice. "Hey guys, what's this?" He pointed towards a small sheet of torn paper lying on the countertop, not far from Jasmine's seat. She grabbed it up and unfolded it, studying the writing without understanding the words. "What does it say?"

"It's got some sort of weird symbol on the bottom," she responded, deliberately avoiding the question. The turtle reached for it and she handed it to him, waiting for the translation.

"Strange..." he looked from the sheet to the girl before continuing, while the others looked to him expectantly. "It's from the Foot…"

Before he could go on, Jazz interrupted, "What did they do to them?"

He studied her carefully again. His brothers just stood, confused. "According to this, the Foot didn't do anything to your gangster friends; it seems more like they're allied." That comment brought their eyes to her like a magnet. Leonardo urged him to read it aloud. "It says—at least what's left of it—'bring the merchandise by ten and we will negotiate'; signed the Foot."

"Care to explain?" The leader's eyes searched her for a reaction as the note was passed on.

"I don't know anything about this," her voice was cold as she emphasized every word, still failing to subdue their accusing glares. "I wasn't here today, in case you forgot."

"Yeah and there doesn't appear to be a date on the paper either," Raphael shot back, glancing over Donnie's shoulder.

"I've never seen that paper before. I don't know what the hell this is about!" Her nerves were starting to wear very thin.

"Seems to me you don't know much for having been in this gang, for what? Four years?"

"It's ten years and that has nothing to do with this." He was about to counter her, but she prevented it. "What, you think this is a trap or something? Well if it was, don't you think that someone would actually be here right now? Hell, it's not like I can take you out by myself, but if that's what you want, then bring it on!" She didn't flinch as the point of a katana was held dangerously close to her neck.

"I don't think you want to try that," was the only reply.

"Hey, Leo, chill man." Mikey grabbed his brother's wrist, pulling the katana away from Jazz. "She's said plenty of times that she has no clue what it's about, don't you think she might be telling the truth?"

Leonardo turned to see his brother's worried face. God, what am I doing? He thought, re-sheathing his sword. He had no right to threaten this girl; she was not armed and as suspicious as it seemed that she knew nothing of her gang's involvement with the Foot clan, he could still tell that she was honest in her unawareness. What' s gotten into me! He was still unable to remove the rough tone from his voice as he spoke. "Let's go." When his brothers had followed him out into the streets, he looked back to see that Jazz had not left her position on the stool and was watching them leave. Leo could tell it would be a long time before she forgave him, or even tried to understand his point, but he also knew that the feeling would be mutual. Raphael was already out of sight, and his brother was not sure whether he would even return home until morning. Michaelangelo and Donatello waited patiently in the nearest patch of shadow for their brother to follow. The turtle let out a loud sigh and faced the girl. "You coming?" She sat for a while, staring back at him, her face devoid of all emotion, until she jumped down from her seat and marched past him out of the bar.

Jasmine followed them wordlessly. What was there to say? She couldn't think of why she had decided to go back; they had just threatened her life. At last, she came to the conclusion that she was, finally, losing it. After all, what sane person would give up a relatively normal life to hang out with a bunch of oversized reptiles? Normal. She laughed at the thought. Who was she kidding; she realized that she couldn't think of anything in her life that came close to being normal. Deep down, she hoped she was making the right decision. Descending into the sewers, she prepared herself for the stench that was sure to come. The sound of her feet trudging through the tunnels was the only thing heard. Even in their home environment, the ninja's still followed the rules of silence, if not invisibility. As it was, Jazz could hardly see two feet in front of her. And she thought she lived in the pits! She made sure not to lose sight of them as they switched tunnels once again. It was no wonder why they had chosen this spot in which to live; no one would ever find them. She lost count of the number of turns they took a long while ago but when the strong odor began to fade she knew they were approaching their destination. The door was well hidden, camouflaged with the shadows that surrounded it. Jasmine squinted on instinct as the light from inside the den seeped out into the darkness of the passage.

The sound of his sons' entrance brought their master from his meditation chamber. When he stepped into the main area of the lair he was surprised, though it did not show, to find Jasmine closing the door behind her. He could not help but notice that she seemed to be keeping her distance from Leonardo, as well as he from her. After returning his sons' greetings, the rat turned to face his eldest student who approached him to report the outing. At the mention of the girl's name, he turned to glance towards her, but when their eyes met, she was quick to turn on her heals and follow Michaelangelo into the kitchen, located off the main room.

The sight of food made her stomach grumble, reminding her of how long ago it had been since she last ate. The beer she had consumed earlier didn't help the matter, making her somewhat faint. Normally, she could have handled a few without even showing it, but the alcohol didn't hold well in an empty stomach. The turtle pulled out a bag of chips and smirked, "You hungry? Your stomach sounds like an earthquake's going on in there!" Jasmine made an attempt to catch the bag as he tossed it to her, but she had forgotten about her injury and dropped her arm, doing her best to mask the pain as the chips cluttered to the floor.

"Sorry…" she mumbled, kneeling down next to Michaelangelo to pick up the scattered mess. This had not been a good day.

"No prob," the turtle dismissed it without a second thought, pulling another bag of snacks from somewhere in the vicinity. Jasmine pushed herself back to her feet, munching on the few potato chips that had remained in the sack. "Hey, you wanna watch some tv?" She looked up at Mike who made a gesture toward the couch. Following his gaze, she could see Splinter eying the note the group had discovered earlier while Leonardo stood close by, his attention shifting from his master to the kitchen. Jazz noticed this, and although she would be grateful for something to do, she didn't wish to put herself in a situation that could snap her fuse, and shook her head. "Well," he continued, "Don-san is in his lab if you want to join him."

The girl gave a short laugh, "I'd fall asleep in a second!" She hadn't been around computers too frequently in her lifetime, but they had never interested her in the least.

Mikey smiled. "Yeah, me too. So what? You tired now? You won't get much rest over where I'm heading, but we probably won't be going to bed for another few hours if you want to hole up in the back." Jazz thought about this for a minute. She wasn't tired at all, but it would get her away from the others and the time alone wouldn't hurt to think things through. Mike took her glance to the passage as a 'yes' and pulled her towards it. "Come on, I'll show ya; you can use my bed."

Walking into the room, he pulled on a cord hanging from the ceiling, illuminating the room with a dim glow. What she had thought was another corridor turned out to be two adjacent subway cars filled with the turtles' miscellaneous possessions. "This is it; Leo and Raph sleep in the next room. If you need anything, just holler." With that he was gone, leaving her to make herself comfortable on the bed she guessed was his. Guessing probably wasn't the right word; there was an obvious line between tidiness and chaos making it easy to tell which side of the room belonged to whom. She headed to the small futon that was surrounded with piles of comic books and magazines as well as a few cd's. The rest of the room was neatly arranged with books stacked near the well-made bed. After a few minutes of eyeing the various posters and gadgets around the room, Jazz turned to study the small collection of comics on the floor. Not many of them caught her interest but she picked some of them up and sifted through the pictures to pass the time. Her eyes hardly budged from the page when she heard the front door slam, soon followed with someone rummaging through the other car. She pretended not to notice when Raphael stormed into the room and eyed her menacingly before starting to shuffle through the pile next to Mikey's futon until he came up with a magazine that she had not noticed and tucked it into his trench coat before she could tell what was so important about it. Quickly replacing a fedora onto his head, he began his way back towards the entrance that led to the rest of the sewers.

His master's voice calling his name prevented him from going any further. Hiding his impatience, Raphael turned to face his teacher who motioned for him to step back inside. "My son, you must understand that it is much more dangerous under the current circumstances to venture out into the city…" the turtle opened his mouth to speak but the rat shushed him, "…we do not yet know the purpose of the Foot's sudden return and it would be best to keep low until we find the cause." Jasmine listened closely, leaning on the old subway car's doorframe.

"Look, Master; Casey asked me to get some of his stuff back to him and he's waiting for me topside." He paused briefly, awaiting Splinter's approval. "I did this all the time before the Foot disappeared; what's so different now?"

Splinter studied his son; he knew it was unfair for him to be kept underground, yet something about the situation disturbed the old rat. There had been times before where he wished he would have trusted his instincts, but thinking it through, he knew that they would never be capable of shining light on these events without leaving the lair. He heaved a sigh before yielding to his student. "You may go, but be sure to return before dawn." Raphael once again began to leave but was interrupted as Jasmine spoke up, drawing his attention.

"If you're going up, then I am too."

Raphael wouldn't even consider it and turned to her both irritated and angry; he had already been delayed. "You had your chance to stay up there and you chose against it."

"What was I supposed to do? Just sit there and hope somebody showed up? I'm not stupid enough to stay out alone in that part of town."

He didn't waste a beat to shoot back. "Yeah, well you are dumb enough to get involved with the street gangs, nearly get yourself killed, have us save your butt and then act like we owe ya something. All you've done is given us more trouble than we already had."

"Maybe you should stay out of other people's business if you don't like the results. It's your own damn fault for getting into this; I didn't ask you to march in and save me. I would have been fine if you had just left me alone! I've gotten through a whole lot worse. And if you think I'm so much trouble, then why don't you just let me go up and leave?!"

"Let you tell the rest of the Foot where we are so they can chase us out? Listen, bitch, I've already had to go through that once and I'm not about to let it happen again!"

Splinter would not let this go any further. The girl was a guest in their home, and until any hard evidence turned up against her, she would be treated that way. "That is enough!" He raised his voice, breaking the argument, but the relentless glare between the two refused to subside. "Raphael, Jasmine will accompany you to the surface if you wish to go." The turtle faced his master, disbelieving what he had heard.

The stern, set look told him it was better not to argue, but he didn't bother concealing his displeasure. "It will be safer for both of you this way." Raphael watched Splinter, wanting to walk away from him, but knowing better to do so.

"Safer? She's linked with the Foot! The safest thing would be to keep her down here on constant watch."

"You will be keeping an eye on her and if she starts making trouble, I'm sure you will manage to handle it." The rat made a small smile; he knew he had won. One thing Raphael could not bear was the thought of being beaten by a girl and he would do anything to prove he was he wasn't afraid it would happen, especially not when she was already partially disabled. The turtle spared a quick glance at the girl before reluctantly bowing to his master.

"Let's go." He finally made his way out the door, and walked away at a quick pace, not pausing to see if Jazz had followed.

****

Parker impatiently checked his watch, skimming his eyes over the cramped alley. He threw his cigarette bud down and smeared it into the pavement, all the while keeping a sharp eye on the strong briefcase that rested in Chad's grip, handcuffed to his wrist for security. "You sure this is the place? They should have been here by now." The other man nodded and surveyed the guard during the next few minutes of silence. The open end of the side street was kept watch on by two of the gang's better fighters while a force of ten others was patrolling the surrounding rooftops. Chad had left the remaining member, Allison Ming, to the post of signaling between them all, knowing that she would never be one to turn her back on friend or team.

"They might be watching without your knowin' it. If you keep looking around like that, our back-up won't be of much use any more!" Parker cautioned, noticing the leader's eyes darting from post to post. Chad heeded his warning, instead fixing his eyes on the darkest spot in the area as if waiting for something to pounce.

"I don't trust them." His voice was harsh but soft, allowing it to reach only the dealer's ears.

"They aren't the type to go back on their word. They have some strange thing about 'honor'; I've heard that some of 'em actually do themselves in for losing it." Chad took a quick glance at his partner, not taking the statement seriously. Parker didn't seem to notice and fumbled for a new cigarette, making certain to cover the flame from his lighter while holding it up. After exhaling a mouthful of smoke, he broke the silence. "Let me see the note; there's gotta be something we didn't get right." He watched as the boy dug through his pockets with his free hand, coming up with half of a wrinkled sheet and handed it off. "This is definitely the place…" he reread the sheet carefully, turning it over, searching for information that seemed to be missing. "The time's not written on here; where's the rest of it?"

Chad searched his pockets again but this time came up with nothing. "Damn, I must've left it at the bar…I'm sure it said to be here by ten."

Parker heaved out a sigh of frustration at the younger man. "You better start doing things professionally if you want to keep working through me! Look, it's 10:27; they would have been here by now. If you hadn't ripped the thing, then we might have known were to be and gotten her back by now! We have no way of knowing what they've done to her, or if she's even alive."

"Whatever they did, she probably deserved it, but we already lost Cam and we can't afford to lose Jazz too. After all, I still owe her a pay back for last night."

His partner didn't have time to reply as the faint but distinct sound of a cat's meow was heard from the small fire escape above them. Both men counted a pause of twelve seconds before the cry came again. "Trouble on the roof." Glancing up, he noticed a figure glide to the top of the building.

"Right, lets head up and meet Allie. She can signal the front guard while we check things out." Chad started up the escape ladder holding the briefcase closely to his chest, as the barman made sure the way remained clear from the bottom. When both had reached the top, they followed a third cry into a shaded corner. Although the dimness concealed most of her features, Chad caught a glimpse of tan skin and moved towards it until he was staring directly into a pair of bright green eyes he knew belonged to Allie. "What's up?"

She pushed a strand of her short, hazel hair from her forehead and observed the rest of the rooftop, her eyes stopping on the group of ten, not far away in a separate patch of shadow. "There's no real trouble yet, but while I was heading back this way, I noticed someone slip into the building across the street."

"That could have been anybody!"

"I don't think so. For one thing, he stayed so close to the shadows that I didn't even see him 'til he was going through the door."

"So what's tha—" she cut him off, her voice overriding his.

"Listen! The thing is, he was wearing a tight black suit! Now who does that remind you of?"

The image in his mind finally made him jump to attention. "It's got to be them. Do you have any idea what they were up to?"

"I told you, I only saw him for half a second; how am—" Parker, who had turned to check on the other part of the group, broke in, his voice becoming suddenly urgent.

"Uh, Chad… I think you're about to find out."