A/N: OH NO!

Raphael didn't come back until the next night, looking tired and bruised. He was followed in by a dark haired man with a white mask on the top of his head, and a golf bag strapped to his back filled with different sporting materials. They were both laughing, even though they both looked exhausted.

"The look on that Dragon's face, buddy. Gold. Pure gold."

"Didn't even know what hit 'em."

Splinter gave me a tap on the cheek with his staff, and my gaze went straight back to the weapon in my hand. "That is Mr. Casey Jones. Don't worry about him for right now. You will make many acquaintances with him. Eyes on your sword." Splinter hadn't been entirely too happy about specializing me in one particular weapon so soon. But after realizing my affinity of finding trouble, and his knowledge of his son's great friendship with it, we all reasoned that it would be beast for me to have some general knowledge.

I had discovered thus far that my aim was fantastic. Throwing stars and knives became my favourite because of my ability to hit my target, and hit it well. But those things couldn't help me all too well in battle; thus I was forced to learn the ways of the katana.

I found it too difficult to use single handed katana like Leo, so I ended up using one singular weapon instead of two. The one in my hand at that moment was a heavy old training sword of Leo's; it was a single handed, but the size difference in our hands compensated for the difference of weapon. I held it in front of me with two hands; my elbows straight and feet planted. I was going through blocking exercises, Splinter walking circles around me and tapping me with his stick to adjust my position.

"Front attack!" I jabbed my right elbow backwards, bringing the sword parallel with the ground, still gripped in both hands. I took a breath and kept my focus just above the line of the blade. Splinter gave my abs a smack. "Forget not about your stomach."

I tightened my hands. "Side from position!" My body pivoted to the left, my hands moving to bring the silver katana diagonal with my body, both hands still gripped tight, my back arching as if the attack was coming from above me. Splinter gave me a shove, causing me to wobble. "Strong body. In multiple attack scenarios, by the Foot for instance, you will not only be facing one sole opponent. Right side!"

I swung around again, my sword throwing outwards, elbows locking, being parallel with the floor again as if I were hitting a baseball bat. Though the work required little movement, the muscle control and concentration had started a small sweat on my brow.

"Hey, who's the chick?" My eyes looked up Casey Jones, but my body did not move. He was looking at me with a smirk on his face that was no wheres near as endearing as Raphael's. That might have also been because I wasn't a fan of his terminology.

"You could ask me yourself." I made a 180 turn when Splinter barked out another attack.

Casey Jones walked right up to us, unlike Raphael who lagged a safe distance away. Though he was a smartass, he was at least respectful. "Sorry toots. Who are you?" His smile was cocky, as was his posture, and I wasn't enjoying it one bit.

Whether accidentally, or to spite the pompous young man, Splinter barked out an order that landed my sword right by Jones' neck, causing him to jump to the side like a startled puppy. "Charlotte Yoshi."

Splinter sighed and waved his hand at me in defeat. "We will resume another time." He nodded at Casey as he walked past. "Mr. Jones."

"Hey, Masta' Splinta'." He smiled, half composing himself for the rat, and then stopped, seeming to realize something. He spun back to me, his eyes wide. "Wait, you don't mean the Master Yoshi guy, the one who trained Splinta'?"

I nodded as I sheathed my sword into the scabbard strapped to my back. "The one and the same." I nodded at Raphael as he came to stand next to Jones, his arms crossed and an amused smile playing at his lips. "Feel better?"

He rubbed a dark spot on his arm, but looked more relaxed then I had ever seen him. "Tons."

I turned to head to the weaponry closet to grab some throwing stars as Jones continued to sputter. "Woah, woah, woah! You can't just leave a guy hangin' like that! How did Yoshi have a daughta'? How did you survive?" His hands were waving around everywhere, as if he was reaching for the answers to his questions instead of asking them.

I heard Jones give a huge yelp of pain, which I imagined came from Raphael giving him a punch on the arm. "Leave her alone, pal."

"Alright, alright! Lay off, lover boy! Hey! OW! Quit punching me, shell-for-brains!"

"Quit asking for it, knuckle-head!" I felt like I was back in the street house as the sounds of wrestling and angry grunts filled the room. I opened the door, grabbed a bag of ten and strapped them to my waist along with a few throwing knives. Closing the door with a sigh, I turned around and picked one up out of the bag, debating on if it was worth it to lodge one in Jones' head to get them both to shut up.

Leo walked past me at the sound of a buzzer coming from the front door. "Trust me, they aren't worth the effort. It would only make them complain louder." I smiled at that and spun the star around in my hand, walking forwards back into the training area.

"Casey Jones! You stop that right now!" April's motherly tone nearly made me comply to her words as well. Jones quit his quarrel and burst to his feet, smoothing out his hair like a proud rooster.

"Hey baby! Long time no see!" He tried to lean against the wall to look cool, but just ended up looking disgruntled and awkward. I turned around, trying to hold my laugher in.

April marched up to him with an angry look on her face. "Where have you been? I haven't heard from you in a week! Are you avoiding me?"

"What? No! Not at all!"

"Why aren't you retouring my calls?"

"I didn't get any calls!"

"Did you check your phone?"

"I lost my phone!"

I had to lean against the wall to keep myself up, tears falling from my eyes. I caught a glimpse of Splinter shaking his head and rolling his eyes as he closed his sanctuary door behind him. I wiped my tears as I pushed myself up, reaching over to grab my sweater and heading to the elevator. I shrugged it on and pulled my hair out of its pony tail, depositing the star back into its bag.

I was just clicking the up button when Raphael slipped into the elevator beside me. "Mind if I join ya? I don't want to be around to witness that." He jabbed his thumb at the quarrelling pair.

I gave him a smile and laughed, bouncing on my toes to keep my bare legs warm. "Sure thing."

When we stepped off the elevator, I regretted wearing spandex shorts in the middle of the fall. I swallowed my complaints and just followed his movements as he climbed up onto the top of the building; him much more gracefully then I.

Once we got on top, my legs were officially numb and I had mostly forgotten about them. He pulled out two targets hiding in a broken down door and set them up, coming back to stand beside me a good thirty feet away from the targets. "So, how good's your aim, sunshine?"

I gave him a shrug. "Don't I get to see what I'm up against first?"

He gave me a boastful smirk and drew one of his sai from his belt. Without a pause, he wound up and flicked it towards the target, landing a perfect bull's-eye. "Wow! Damn, boy, you're good!" He crossed his arms and gave me another smirk, obviously quite proud of himself. I pulled a star out and spun it in my hands. "I'm not that good, I have to say…"

He gave a laugh. "Quit stallin' and throw the damn star, kid."

I smiled and planted my feet, lifting my hand to make eye contact with the bull's-eye. I then wound up before Raph could complain about me taking my time and released the star. My smile grew wider when the star lodged itself in the red middle of the target. It wasn't dead center like his, but it was still very impressive.

Raphael's jaw dropped. "Holy!" His hands went up to his head in disbelief and I crossed my arms, giving him my own boastful smirk. "No way had you learnt how to do that in four days!" He shook his head with a laugh.

I laughed as well and grabbed another star. "No, I wish. I'm no protégée, Raph. I used to use a slingshot when I was a kid. My aim has always been good." I wound up and lodged the second one right next to the first, slightly closer to the middle.

We took turns throwing stars and joking around for a while. He even let me have a try at his sai, which I had a feeling didn't happen to many people. My first shot landed the weapon between the middle and the edge; not my best shot, but not bad. As I prepared for the second one, Raphael gave me pointers, lifting my arm and touching my stomach to remind me of my core like Splinter had. Seemed it was my trouble spot. I was just about to hurl it off when Raphael froze, causing me to catch my breath.

He took the sai from my hand and held it in his, turning so his shell was against my back. I pulled my hood down so I could hear whatever it was that had set him on edge. We slowly turned, creeping towards the target to retrieve his other sai. I didn't dare speak.

Finally, I heard the noise and my head wiped to the left. It was only small, like the sound of a foot shifting on gravel from somewhere far away. I pulled two throwing knives from my bag silently and gripped them in sweaty hands.

"We're being watched." Raphael's voice was so quiet, I could barely hear him.

"We should run. Try to lose them."

I could feel him stiffen. "I ain't no runner, Char."

I swallowed. "Maybe not, but think about how close we are to home. We can't risk that kind of fight, not when you'd be virtually alone."

I could sense the conflict going on inside him. Finally, just when I thought I would have to run off just to get him to come, he turned and booked it to the left, heading off towards the next building. I spun on my heel following him, slipping my knives back into my bag as I prepared myself to jump onto the next building. I swallowed as I realized this was in fact only my second time Roof Running and the only person I had to help me get over buildings was Raphael.

It was a different kind of adrenaline that was pumping me forewords though. The night before, it had been the adrenaline of adventure. This time it was the fear of an unseen pursuer. Or pursuers.

I pushed off with my legs, landing on the next building without much difficulty, pumping my legs faster to keep up with the powerful turtle running in front of me. I jumped and dodged, my chilled legs forgotten and my hair knotting behind me as I ran. I tried to match Raph's foot steps, but I ended up just bumbling behind him. I ended up just trying to keep my path as straight as possible and not fall to my death.

I couldn't help but look behind me once as we landed on a relatively flat roof. What I saw made my heart drop and my legs go faster. I turned back around and tried to catch up to Raphael. "Uh, Raph? We got a bigger problem then anticipated."

"How many?"

I looked back again. "Uh? Twenty? Thirty? I don't fucking know, they're all ninjas!"

Raphael cursed, looking around for some kind of escape. I knew he wanted to just stop and fight, but something was keeping him running. I had a feeling it was my incapability to watch his back. I reached into my pocket as we jumped another roof, looking for my phone before realizing I had left it back in my red sweater. "I don't have my phone. Do you have yours?"

He shook his head and veered to the left. "We're on our own, Char. Think you can make that jump?" He pointed to the next building ahead. "There's no way they can. It could give us a lead against 'em."

I looked at the four story incline with a gap across that looked wider then any building I had jumped yet. "No way in hell!"

"Too bad." He grabbed my wrist and lifted me upwards into the air, causing me to land in his now laced hands. He vaulted me forwards and I screamed, flying through the air, across the darkened path towards the 30 something story building above us. I waved my arms and legs around in the air, desperately trying to make the ledge. I looked down into the darkness and my eyes got wide. I wasn't going to make it. I wasn't going to make it!