So...college is almost done for the semester - YAAAAY! So, I hope you guys like my Shredder (well not "like" per say...just that you think he's authentic and a meanie) also, I'm giving Hun a bit of a personality and a conscience...so I hope you all don't hate me for it :/ anywho, I hope you like this chapter! I only own my OC's and the plotline :)
BTW, there's a poll up on my profile iffin you wanna go vote on who Sloan will end up with - if no one votes, then I'm gonna go my own way with it...which you may not like -.- so...VOTE!
Hun didn't like being called to his master's office. Granted, he'd been there enough that he shouldn't have been on edge; he should be used to it by now. But, he wasn't. He swallowed hard as he knocked on the door, still unsure of just what his master wanted. As he entered, Oroku Saki stood.
"Ah, Hun," the man said. "You're here."
"You wanted ta see me, masta," the leader of the PD's answered. "I came."
"Yes. I wanted to ask you how our little...operation was going. Do we have a nice...variety of products?"
Hun repressed a shudder at the Shredder's tone. The psychopath seemed genuinely happy that he had so many girls to choose from. Hun, playing it safe, put on his best sadistic smile.
"Yessir, masta Shredda."
Saki laughed. "Good." He turned to face the dark window, looking out over the New York city skyline. "Bring me the little one."
"The...the lil' one?" Hun asked. "Uh...which lil' one, sir?"
Saki turned and stared pointedly at the larger man. Under his gaze, Hun tried not to squirm. He was even more nervous now that he knew why Saki had called him in. He wanted the little girl – Emily – that had escaped with her older sister and the turtle freaks not three days prior. He did some quick thinking: tell him she escaped, or make up something instead? He chose the latter.
"She's, uh, not feelin' very good." He decided. "Sick."
Saki's eyes narrowed, and Hun hoped he couldn't tell he was lying.
"Fine. Bring me the older one." He turned his attention back to his window. "She needs to be broken anyway. Since none of your people have been able to do it, I'll do it myself."
Hun clenched his teeth to keep himself from cursing. How could he keep the Shredder from knowing that both the girls he wanted to see had escaped? And not only that, but that the turtle freaks had helped them do it? Again, Hun racked his brains to try and find something to tell his master. When he didn't answer right away, Saki strode up to him and pulled Hun's head down forcefully by his long blond ponytail.
"They ARE here, are they not?" Saki demanded. "Why are you hesitating, Hun?"
There was nothing for it. Hun hoped and prayed that his long-standing faithfulness to his master would save him when he delivered the bad news.
"Uh, see..." Hun began, his voice strained. "...they...that is, both girls...they ain't here no more."
Saki tugged harder on the man's hair, making Hun seriously regret the ponytail in the first place.
"What?"
"They...escaped a few days ago. Them...an' the turtles."
Saki pulled on the ponytail one more time before releasing the hulk of a man. Just when Hun thought he was safe, Saki suddenly jumped and aimed a flying round-house kick at Hun's head. It clipped him in the right temple, making his head spin and sending him back against the wall. Before he could recover, Hun felt Saki grab his shirt and pull his face down to his level, the snarling face of the Japanese man making Hun recoil.
"You had better be glad that you have been so indisposable to my organization in the past. Consider this a warning. Next time, you will not be so lucky."
"Y-yes, masta Shredder."
Saki pushed him back against the wall and strode out of the room, calling for a Foot soldier to get him the surveillance footage of the night the turtles escaped. Hun exhaled shakily and slid down the wall to the floor. He tried not to think about how close he'd come to death.
The Shredder didn't know it, but Hun was secretly glad that the two sisters had escaped. He'd admired the older girl's spirit, and he didn't want to see the younger one separated from her sister. The fact that the turtles were the ones that helped them made him breathe easier; he may not like the turtles, but that didn't mean that they were bad people. Hun was the bad guy in this situation. At least, that was what he had to make everyone believe. He couldn't let them know about his secret, how he'd known the older girl - Sloan - for a long time. He once promised an old friend that he'd watch out for her.
Sloan's father - Jack Millar.
…
The brothers learned many things about their new friends in those first two weeks.
They learned that Emily was a little goof ball, which was probably why she got along so well with Mikey in the first place. Mikey taught her all his practical jokes and tricks, but luckily Sloan kept her younger sister out of trouble. She and Don took turns going over letters with her. Sloan had talked to them about teaching her Japanese, but before she could learn kanji, she had to learn English letters. Emily got along with all of them, even Raphael. After that first night where he'd read her The Cat in the Hat, she crawled into his lap and had him read her a different story before bed each night. Her favorites were The Foot Book and As The Whales Go By (because they were the longest Dr. Seuss books they had).
April and Casey both adored the little girl. Emily and Casey "wrestled" a lot, which somehow always ended with Emily sitting on Casey's stomach looking smug and Casey acting like she'd knocked him out. Whenever April was around during her lessons, she'd also help Emily with her letters. She'd brought down a book from her shop that was specifically designed to help young children learn their letters and words. It was called 'Letter Land' and each letter had a name. It was Emily's second-favorite book.
Although a lot of time was spent around Emily, the brothers took to watching Sloan as well. Through this simple act, they learned many more things about her as well. Once her sleeping patterns evened out, she was always one of the first ones up after Leonardo. He'd come into the kitchen after his solitary workout and meditation to find her already brewing both his and Master Splinter's tea and Donnie's coffee, cooking breakfast, and making herself her special cup of herbal tea with lemon and honey. Every morning was the same, save for the breakfast being cooked. Leo would always walk in and nod in her direction, and she'd greet him with a "good morning" of her own. She'd always smile, and he would always notice the dark circles under her eyes. He never commented on them, as she acted like nothing was wrong. So, he didn't see any reason to mention them.
Mikey enjoyed the fact that they had another cook living with them, as he no longer had to get up as early to cook breakfast. He took advantage of his time to sleep in...at least until one of his brothers came to wake him up for morning workouts and katas. He'd noticed Sloan watching them on numerous occasions, usually when they were working on particularly hard maneuvers and things that he could never get right the first time. And his older brothers always showed him up by either doing it better or faster than him, which only succeeded in making him more upset. He wanted to show off for Sloan. He really liked her – she always treated him fairly and listened to what he had to say. Where his brothers would dismiss his theories on comic books and TV shows as silly fantastical stuff, Sloan would always listen and provide her own theories and ideas. She always seemed to be genuinely interested in his imaginings.
Once things were straightened out between them, Raphael found that Sloan was actually pretty cool. She didn't mind his occasional use of language, even though she did ask him to curb it when Emily was around. She laughed at his coarser jokes and even participated in a few "that's what she said" quips of her own. He already knew she was tough, but he had the great fortune to actually catch her displaying her softer side one morning. While Leo was still meditating, Raph had decided to get up early and help Sloan with breakfast. She deserved it. Upon descending the stairs, Raph had distinctly heard a girl's singing voice coming from the kitchen. He'd sneaked up to the doorway, not wanting to scare Sloan into stopping. He'd heard her sing before, that one time in the cell, but this was different. She wasn't singing to calm her sister, and her voice was stronger than it had been that first time. Raphael hadn't recognized the song, but that hadn't mattered to him. He'd simply stood there, enjoying Sloan's clear voice.
"Something has changed within me, something is not the same.
I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game.
Too late for second guessing, too late to go back to sleep.
It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap.
It's time to try defying gravity, I think I'll try defying gravity.
Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity, and you won't bring me down."
Donatello found himself watching Sloan more and more. He watched her interactions with Emily, amazed at how she seemed to be able to be a sister and a mother at the same time. He marveled at her patience with Mikey and her respect for Master Splinter. He noticed that she was finally putting on weight, which was good. He'd been worried for a while that something worse than malnutrition was keeping her skinny. After the first couple of days, in which Sloan had had to take it easy on the food, she'd attacked almost every meal with fervor. Donnie quickly found out that her metabolism was almost as fast as Mikey's – Sloan could eat a half of a pizza on her own in one sitting, and not gain any weight. She'd explained it to him once, telling him that she'd been both an athlete and a dancer before her parents had died.
Don could see it, too. She frequently went barefoot and wore shorts in the lair, and he noticed her well-developed calf and ankle muscles, not to mention her arms and core. She was working out a little. Day by day, she increased in what she did and her intensity with which she did it. Donatello monitored her closely, not allowing her to push herself too hard. She was still recovering, after all.
Unfortunately, all the food and workouts in the world couldn't help Sloan at night. A few times, she'd actually woken up screaming because of her nightmares. The first time it happened, Mikey had been the only brother in the lair. Emily, unlike a normal four-year-old, was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow, and it was hard to wake her back up. Splinter had taken the three eldest brothers topside for a supply run, leaving Sloan and Mikey in charge. It had been three in the morning, and Mike had literally jumped out of bed before he was fully awake, rushing up the stairs to Sloan's room. He threw the door open and, upon seeing her thrashing around in her blankets, crossed the room and took her wrists in his hands.
"Sloan," he said. "Hey, dudette, wake up. It's just a bad dream."
She'd jolted awake, cold sweat making her shirt stick to her. She shivered and sat up, not acknowledging Mikey.
"You okay?" he asked after a while.
Sloan swallowed and nodded. "Just a bad dream, like you said." Her voice came out strained.
"Yeah, I get those sometimes too. Normally after I see a scary movie or something. This one time, I dreamed the wolf man was commanding a horde of zombie Foot ninjas, and they were all coming after me! They were kinda pathetic, seeing as they could only move, like, really slow. But, still, I was terrified!" Mikey went on animatedly, using his hands to tell the story. "Even though the dream was scary, when I woke up I wasn't scared anymore 'cause it wasn't real."
Sloan sighed, pulling her legs up to her chest and hugging her knees. "That's great, Mike. But..." She paused. "That only works when the nightmares are just that – dreams."
Mikey looked at her, confused. "But, aren't all nightmares dreams?"
Sloan shook her head. "Mine are memories."
I hope I provided enough insight in this chapter...it seems like its just paragraph after paragraph after...well, y'know. Reviews are always welcome! :D