I do not own the TMNT
Chapter Ten: Interesting Happenings
Travis sniffed and wiped his eyes on his sleeve and his nose on the knees of his pants. He could almost hear Sam acting all girly about how gross that was and telling him to use a tissue.
Something cut through the air above Travis's head, the sound was kind of like when he swung a ruler through the air but there was a sort of a ring to the noise. He looked up and then down either side of the hallway. It was just as empty as it had been when he had come out here, but Travis was sure he'd heard something.
He tucked the disk back into his jacket before he stood up and tried to decide which way to go; toward where the sound had come from, or to where it had gone?
"Come on kid, over here." Donnie urged.
"Come on kid, Uncle Mikey wants to say hi!" Mikey whispered. They waited anxiously to see what the kid would do.
"Don't think you're off the hook, Mikey. When Leo finds out some kid heard your shuriken you'll be practicing for hours." Donnie reminded him. Mikey groaned.
The boy looked in the turtles' direction. "And now you're letting the kid hear you." Donnie muttered as they beat a hasty retreat.
"Hey, at least he's not heading for the Foot ninja." Mikey replied as they both hit the stairs.
"Come on, we've got work to do."
"Hold still."
Sam watched curiously as April wrapped something around her arm and tied it into place. She looked closer at the soft, cream colored material. "What's this, an arm skirt?"
April chuckled and tied another piece to the younger girl's other arm. "They were sleeves to an antique dress. A customer bought the dress but didn't want the separate sleeves."
When Sam had learned that April owned and managed her own antiques shop, Sam had rapidly warmed up to the woman while talking business. Business had eventually turned to girl talk, which gave April the idea of playing 'dress up' with Sam so the girl wasn't quite so naked. Sam seemed to be enjoying herself, but April found it odd that the girl kept her back -and shell- turned firmly toward the shop's antique, full-length mirror. Was she avoiding her reflection? How long had that been going on? She wanted to ask out of concern, but their gently budding friendship was probably still too delicate for something like that.
When April was done adjusting and fiddling she stepped back to admire her work. The sleeves fell just past the crook of her elbow and the creamy yellow color matched nicely next to the shell over Sam's chest and stomach. April thought it looked pretty good. "Thank you." Sam said. "But I'm still confused about the belt."
April chuckled, "No pants, no pockets. You can use the belt to hold stuff."
"Right. I get it." Sam didn't quite. In addition to the sleeve-skirts and plain leather belt, Sam now wore practical, sturdy leather sandals and finger-less leather gloves to protect her hands and feet. Sam looked down at her bare, green legs. Unfortunately, the shell still left a lot to be desired in the way of clothing options. At least the important stuff was basically covered. Maybe it wasn't modest, but now she felt less nude.
April watched Samantha's hair fall in front of her face when the girl looked down. She retrieved a green ribbon from a box of scraps and notions, then tied Sam's thick hair back into a simple tail. "There." April noted with satisfaction.
Sam looked up, one hand hovering over her hair. "April, thank you. I don't know how I can repay you..."
The red-head smiled, selecting a couple more ribbons. "Forget about it. I don't spend enough time with other girls, so consider us even. Now, do you want to hear more about the store?"
Receiving an enthusiastic response from Samantha, April expounded on the various details of keeping her dad's old place running. April enjoyed talking about the store to someone who appreciated the business side for a change. Normally all the guys cared about was whether the place was secure and if April knew how to protect herself from 'suspicious characters.' They were giggling over the perils of decimal points and ink blots when Samantha stiffened, her dark skin going pale.
"Sam, what is ih…" April stopped when she herself heard it; a familiar whine and clank. They both looked around, trying to find a weapon and trace where the sound was coming from when a loud crunch announced that a mouser was chewing through the front door, fast.
April grabbed Sam's hand, "Come on." The two girls hurried from the store, heading for the back door. No sooner had April opened the door than Samantha gave a screech and jumped forward, slamming the door shut again before the mousers could get inside. "Upstairs!" April ordered, pushing Sam ahead of her. April pulled out her cell phone and hit speed dial as they climbed. "Pick up, pick up…"
They made it into April's apartment. Sam closed and locked the door. "Pick up, pick up.." April chanted, "Pick- Casey! It's April! Mousers are breaking into my store!... Mousers… They're little robots that eat things… Yes those! Hurry!" April hung up and grabbed a bat that Casey had given her for emergencies. Stuffing her phone back in her pocket, she grabbed Sam's wrist and guided the girl to the window by the fire escape.
"I don't understand it." April muttered as they pushed the window open, "The mousers were never designed to leave the sewers." Sam gave April a strange look before they climbed out onto the fire escape.
"Designed? How do you know what those things were designed for?" Sam asked.
"I, that is… now's not the time, I'll explain later." April slammed the window shut just as the metal monsters could be heard outside the apartment. Sam shot her a strange look, but started down the ladder of the fire escape. Before she reached the ground, she was climbing again.
"Wrong way!" Sam shouted, hurrying back up the fire escape towards April. Now, April heard the familiar noises of the mousers below them and couldn't suppress a squeak of worry when one of them jumped into sight and bit into a rung of the ladder at Sam's waist. She helped Sam back onto the second level of the fire escape before the two quickly climbed further up, but the only place left to go was the roof. They followed the rungs up over the ledge and looked around for an alternate route of escape.
"The guys sometimes get to my place by jumping rooftop to rooftop." April suggested.
Samantha looked at the buildings surrounding the Second Time Around shop. They were all either at least an entire story taller than the building they now stood on, or across the street. "I couldn't even get onto this roof from those, much less off this one!" Sam shook her head, both denying April's vague plan and dispelling the growing feeling of being trapped.
"Then… there has got to be a solution!" April insisted, her eyes analyzing every inch of the rooftop and the buildings around them. They moved away from the edge of the building as April tried to come up with a plan. Suddenly the roof seemed to sag under Sam's feet and she jumped aside just as a hole opened in the roof and two mousers crawled out.
Samantha scrambled away from the robots as they came towards her. April ran around the hole and the mousers to get between them and Sam. She swung her bat menacingly and the mousers seemed to pause to process this possible threat. Taking advantage of their momentary hesitation April helped Sam to her feet. "Stay back." April warned the younger girl, holding out one arm protectively. Even as April swung the bat once again to knock the robots aside two more crawled through the hole and three more came over the edge of the roof from the fire escape.
As the red-head tried to ward off the mousers Sam's mind was racing. All April could do to the things was knock them aside; something like what Sam had done when the things first came after her in the lab and like what Master Splinter had done when the robots attacked them in the sewers.
No, not them, her. The robots had basically ignored the rat as they chaced after Sam, just as they had ignored April when the girls were on opposite sides of the hole in the roof only moments before. Sooner or later the girls were going to run out of roof backing away from these things and they weren't even after April. The mousers were only interested in Sam.
By the time Sam had come to this conclusion the back of her foot nudged the ledge of the roof. Sam looked down at the alley behind them -fifteen feet wasn't far, they might be able to drop down without injury- but two more mousers waited below them. One looked like it was trying to get it's feet on the wall to climb it, could they do that? April stood less than two feet in front of Samantha warding off the robots that had grown to somewhere around ten in number. With a grimace, but determined, Sam stepped up onto the ledge and slid along it until she was out from behind April. As predicted, the mousers soon stopped attacking April and turned towards Sam.
When the robots paused and started moving to April's side she blinked and looked to where they were now headed. "SAM! What are you doing?"
"Mousers, I get it now. Looks like I'm the rat." Sam hurried along the ledge, the mousers following her like greyhounds chasing the rabbit.
"Samantha!" Sam ignored April as she ran back to the fire escape and disappeared over the edge, followed closely by the mousers. April ran to that side of the roof and stared over the edge for several nerve wracking moments before she saw Sam jump off the fire escape and down into the alley below, rolling to break her fall. Two mousers followed the girl and April was forced to watch helplessly as Sam fled the alley and ran into the streets.
April reached for her cell phone and hit speed dial again. "Casey if you're stuck in traffic I'll personally castrate you!" April growled as the phone rang.
Donatello and Michelangelo rejoined Leonardo and Raphael on the roof. "There's an empty apartment on the second floor, they pried off the window bars and some of the little guys were slipping through the window. I put an extra lock on it, but we'll have some more work to do tomorrow."
"Okay, can you do something about this door, tonight?" Leo asked, blocking a vigorous attack from a ninja welding an ono.
"Can you buy me twenty minutes?"
Raph snorted. "You kidding? I'm still waiting to break a sweat."
Leo crossed his blades, catching the ono, and with a sharp movement sent the enemy ninja's weapon flying. The unarmed Foot sunk back into the crowd behind him before Leo could strike him down. "Great, then you get the next guy with an ax." Leo grumbled to Raph, his brother laughed. Unaware that the other three had been ignoring his steady stream of banter, Mikey mistook Raph's laugh and beamed.
"Okay, Don, you got twenty minutes." Leo said. Donnie nodded and stepped out of their formation. The remaining turtles adapted their formation to give Donnie room to work as he dug into his duffle back for the tools he'd need.
The leather sandals slid on loose gravel and dirt as Sam turned another corner and fled down the street. Behind her, the sounds of the mousers had faded but Sam wasn't about to slow down and let them catch up. She wasn't sure what she was going to do but she knew that she needed to do it before the stitch in her side got much worse.
Sam rounded another corner and skidded to a halt when she saw a couple embracing under a streetlamp. Upon hearing Sam's sudden stop the woman glanced over at Sam. For a moment she held her nervous, guarded expression. Then it twisted into a look that Sam wasn't likely to forget. The woman clutched at the man next to her before letting out a short scream. He looked to see what had caused his companion such distress and gasped at what he saw. He pulled the woman behind him and reached for something in his pocket.
All this took place in the time span of a breath before Sam could backtrack and run in a different direction. She sprinted down the street and into an alley where she ducked behind a noxious smelling dumpster. Her breath came in short, painful gasps that tore at the sore muscles in Sam's chest and side. The shell felt as if it were trying to squeeze the air out of her. As hard as it was to catch her breath from all the running she had just done her body's effort to begin sobbing weren't making things any easier.
Sam choked and coughed before she managed to gasp "stupid!" Samantha tore off one of the gloves April had given her and ground the palm of that hand into her eyes. The ghost image of the two humans' reactions to her appearance loomed in front of her.
Shock, horror, fear… revulsion.
Samantha had disgusted them. Like some slimy creature that had crawled out of the deepest, dirtiest tunnels of the sewers and dared to walk their streets.
And it was true. Sam had spent at least a week living in tunnels designed to carry these peoples' refuse away from them. She was covered in sweat and she was a mutant freak thing.
"S-stupid." Sam gasped with a little less venom this time. The tightness in her throat and the emotional weight in her gut didn't ease even as her breathing started to slow. She was tired both physically and mentally. Right now, she just wanted to crawl under a heavy blanket and forget everything for a few hours.
Another scream echoed down the street and into the alley. Sam's eyes shot open and she stiffened. Soon her ears were met with the mechanical squeaks and whines of the robots that had chased her out here in the first place. She looked around for a route of escape but realized that she had trapped herself in a dead-end alley without even a fire escape. Sam scrunched hopelessly back into the corner between the wall and the dumpster. The mousers came closer and Sam curled up tighter; whispering a silent Hail Mary. The first one came around the dumpster's corner, almost peaking at her before it stepped out further, screeched, and leaped at her. With a screech of her own Sam flung an arm out and barely clipped the thing, knocking it off course so that it clanked into the dumpster beside her. Samantha scooted away before it could right itself and crawled back from the mouser as fast as she could.
This only led her further into the alley and in view of several more of the little robots. Faced with these evil monsters and without any way to defend herself Sam held up her arms so they covered her eyes and waited for the tearing to start. The mousers screeched, several at once and without looking Sam could picture them leaping at her.
"GOONGALA!"
Something crunched and Sam peeked between her arms to see a giant swinging a large baseball bat in each hand and laughing as he struck the mousers. Several were already lying around the alley in various stages of damage. The man even gave the bats a stylish spin before crushing two mousers at once –one with each bat. It was beyond Sam's comprehension how he was managing this in the first place much less having fun doing it.
But his victories weren't without some losses. Beside him lay a hockey stick mangled nearly beyond recognition and even as Sam watched the man was forced to drop the bats in his hands and reach into the bag on his back to withdraw a golf club. "Four!" He shouted before knocking one of the mousers clean out of the alley. The man brought the club down on another robot and the handle bent at a sharp angle without leaving a dent on the mouser. "Eh, this is why I don't love golf." He said, again reaching behind his back to grab more sporting equipment out of the golf bag on his back.
He withdrew a cricket bat from the bag and, even from behind, Sam could see him wince. Apparently, the bat was his last line of defense as the bag now appeared to be empty. One of the mousers caught the bat in its jaws and splintered the wood while the rest of the functioning robots advanced.
"Halftime?" The man asked. Two of the mousers jumped at him and he swung the bag off his shoulders, hitting both robots. He reached back and for the first time Sam saw the hockey mask that he wore before he grabbed her wrist and easily pulled her to her feet. "We gotta run!" He told her before half dragging Sam from the alley.
The man continued to pull her down the street as Sam looked back and counted at least five more mousers still chasing them … her. Almost two blocks later he pulled her into another alley where a skinny, homeless man with a dirty old army jacket was eyeing a motorcycle. The man in the mask jumped onto the bike and turned to Sam. "Get on." He ordered, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.
Without thinking about who this guy might be Sam climbed onto the motorcycle behind the man and wrapped her arms around his waist as he started the bike and sped out into the street.