So, here is the next chapter. I'm sorry it took so long and that it's not great, but I'll try and make the next one better. I'd like the thank kaaayyytteee for messaging me. It is always appreciated! Please message me and tell me what you think about this and maybe what you may want to see happen sometime in the story. Thanks guys!
~ Northie

Chapter 10
"The Shredder Strikes"

"Hey Alex? Could you run to the store for me? I need some milk to finish the macaroni and cheese!" April called from the kitchen. She had been making extra food to bring to the turtles. They loved April's homemade food. They didn't get a lot of good home cooking so she enjoyed making things for them.

Alex had been sitting in the living room looking through a magazine to try and find a weapon she wanted to order. She was getting sick and tired of going into battle with the guys and not having anything to use to her advantage. She missed her old weapons, but she was in the mood to learn something new too. She couldn't decide.

She used to always use a black steel fighting fan along with a black manriki chain, her black steel tanto and her favorite sword, her black katon katana. That was what she missed most. She loved her sword. It was a part of her. Her father gave it to her personally. It was missing, though. She had no idea where it was. Maybe somebody from the attack took it from their place? Maybe her brothers had it? Who knew…?

"Sure," Alex called out. She got up from her spot and slid her flip flops on after tossing the magazine in her room. She was too lazy to put her sneakers on. Plus, she hated having to wear shoes. She liked to walk around with no shoes on, but when she had to, she'd put slip flops on.

"You might want to take an umbrella with you. I think it's going to rain," April called out one last time.

So, Alex picked up an umbrella on the way out of the house. It was getting very dark outside and it wasn't even that late. Alex smiled. She loved the rain. She loved to walking in it, run in it, watch it and stand in it. Her brothers used to tease her and say she was the queen of gloom and doom. They had their reasons. She like bad weather, not hot and sunny weather. She like the cold and the dark. That was the gloom part. The doom part was for how she fought. She was great and never really lost. She'd bring you doom.

After grabbing some milk from the store and headed back out. The streets were empty because of the weather forecast. Nobody "normal" wanted to be caught in it. Alex was hoping to get stuck in it. It relaxed her.

Footsteps could be heard close by. Alex knew somebody was following her, she could feel it. Nobody was behind her; she could see that as she turned the corn down a street going away from her home. It had to be somebody on top of the building. She subtly looked up to see ten foot ninja watching her intently.

Great, thought Alex. Just what I need to start my weekend. Why can't you people leave me alone for one stinking weekend? I mean, is that so much to ask?

Instead of avoiding the attack like she usually would, the annoyed teenage Kunoichi jumped up to the top of the building with her folded up umbrella in one and the bag with the milk in the other. It must have been sort of an odd sight. A girl about to get ready to fight ten ninjas with a jug of milk and an umbrella. This was going to be fun.

"What do you want?" she asked annoyed. "I have places to be, people to see. I don't have time to deal with you. Isn't it enough I kicked your butts before?"

"Are you the sister of Marcus, Nathan and Zack O'Neil?" one ninja asked.

"That depends who's asking," Alex replied.

"Are you not Alex O'Neil?"

"Does it really matter if I answer that? You already know the answer. You wouldn't be following me if you didn't," Alex said. "So, what is it that you want?"

"You're brothers ordered us to bring you to them," he replied.

No, Alex thought. They wanted me to stay out of this. They wouldn't request for me to go with them. But what if something is wrong? What if they're hurt? I couldn't just stand back and go home, right?

"Fine," she replied against her better judgment. "Bring me to them."

After walking, or rather jumping from roof time to roof top they arrived at a small abandoned apartment building. They guided her into a room with a guy with long black hair that was partially pulled back. He was wearing a white, black and gray kimono. He was obviously very well built and the person in charge. He must have been the one to have kidnapped and force her brothers into doing things they were against.

"Hello Miss O'Neil," he greeted with a smile at was warm, but obviously fake. Alex didn't trust him. She had to keep on her guard. "Thank you for coming."

"Where are my brothers?" she said, getting straight to the point. "What do you want?"

He just continued to smile at her. "You are a very direct girl. I like that." He stood up from his place on his mat and walked up closer to Alex. She took a step back. That got him to stop walking forward and frown. "I asked you here today to give you a proposition."

Alex was confused. "What kind of proposition?"

"If you give the information I want I will let you leave unharmed and leave you be from now on," he started.

"And if I don't?" Alex asked cautiously.

"Let us hope we don't have to go that far, shall we?" he said.

"What is it you want to know?" Alex was uncomfortable with everything going on. This was Oroku Saki. He killed Master Splinter's master and he kidnapped her brothers. She wanted to be nowhere near him.

"Where is it that your friends reside? The ones are training in the art of ninjutsu? I would like to contact them," he said. There was a glint in his eyes that Alex didn't like. It meant he was lying. She didn't like liars.

"You're lying," she stated bluntly. "You want them gone. Just like you wanted my parents gone, Oroku Saki."

"So you know who I am," he said. "I'm impressed. But I am not happy with your response. Do you want me to go to the alternative?"

"If I have to endure something to save my friends then that is how it shall be. I have to say, Oroku, you are insane and a sick." Alex was not impressed by this man. She wanted out of there. She had to get out of there.

"I see I am left with no choice," he said.

"You won't kill me," Alex said. "I know that much. If you did, your three best fighters would have no reason to stay."

"You are quite right," he said. "But that doesn't mean I can't torture what I want out of you." He smiled evilly and turned to his henchmen. "Take her to the chamber."

Alex was attacked by all ten ninjas at once. She never even had time to let go of the bag with the milk in it. They just cut it with one of the swords. At least she wasn't crying over spilt milk.

That was when they knocked her out.

o-0-o

It had been two days since Alex had gotten taken to the chamber. She had been in the dark room in pain the whole time with no food or water. She was tired, she was in pain, and she wanted water and tacos. Why tacos? She was just craving tacos. That and she wanted to get the shell out of there.

They had torched Alex all the rest of that first day she was there. She had been stabbed in so many places she lost count. She was slightly impressed in a sick way. To know the exact places to stab somebody so they wouldn't bleed to death was big. And sick. And painful!

She had given up all hope of getting out of there. If the guys hadn't come for her already than they weren't coming. They probably didn't even know she was missing. April would obviously know. All she had done was gone out to get milk. If she hadn't been back in days than something was wrong. If she didn't notice than there was something very wrong.

"Alex?" she heard a voice call out. She painfully turned her head to the side to see who was calling her. In the doorway was Zack. His light strawberry blonde hair hung slightly in his eyes. "What are you doing here? What happened?"

"The Shredder happened," Alex managed to say. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be working or something?"

"Yes I should," he laughed. "But when did I ever do work?"

That got Alex to smile weakly. "Good point. So, what are you doing here?"

"Well," he started. "I was here to avoid work, but now I'm gonna get you out of here." Zack undid her shackles and gently picked her up in his arms. "How'd you get yourself into this?"

"I was summoned," Alex muttered. "He wanted to know where the turtles live, but I wouldn't tell him. So, he thought it he tortured me than maybe I'd tell."

"Why didn't you just tell? I mean, if I hadn't come along you might have died. Why not save yourself?" Zack asked confused as he walked around as quickly as he could to get out unnoticed. He jumped up to a window and into the rainy night.

The rain stung her stab wounds. At that moment, she was silent as she suffered in the rain. It was numbing. She was thankful for that. It was better than being in pain. "You should know me better than that, Zack. They've become my family. Not that you guys and April aren't, but the things we've been through and what they've helped me through a lot. I couldn't just sentence them to death. That's like killing them myself. Or killing you guys."

He was silent for the longest time. When they eventually got to April's apartment he climbed in through her window and placed her in her bed.

"Should I go get April or call an ambulance or something?" Zack asked a little franticly. "I can tell they aren't deep enough to need stitches, but-"

"Zack," Alex stopped him. She sat up with great difficulty. "I'll be fine. Just don't get in trouble for this."

"Don't worry," he laughed as he walked up to Alex. "You were the only one to ever catch me doing anything. I'll be fine." He looked down at the magazine she had been looking at earlier on the floor. He picked it up and started to look at the circled items. "So, you looking to get in more trouble.
"You know it," she chuckled. Chuckling hurt. In the end she ended up whimpering. "I just want my dang sword back!"

"Hmm," he hummed. "I still favor shoge hooks with a thirteen inch chain myself, but who am to judge. You've beaten me on more than one occasion."

"Now go," Alex said. "Say hello to the others for me."

"Gotcha," he said. He kissed her forehead and walked to the window. "See ya later, sis. Get well." With that he was gone.

Alex laid there for a while just trying to relax. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep. Not with all the pain from all the injuries and the hunger pains in her stomach. Before she could go make herself some tacos she had to go clean and wrap her injuries to make sure they wouldn't get infected.

So, after taking a shower, cleaning her wounds (feeling very much like Donny in a doctorly way) she walked into the kitchen and stated to make herself tacos. She wasn't in any condition to make tacos, but she as a very motivated girl. She knew what she wanted and she wasn't going to sit down until she had it.

The tacos didn't take too long to make. She sat on the couch with her legs crossed as she ate as many tacos as she could. They tasted even better than they imagined they would. She had eaten about, five tacos when she heard the door downstairs open and commotion going on. She could tell there were a lot of people coming up the stairs. She figured it was April and the guys. Who else would it have been?
"I have no idea where she could have gone," April stated in a very weak voice.

"Don't worry, April. We'll look again tomorrow," Donny said.

"Yeah," Raph said. "She can't be too far. We know she can fight. She can take care of herself until we find her."

Yeah, Alex though. Take care of myself. Being captured and tortured for the past couple of days hadn't been the best for her self confidence. She used to think she could fight her way out of anything the Foot gave her, but she wasn't so sure anymore. She knew she was still a good fighter, but without her parents training she was getting nowhere. Her skills were slowly decreasing and she didn't like that. She wished to get her bothers out of there, but how could she do that if she wasn't getting better. I can't fight the Foot. I can't even fight off a group of Purple Dragons. What is wrong with me?

"What if she went looking for her brothers? I know she wants too, but won't. What if she got hurt can't fight? What if they kidnapped her? What if she ran away with them and won't come back?" April was frantic.

"April, we took care of the Shredder. If she is out there with them, she's in no danger of him. If we find her brothers than we find her," Mikey said. Mikey said something remotely smart, Alex thought, shocked. Wow, I thought I'd never see the day!

They all walked into the living room and stopped dead in their tracks when they say Alex sitting on the couch. From the looks of it from they were standing, she looked perfectly normal. They couldn't see the front of her where all the injuries were. She was just wearing the gauze around her chest, stomach and part of her shoulders. She was also wearing pajama pants. She wanted to be as comfortable as she could.

"Hey guys," she muttered with her mouth full.

April was the first to recover from the shock. "Where the heck have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I've been? Where is the milk?"

The five people stayed where they were. Alex had finished her tacos and wanted nothing more than to go to bed after putting the plate in the kitchen. She didn't want to deal with the guys or April. She wasn't in the mood, nor was she in the condition to really do much of anything. She was barely able to make herself some tacos.

Alex sighed as she stood up from the couch with great difficulty. She picked up her plate and turned around. She tried not to make it look like it was horrible, but it was very hard. She was in a lot more pain than she was showing, which she was actually showing a little. She needed to lie down. She needed to get her work form her school to catch up on. She had only missed one day, but she figured she wouldn't be able to go in the next day either. She wouldn't be able to walk to her classes.

"I'm going to bed," she muttered. She slowly passed the staring group as she went into the kitchen and into her room. She'd deal with them later.

When she sat down on her bed, she hadn't noticed what had been placed there ever so carefully. She had sat on a metal sword. It wasn't just any metal sword though. It was hers. The some she had been missing so much. It was the one her father had given to her. She had also sat on a small note. She picked it up and read,

I still prefer my shoge hook and chain, but I though you might like this back. Take care of it. You don't know how much effort I had to put in to get that back for you. Take care of yourself.
Love Zack

Alex placed the sword on her desk while she smiled happily. In all of that, at least she got her sword back.