: Chapter 10:
"Keeyah!" I leapt into the air with one foot out in front of my body and my target was the middle of Raphael's plastron. He pretended to yawn and then stepped slightly to one side so I completely missed and slammed into the wall. We were waiting for Don to finish fixing the motherboard to his computer and then we were going to hit the rooftops, against Leonardo's wishes.
"You can't strike with a kick when yah opponent is completely aware that yah doing it" he helped me off the ground and smiled apologetically. I smirked and tried a roundhouse kick but once again he stepped out of the way and my body twisted like a pretzel. I growled in frustration and stomped my foot on the ground
"This is dumb! I'm no good at anything!" I crossed my arms and looked away
"Your good at anything that's not offense" he patted my back but I quickly shoved him away. All this ninja training was just too much to take in. All it was doing was making me angrier than I already was.
"Why can't we do something I'm good at?"
"There's a lot your good at" Mikey walked into the dojo with a piece of pizza in his hand. "Sucking ass, complaining a lot…" he stopped walking and smirked at me. "Kissing"
"SHUTUP!" I grabbed a spare sword that hung on the weapons rack and chucked it over in Mikey's direction. If he hadn't ducked out of the way the sword would have sliced him clean in half. In the process of dodging the attack, his pizza flew out of his hand and into the air. I quickly ran across the room and jumped into the air, grabbing the slice of food before it could hit the floor.
"I was getting a little hungry anyway" I took a bite of the pizza and quickly scarfed it down once Mike tried to take it from my hands
"Hey! That was mine!" He pulled out his nun-chucks and started to swing at me. Each move he threw at me I easily dodged it every way it went. Finally he had to stop and catch his breath and that was when I successfully preformed my first roundhouse kick. He went flying back until his shell slammed against the wall behind him.
He slowly got up off the ground and whined like a little baby. "Raph did you just see that?" he asked his brother
"I'm still tryin to process what the 'kissing' part meant"
"You seriously didn't see that? I totally just kicked his butt!" I approached Raph and threw my hands into the air.
"No I didn't. Maybe you should do it again" He winked
"HEY!" Mikey approached us and tucked his weapons back into his sash. "If you wanna go again then wait till I'm ready next time"
"You attacked me first pal!" I exclaimed
"You threw the sword at my head!"
"It was funny" I smiled
"Oh I'll show you funny!" He tackled me onto the floor and started to pin me to the ground. Raph just rolled his eyes and pretended to have no part of it when Leo walked in and demanded to know what was going on. Mike stopped and jumped off me as quick as he could.
"She ate my lunch!" He ran up to his brother and complained so I did the same. I ran up to him and started to tell the story of how I just beat the crap out of their little brother.
"You should do it again, I didn't see"
Mike gasped and waved a finger in a z formation "Whatever I'm out of here. All you losers can go suck a Purple Dragon!" He stormed out of the room with his hand bent to his side.
"Anyway…what are you guys doing up so late?" He questioned
"Were waiting for…" I began but Raph slapped his hand over my mouth and cleared his throat with a wide grin.
"Waiting for you to come and check out Aus new moves. Right Aus?" He smiled at me and slowly moved his hand away from my mouth. Leo looked at me, then Raph, then me again.
"Uh…yeah my new moves" I pointed my finger into the air, then down at the ground and started to do the disco. "You like?"
"That's not what I mean..." Raph sighed
"Let's see it then" Leo leaned against the wall and signaled for us to begin the match. I slowly stopped dancing and approached Raph
"Take it easy on me ok?" I whispered
"No way, I aint' embarrassin myself in front of Leo" He winked at me then walked to the other side of the room. I awkwardly giggled and stiffly took my spot directly across from my opponent, who I hated right now. We kind of just stood there for a few seconds and sent each other puzzling looks. I even mouthed the words "What now!?" and he mouthed back what I guessed was "Your dead."
I cleared my throat and brought my hands into a defensive position like Leo had shown me. Raph pulled out his Sai's and brought them into the defensive position, spikes aiming towards my face. Once he got a running start, I turned around and started running towards the wall. When I reached it, I jumped onto it so my feet were flat against it, and pushed myself into a backflip off the wall and over Raph's head so he went crashing face first into a whole lot of pain. Sadly, I hadn't thought my whole plan through and if I had, I would have realized I didn't know how to stick one of these flips so I ended up crashing flat on my back onto the hard floor. The wind instantly left my lungs so I was lying there, gasping on the floor, like a fish out of water.
Now Raph and I were both moaning on the floor from our recent unfortunate injuries that could have been avoided if I would have just kept my big mouth shut. Leo looked down and us and shook his head.
"Well…" It took every muscle in my body for me to begin to speak. "How did you like it?"
"You two are a disgrace. Now what are you really up to?"
"Nothin Leo" Raph was up off the ground and rubbing his head "Stay outta our business, fearless know it all" He helped me up off the ground after I had recovered my normal breathing pattern.
"As a matter of fact…were going to bed now" I stomped my foot and walked out of the dojo. I really needed to get out of here and cool down but it would have to wait a little longer.
Finally after about 3 hours of lying in bed pretending to be asleep, the lair was dark and quiet. Leo, Mikey, Splinter, April, and Casey had all gone to bed so now it was easier for us to sneak out. Don slowly opened the door to my room and peeked in.
"Ready?" He smiled and waved me to join him.
We crept out of the sewers like we were as light as air and several times we checked behind us to make sure no one was following. Once we got out into the city and onto the rooftops, I felt like a whole different person. You wouldn't believe the city from the high up at night. We stood on a tall apartment building directly over the manhole we had just evacuated from. The sound of gravel brushed under my shoes as we walked towards the edge and breathed in the cool night air.
"Wow" Those were the only words I had. It was noisy yet from a distance. You could hear everything from car horns, police sirens and even people chatting on the streets below. You may think "that's totally not peaceful at all!" but my friend, it is. The lights from the buildings illuminate the sky as if it was day yet the dark space overhead still gives it that beautiful dome like appearance. You could see way uptown where the taller buildings stood and the Empire State building stood out like a penguin in the snow with its red, white and blue lights on the steeple.
"This is…breathtaking" I took a deep breath and words couldn't describe the smell of it. It smelt free and it perfectly matched the way I felt. I felt free. I wasn't consumed to the dark, smelly clutchs of the sewer, I was above ground but not just above ground, I was above the rooftops, looking down on the city below me. I stood on the corner of the building, while a cautious Don came close to catch me if I would fall, and spread out my arms like Rose and Jack in that Titanic movie I never saw but only heard about. The breeze blew my hair behind my back and I lifted my head to the sky with a huge smile on my face.
"I wish I could just take off" I said aloud by accident
"It is beautiful aint it" I looked down at Raph who had one leg propped up on the beam of the roof and was smiling down on the city. "This is my favorite part about bein a ninja. No rules, no one to tell you you can't be up here, just fade into the night like the darkness."
I looked down at Don and saw he was smiling too. Leo must have kept them cooped up a little too long.
"Wanna see the best part?" Raph took a few steps backwards and ran to the edge of the roof and vaulted off. I gasped and looked down where he was running across another roof below. "Come on!" He waved us on. I laughed and looked at Donnie who nodded his head and smiled. I took a few steps back and ran off. For a few seconds I felt like I was flying and then I safely landed on the roof below. A little wobbly at first but I would soon get the hang of it.
Raph, Don and I were home free; running across the buildings like we could never be bound to the ground below. We were flying, well; they were flying through the air while I was sort of trying to get the hang of it. We were making our way to uptown New York where Raph said all the action was.
"Yeehaw!" Don bounced off Raphael's shell and flipped into the air.
"Cool!" I have to admit, that was pretty impressive
"Wanna try?" Raph asked
"Nope" I ran right past him and dove off the edge of the building. Yeah that wasn't happening.
We stopped when we reached a store building that looked down over Times Square. The amount of light coming from this one huge street was nearly blinding and especially at night. I peeked over the edge at all the action going on below. People were everywhere, street performers were standing…in the middle of the street, doing cool dances but when I got a closer look.
"Umm…" I pointed to the half-dressed girl with nothing on the top of her body but two stars covering her you know what's.
"Yeah you see a lot of that here" Don shrugged
"So is that what "all the action" is?" I made a face at Raph who smirked and shrugged his shoulders
"Might be part of it" He chuckled
I quickly turned my head and looked at Don who was sitting beside me.
"What!?" He smiled and held his hands up in defense "I'm not looking I swear"
"Oh lighten up Aus…there's something you might like" Raph pointed down onto the street where there was a small group of really buff, teenage boys were dancing to a popular tune. How do I know they were buff? Half of them were shirtless and half of them were sleeveless. Yeah, they were buff, but strangely not as muscular as the two guys sitting next to me. Then again Raph's on steroids.
"So?" I tried not to stare, "Their…nice." I heard Don "hmph." Well now he knows how I feel!
We sat there on the roof for almost a half hour pointing out crazy looking pedestrians and making fun of their wacky outfits and out of style hairdos. I freaked out every time a horse and buggy came into view. Horses were just the coolest thing I had ever seen and especially when attractive police men would patrol the streets on a beautiful horses back. Hmm, now to get Donnie on a horse…
I looked over at the purple masked turtle who was smiling slightly down at the streets below. The light just perfectly shadowed his face structure so he looked mysterious yet innocent at the same time. This was almost like that dream I had when Don and I were sitting on a roof together, like we were now, except Raph wasn't there. He asked me a question; I just wish I could remember what it was.
"What do you want for yourself?" Don asked. Oh yeah, that's what it was. I remember now too, that I could never answer him.
"What do you mean?" I tried to stall the conversation.
"I mean, in your future" His gaze was still set out over the streets.
"I don't know" I tightened my lips and sighed. He hesitated for a few seconds but then began to talk.
"You know what I want?" He turned to me, those beautiful eyes looking directly into mine. He looked sad, but not emotionally sad. He almost looked…guilty. As he looked back out into the city I realized that now I knew why I had never given him an answer in my dreams. I wasn't supposed to answer, he was.
"I just, want to know what it's like to be normal." At this, Raph chuckled.
"You can't have everything yah want Donnie boy. Life's ruff, the good guys never get what they want." At first I was about to smack him for crushing Don's dreams but then I sort of felt bad for him. It must be really hard to think something like that. Like nothing good ever comes out of life unless you break the law to get it.
"I already have part of it. Now I just need the rest" He smiled
"You weren't meant to be normal. You were meant to do what you do now. I couldn't imagine New York City if you four just strolled out onto the street like it was a natural thing." Like I always said, I have such a way with words.
"What do yah mean?" Raph took offense to that for some reason.
"I mean, you guys kick ass! You're different! It's so lame being normal! Everyone's normal and normal is outdated" I preached. "Not every batch of bread comes out looking normal, but it still tastes just as good" I nodded in approval and Donnie just looked at me and smiled so hard it looked like his cheeks were going to rip open.
"Austria that was beautiful"
"When did "bread" come into the picture?" Of course Raphael had to be the difficult one.
"Do you guys get what I'm trying to say?"
"Yah Yah" Raph shoved off any changes I was trying to make in his life. He suddenly perked up and walked over to the other side of the building that led to a separate street where a few stores were located. "I understand what yah tryin to say cuz look…" Don and I instantly jumped up and joined him.
"What is it?" We both asked
"Looks like some guy is holdin up the convince store" He growled
"Let it go Raph. The cops will deal with it" Don said
"Yah see Donnie, this is why I didn't want yah to come!"
"Guys take a chill pill! Raph, Don's right"
"Whatever" He shook his head and jumped off the roof.
"Is he Insane?!" The streets weren't as crowded but there were still a decent number of people using it to get into Times Square. "We can't just abandon him!"
Don sighed and pulled out his Bo Staff "I'm going to beat him fiercely with my staff as soon as I get the chance. Come on and if anything happens to you I'm holding him personally responsible" He jumped off the roof to join his brother.
"Leo's ganna kill me for this" I took a few steps back, got a running start, and jumped off.
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