I don't own TMNT or UY

Xxxxx

We stared at each other stupidly for a few moments.

The girl who'd come around the corner into the hallway had almost dropped the wooden tray she'd been carrying when she saw me but had somehow managed not to send the small teapot and cup smashing to the floor. Small mercies am I right? If she had, who knows what kinda armed guard would come storming after her, ready to turn me into luncheon meat.

She was standing in the middle of the hallway, her hands gripping her tray tightly as she stared at me. I could hear the porcelain teapot rattle ever so slightly. She wasn't the only one who'd practically had a miniature heart attack though! When I heard her gasp I was sure I was gonna turn and see a blade catch me between the eyes. When I spun around to see nothing but a lady with a tray I'd been so relieved I accidentally blurted out the words "You scared me!"

Stupid stupid stupid.

Then again... maybe not since she hadn't turned around to run away screaming yet. I probably confused her. I'm good at doing stuff like that. That and blind people with my pure awesomeness of course! Hey maybe that was why she didn't scream! I blinked at her, giving her a once over. She swallowed dryly, her eyes still fixed on mine as she clutched her tray as if it was a weapon.

Then again maybe not.

She swallowed again before licking her lips nervously. "Are... are you new?"

"Huh?" I blinked dumbly at her.

She gave me an uncertain look. "It... It's just I haven't seen you around before so I was.. ..wondering.. .." He voice trailed off pathetically as she bit her lip. She looked terrified but seemed unsure of what to do.

I quickly put 2 and 2 together as I gave her what I hoped was a disarming grin. "Oh! Oh yeah sure! Yeah I got er... Transferred here this morning!" My mind raced as I tried to quickly come up with a good story. Even I had to admit I didn't sound very convincing.

She nodded thoughtfully, not taking her eyes off me. "You don't... look like a guard."

I gave a sheepish laugh as I tried to buy some time, trying to think of what to say next. "Yeah well... Well I'm not a guard see. I'm a messenger!" I quickly added when I saw her tense up and take a step backwards. "Yeah! Yeah I'm a new messenger!"

Something clicked in the back of my head as I realised I was face to face with exactly the kind of person Leo said we were suppose to be looking for. She seemed skittish and by the looks of it probably hadn't been working here long. I think. She didn't seem sure whether I was some-one who worked here so obviously she doesn't know every-one around here yet. That was a good sign right? So yeah! Great! Maybe I could ask her some questions!

Damn! What do I ask her though? Do I just ask her what this Lord whatever's plans are just right out? Oh sure that doesn't sound suspicious at all! But the what do I say? Where was Donny when I needed him?

I gave the empty doorway Donny had disappeared through a quick glance before I turned back to the girl. She was looking around herself awkwardly. She seemed unsure of whether she should leave or not. No no! I needed her to stay here!

"Sorry if I scared ya." I said. It was all I could think of. "This place kinda gives you the creeps doesn't it?"

She gave a laugh that sounded more nervous than anything. "Yes. Yes I suppose it does. But it's alright. I just didn't expect to see any-one around this part of the palace." She blinked as if a sudden thought struck her. "Why... why are you around this part of the palace anyway?"

"Oh. Well," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "I was looking for er... Iwasaki-san! Yeah that's right!" The guy we spoke to earlier's name popped into my head like a firecracker. "Yeah! He met some guys a while back who were talking about some uhm fake messenger telling people Lord... Lord... the Lord here was hiring people and he asked me to like, find out what was going on and stuff! So I'm trying to find him." I finished proudly. I wish Leo could've seen me and my mad improvising skills! I had to remember to tell him later.

The girl blinked at me again for a moment before she gave her head a light shake. "But Iwasaki-san has left."

I frowned at this, honestly confused. "Whaddya mean? I just saw him two days ago!" I stuttered. "You... you know when he asked me to find some stuff out after he'd seen those other people I mentioned."

"Yes, but yesterday he and a small party left to meet up with Lord Nagahashi at Izumo." She said.

I blinked at her. "Wait. This Lord guy's not here?"

She shook her head again. "No. He left a good month ago. I thought every-one in the palace was aware of this."

I forced a small laugh at this, realising how close I was coming to blowing my cover. "Yeah well as I said I'm new and erm and I've mainly been talking to Iwakasi- I mean Iwasaki-san! So I guess I didn't hear about it."

She frowned at me and I felt the beads of sweat forming around my temples. "That seems a little suspicious to me."

"I'm not suspicious!" I said, trying my best to sound insulted. "I can't help if I don't know everything like you apparently do!"

She made a small, infuriated noise at this. "Well I cannot help it if you are ill-informed! Then again you do not seem like the brightest messenger I have ever seen so I suppose I should forgive you for being so ignorant!"

"What's that suppose to mean?" I said, this time insulted for real.

"Who else but an idiot searches for their superior when he is not here?" She said, frowning angrily at me. "And why are you standing in front of an open doorway in the middle of a hallway anyway?"

"I er..." I faltered, blinking to myself. "I.. I thought I heard a noise ok?"

"You didn't hear me when I approached you." She said.

"Exactly! I was trying to hear what was going on in there!" I pointed at the doorway.

"And what is going on in there?" She asked me, or rather yelled at me by this stage.

"Nothing!" I said. "Or else I think nothing cuz you interrupted me!"

"I do not believe you!" She said suddenly, making my stomach lurch. "You are lurking around here saying you heard suspicious noises when you are obviously the suspicious one! I do not think you heard anything! You are probably a thief pretending to be a messenger so as to steal from Lord Nagahashi!"

"I am not!" I yelled back, balling my fists. "I'm not a thief! I don't even know what'd be worth taking in a place like this! I just heard a noise so I checked it out!"

"You heard nothing because nothing is there!" She yelled accusingly.

The door suddenly slammed itself wide open cutting my argument with the stupid girl short as Donny shot into the hallway. He spun to face the girl, sliding into a low crouch as he held his bo in what I recognized as an offensive position.

The girl gave a small, sharp cry at this, her hands flying up to her mouth as she dropped her tray. The elegant teapot smashed to bits on the hard wooden floor. She then took a deep breath, spun herself around and stormed in the opposite direction, screaming.

"Help help! Thief! Assassin! Help!" She streaked around the corner and I heard her run down the hall in a blind panic, calling the guards as she went.

My hand shot out and I gave Donny a hard slap across his stupid head. "What the heck didya do that for?" I yelled at him. "Do you always make a grand entrance when you come out of a room?"

Donny stood upright, rubbing his head where I'd smacked him and stared at me with large eyes. "I heard yelling! I thought you were in trouble."

"Yeah well we're gonna have some serious trouble now!" I said as I could hear the sound of running footsteps coming our way. "Good job Donny!"

We both broke into a run down the hallway, away from the oncoming guards.

"I thought you were under attack!" Donny went on as we ran.

"Yeah yeah! I got it!" I yelled back, looking around frantically. "We gotta get outta this place! D'you remember where we came in?"

"I don't know!" He said, looking around as well. "Everything looks the same!"

"That's never stopped ya before!" I said.

"Yeah well sue me!" He snapped at me. "Just find a window!"

"It's like a 5 storey drop!" He yelled back.

"Do you wanna try fighting the entire armed guard instead?" He said angrily.

I took the point and looked around more urgently, trying to find somewhere we could get out of the building. Don't these people know about ventilation? There was just wall and lamp and floor everywhere. The hallway we were running down seemed to go on forever. I kept imagining it suddenly filling up with guards and swords and spears.

"I'm not seeing a way out Donny!" I called anxiously.

"Then we gotta look somewhere else!" He called back, taking a sudden turn to the right as if he was gonna throw himself against the wall.

I slid to a stop as I spun to see what the heck he was doing. He shot out a foot and at first I thought he'd actually kicked down a wall until I realised He'd kicked one of those hidden slidey doors that led to a room behind it. He ran through the now open doorway and disappeared around a corner where I heard more breaking wood. I stood blinking in the hallway until I heard and cry behind me and turned to see a bunch of really angry looking guys running towards me. I gave a yelp and ran after Donny, taking the corner and following him through the second smashed doorway.

"Hey, quick update!" I called when I caught up with him. "We got some really angry dudes who seem real anxious to talk to us!"

"Got it!" Donny nodded as we ran through a very large, fancy looking room. There was a thin looking woman in it who gave a girly scream when we ran past her and demolished another door to keep going.

"Sorry!" I called to her as we ran out.

We skidded around another corner and suddenly found ourselves in a really big room. It was wood all around like the hallways had been but it had 4 thin pillars around it and had a small stage-like area with a fancy looking screen on it with pictures of birds and mountains and stuff painted on it. Behind me I could hear the guards right on our heels. I looked around the room frantically and spotted something that looked like a trap-door against one of the walls.

"Donny hold up!" I said, skidding to a halt.

"Yeah yeah I got it I see it!" He said, doing a quick turn and making a straight line for the closed window.

"You got it?" I asked, turning my back to him as I freed my nun-chucks from my belt and got them into a spin as quickly as I could.

"Yeah no problem." He said quickly.

I heard a heavy shifting sound as he forced the large hatch open and I suddenly felt a flood of frozen air hit the back of my neck and head.

"Great." Donny grumbled.

"What's wrong?" I asked, turning to look over my shoulder at him. Once I did so though there was no point in him answering. The frozen air that was blowing hard into the room was bringing with it a flurry of white powder.

"Aw man." I whined, dropping my shoulders.

"Mikey!" Donny called out a warning and I spun to the front again to see 4 armed guards, swords at the ready, run into the room and slow into an offensive stance, walking carefully closer.

I changed the direction of my nun-chucks' spin as I widened my stance slightly. "Go!" I said to Donny. "I'll cover you."

"You gonna be ok?" I heard him say as he forced the window open wider, getting ready to jump.

"Yeah I'm great! Just go, you can't swing that stick of yours in this room anyway!" I said hurriedly.

There wasn't a reply and I took that as a sign he'd jumped out the window. Probably the first time a line like that meant something good and not suicidal. I just hope whatever landing was there wasn't gonna cause me to like break an ankle or something.

But I was gonna have to worry about that later. There were other problems right now. When Donny disappeared one of the guards lunged forward, probably trying to get me outta the way so he could stop Don's escape or something. Some-one obviously had no idea who they were dealing with! I twisted out of his lunge and brought my weapon down hard on the back of his head before finish the move with my knee to his gut. I pulled myself away from him as he slumped over, focusing on the next guy who tried to get in a cheap shot while I was occupied with the first guy.

I dodged his sword swing but he twisted it at the last minute and turned it into a chop that very nearly got me right across the face. I gave a small yelp at this and tried to back-step out of his range but felt my shell bump against the wall behind me. When the guard struck again with another chop I grabbed the end of one of my chucks and caught the blade with the chain, twisting it and ripping the sword outta the guy's hands. When he staggered forward off-balance I gave him a kick in the chest before chucking his blade aside, focusing on the last two guys.

I could hear more running footsteps. A lot more. I had to get out of here before things got too hairy.

I took a careful step to the side until I could feel the wind blowing against the side of my face from right next to me. I tensed myself, looking back and forth between the two remaining guards who, unlike their two friends who're lying groaning on the ground, seemed to be taking it a little slower as they tried to find and opening.

I clenched my teeth and gave a wide, aggressive swing at one of them. He was hopelessly outta my range but he took a hesitant step backwards anyway. I turned and gave the other one a few angry swings as well. I tried my best to give them a sneer a la Raph, trying to intimidate them. The other footsteps were almost on top of me by now. Time to go.

I caught my 'chucks out of their spin and stood upright, giving the two remaining guards a grin and a salute.

"Gotta go!" I said before grabbing the edge of the window and side-jumping out of it, hoping that there was a soft landing below me.

It was like jumping into a snow globe. Apparently while we were running around inside, a storm had decided it felt like stopping by. Or rather a blizzard. The splinter-thin snowflakes stung my face and eyes as I fell, the world around me a mess of white and grey and black. I couldn't even see the wall of the building wooshing past me.

It was with a heavy thud then that I hit something like a floor not too far under me. I hadn't been expecting it and fell badly, slipping as I very quickly realised whatever I was standing on had a sharp slope to it. I skidded slightly when I found the layer of snow had a layer of ice under it. I felt my foot suddenly hanging in mid air over nothing.

Realising I was on one of the Building's weird side-roofs I dug my hands down for anywhere they could find a grip, stopping myself from falling off it and to the ground which was who knows how far below me. I gave my head a hard shake, trying to get my bearings through the blizzard as to where the heck I was suppose to go. There was no sign of Donny anywhere.

I spotted the shadow of a straight line a little below and in front of me that seemed a little darker than the rest of the empty air around me. I decided, or rather hoped, it was the outside wall of the place and got to my feet. There was a whistle of air past one of my ears followed by a sharp thud. I turned to see a wooden rob about 2 feet long buried in the snow just a step to the side of where I was standing. It was soon followed by another one which bounced off the wall and got lost somewhere in the darkness.

I gave a sharp noise and made a literal blind dash for the shadow in front of me, trying my best not to kill myself on the frozen roof. I heard a few more arrows trying to bury themselves in me as I went. There was no hope of any-one hitting me in the dark with this weather though. Or at least that's what I was gonna assume.

I reached the end of my runway and gave a mad jump for whatever the dark shape in front of me was. I fell against it hard and slid a little down it before I managed to find a hand-hold and scrambled onto it properly. A quick look told me it really was the outer wall of the palace. I gave a small, disbelieving laugh. It was cut short when I heard another arrow hit something way too close for comfort. I snapped my head downwards and saw the wall had a walk-way no more than 4 or 5 feet below me. I could see the vague outline of a person standing on it a few paces to my left. Snow or not, there was no way he was gonna miss me if I stuck around here.

I tried to look down over the side of the wall to the ground but it was lost in the swirling snowflakes.

I gulped down a deep breath, gave the guy standing to my left another quick glance before I tensed myself and made the jump, hoping there was a soft landing below me.

For a few moments as I fell I had an image in my head of hitting the stone ground below me and having my carapace crack open like a thrown egg against the hard surface. The image was lost when I felt myself slam into something soft which wrapped around me. I saw stars explode in front of my eyes as I struggled to figure out which way was up.

"Michelangelo!" A familiar voice cried out. "Mikey are you ok?"

Hands clamped themselves around one of my arms and pulled me out of what I realised was a snowdrift. I shook the stuff from my face and head before looking around at the wall behind me. I couldn't see the top of it.

"Mikey are you ok?" Donny urged, giving my arm a slight shake.

I gave a nod, turning to look at him. "Yeah!" I yelled over the wind. "Never better!"

"C'mon, we gotta go." Donny said, tugging me to my feet.

"Don't need to tell me twice." I said, stumbling after him as we ran away from the palace, twisting and turning between the smaller buildings of the town and disappearing into the night.

Xxxxx

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