"Hey, I found her din' I?"
"By a stroke of luck!"
"So?"
"You weren't supposed to go out to get drunk! What the hell were you thinking?!"
"Hey! I wasn't gettin' drunk!"
"Oh right. You were just going to a bar for the complimentary nuts."
"Hey! I didn't drink!"
"Stop lying-"
"I'm not ly-" Maddie groaned and brought her hand up to her head. The argument stopped. She went to sit up, lying back on what felt like a couch.
"You shouldn't get up just yet, you might have a head injury. You've lost a lot of strength as well." Someone put their hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting up. She opened her eyes, taking in the light. There was a giant turtles next to her, wearing a purple eye mask. She froze like a deer caught in headlights. He took out a pencil thin flashlight from a belt that went around his waist and crossed over his shoulder. "Don't be afraid, I just need to check you out- I mean, y-you know…make sure you're alright. Not that you aren't! I just mean-"
"Smooth Don." She looked up.
"Raphael?" Another turtle looked over the top of the couch. He looked like the other one, except he had a red mask. She opened her mouth in disbelief.
"S'up." She didn't know what exactly happened next, but the next thing she knew she was lying back again, the purple turtle holding a cold wet cloth over her forehead. Raphael was gone. She reached up and put her hand on the cloth.
"…Careful there. Raph said you might've hit your head when you fell."
"Ow. What happened? Where am I?" She looked up at him.
"Well, your uncle's bar burned down. Raphael brought you back here …He says you know each other?" She closed her eyes.
"Yeah …that's what I thought too." He dotted the cloth on her forehead.
"Better?"
"Yeah. Thanks." He nodded and took the cloth back. "Uh…wher-ah…who…" She looked at him curiously.
"I'm a turtle."
"Yeah, I noticed." He smiled.
"It's a long story."
"Oh." Someone cleared their throat, Don turned to another doorway in the dank room.
"She ok?" Raphael stood in the doorway.
"Will you give me a damn minute?"
"Well sorry." He turned and went back into the other room.
"Alright. Just look straight ahead." He flicked on the flashlight again. "So your name's Maddie?" He shone it into her left eye.
"Yeah."
"I'm Donatello. You can call me Don."
"Ok."
"There's two others around here. Leonardo and Michelangelo. You'll meet them later." He switched to her right eye.
"Oh. Alright."
"Can you sit up?" She sat upright and swung her legs over the edge of the couch. Don put his hands on either side of her neck. "Alright, take a deep breath." She did. He nodded to himself. "Now cough."
"Good." He took his hands back. "You're fine. I mean, you're ok…not that you're not fine!" Some snickering came from the other room. Donatello's face turned a few shades redder. "Aw jeez." He stood up. Raphael came out of the other room and clapped sarcastically.
"Good work, Don." Don mumbled and walked off. "Hey." Raphael came out of the doorway.
"Hey." Maddie looked at him. "…Woah."
"Whut. Amazed by what a stud I am." He gave a brilliant grin, crossing his arms. She smirked.
"That wasn't the first thing that crossed my mind." He smirked.
"Seems it wasn't the last." Her whole face turned red. Two other turtles emmerged behind him from the other room. One wore a blue mask, and a slightly stern expression. The other had an orange mask and an impish little grin.
"Um. Hey?" She brushed the hair out of her face.
"Hey." The blue turtle said.
"Wuzzup!!" The orange one grinned. Maddie smiled. His face brightened more-so. If that was possible.
"This is Leo and Mike." Don introduced.
"Hi."
"Heard you had a close one!" Mike exclaimed.
"Uh, yeah." Maddie looked down and scratched her hair.
"Can't believe Raph was the first to find an elemental." Mike scoffed and crossed his arms. Maddie looked up.
"What?"
"You are the phoenix, aren't you?" Blood drained from her face.
"Mike, you don't know when to shut up, do ya?!" Raphael slapped him upside the head. A cane came out of no where and smacked Raphael's shin. He stifled a grimace and groan, straightening his back. A large dark brown rat came around from the back of the couch. He leaned heavily on a wooden cane, and wore a deep red colored kimono. She froze.
"Madeline, please …do not be alarmed." He had a thick japaneese accent, coming around to the front of the couch. "There is much that must be explained…"
Maddie sat with her mouth hanging open absently, just staring at Master Splinter. He sat in a very worn easy chair at one end of the den looking right back her. Michelangelo sat in a hammock listening. Leonardo stood around behind Splinters chair. Donatello sat on the opposite side of Splinter. Raphael sat next to Maddie on the delapitated couch. Splinter folded his hands over his lap, tilting his head for response. Raphael reached over and put his hand under Maddies chin, closing her jaw. She looked at him quickly then back to Splinter.
"Um…no,"
"Yes, Madeline." She started shaking her head.
"No, I'm not some 'elemental'."
"How do ya explain the 'phoenix'." Raphael crossed his arms.
"Look, it's just a…a…thing." She stood up. "It doesn't mean anything, alright?" She walked out from the sitting area. Mike jerked up.
"Madeline. It is your destiny." Splinter said calmly.
"No! No it's not! I'm not some 'guardian of fire' from beyond the stars!" She turned around to face them, walking backwards slowly. "I'm not one of your 'elementals' alright?!" She said making quotation marks with her fingers. "I'm just a girl! I'm going to go to graduate, go to college and get a job! I'm not some freaky super hero from Selphus!"
"Delphus." Donatello corrected.
"Whatever! Whoever you're looking for, it's not me!" She turned around and took off, pushing the door to the lair open. Behind her she could hear Splinter telling the others to let her go.
Maddie ran as fast as she could down the dark sewers. Light came in in bars from drains above, cut in half from the pipes that ran along the top of the sewers. Her shoes sloshed through the sewer water, she still wore the apron, paper pad and pencil tucked into it between the skirt. She continued weaving and turning through the labernyth of tunnels, wishing she had worn tennis shoes today.
Her lungs began to burn with all the running. She had to stop and leaned against the cool wall, putting a hand against her chest. Oh man. She wheezed for air. Her head throbbed. She sunk to her knees and set her back against the wall of the sewer. The gentle sloching of fluid through the piping distracted her, and began to annoy her. She set her elbows on her knees and hid her face Man…
"…You lost li'l lady?"
"Shuttup." Maddie mumbled. Raphael sat down next to her.
"So..."
"Mmm."
"…guess this is a bitch."
"Gee, I was wrong. You really are sensitive." She said monotonously.
"Why, was that sarcasm?"
"Mmm."
"Come on, Maddie. There's nothin' ta do about this anyway."
"Yeah, your right. Because this is not me. Whoever you're looking for, isn't me." She tightened her shoulders. "I'm tired of being 'special'. I don't want this anymore. Not fun."
"I thought humans wanted to be special."
"The stupid ones." She caught him turning away, apparently to chuckle without her seeing. She had always hated being special. Ever since her parents deaths she found out what she was really capable of. From then on she though people wanting to be different were plain stupid.
"S'pose so." He gathered himself again and turned back to her. "But There's nothin' ya c'n do 'bout it."
"Look, I'm sorry …I just can't do this." She put her hands down against the cement. "I'm just… not… ready." His light hearted countance died. A frown deepened in his face and he stood up sharply, pacing back and forth.
"What, and ya think I am?" Maddie cowered back against the wall.
"That's not what I meant." He continued anyway.
"You think I wanna do this crap either? I'm an old fucking man! It's all fucked up! You think I want any of it?!"
"No, I just-"
"I'm not ready either, so back off!" Back off from what? His sharp eyes on her softened enough for her to relax her hands from plastered against the wall. He sat beside her again and pulled his leg beneath him. "Sorry about that." He muttered.
"S'ok." She answered in the same fashion. He cleared his throat and stole her hand away from the wall, holding it in both of his. Her heart started beating again out of her chest. Was this guy a psycho or a heart throb?
"Lets not be ready together?" Yeah, he was both. She swallowed. He checked over his shoulder to see if anyone was looking.
"Alright...."
Next Day
Nikira rubbed his thumb over the crystal hanging around his neck. It throbbed gently with a light green. He smirked and let it drop down over his satin shirt, settling against his hard chest. He leaned his shoulder against a tall shading tree, hidden from casual visitors of the arboretum. Inside a long green house one of the advisors was talking with two civilians. He had removed his disguise, through the opaque glass he apeared to be some sort of monster turtle. Poor way to go. Nikira thought amusedly, the side of his mouth perking up a bit.
The two civilians were the runners of the garden park. One an elderly oriental man. The other a teenage girl, looking to be related to the other. One of them must have been the elemental. He'd already found the water elemental. Three more to go. He tapped his foot against the trunk of the tree absently.
The sewer matinence halls became quickly cluttered with all the junk the turtles had collected over the years. It had served as their closet since they were six or seven. Raphael and Maddie were assigned to cleared out the storage rooms, dragging the boxes into the hall. It was Master Splinter's plan to gather the elementals and the prince to live up there and be close to the turtles. That was what he was discussing with Maddie's uncle Joey at the moment.
"Raphael, can you help me?"
"Where are you?" Raphael looked over the stacks of shoe boxes and unboxed junk. Maddie was across the hall in another room. He set Don's assemblage of chemistry tubes, crusted with experiments gone wrong, and stepped carefully over Mikes collection of old bird cages and womans hat boxes.
"Who's are these?" He found Maddie looking into a cardboard box. There was a rusted metal cabinet filled with electronics trapping her in, the wheels of which had been locked shut.
"What?" Raphael went around to the back of the cabinet and prepared to push it out into the hall.
"Do you read penthouse?"
"What?!" He grabbed the box out of her hands. "No." He glanced into the box and set it on top of the cabinet. "…Those are Mike's." She smirked and crossed her arms.
"Right."
"What? You don't believe me?" He pushed the cabinet out into the hall, the metal wheels screetching against the cement. Maddie smirked and picked up a loose bundle of strarship models, following him into the hall.
"Oh, of course I do …I trust all 23 year olds." She said sarcastically, stacking the models away in one of the shoe boxes.
"Ha ha." He pushed the cabinet against the wall with a thud.
" 'Ey Maddie," They both turned. Uncle Joey stood at the top of the short ladder that lead to the maitenence hallway. He grinned through the side of his mouth and his jerry curl wiggled. "Guess who's gotta new place ta stay?" His smiled and held his arm out to her. Maddie squealed and ran into his arms.
"Oh, I just knew you'd understand, Uncle Joey." She hugged him. Joey chuckled. Raphael smirked and crossed his arms.
"Had a feelin' ya might be a pyro." She pulled out of his arms. "All the matchbooks were always missin'."
"Uncle Joey!" Raph chuckled.
"Yer Raphael, right?" Maddie stepped aside.
"yup."
"Yer the one ha saved my Maddie didn't ya." Maddie turned red and scratched the back of her neck.
"Yeah."
"Heh. Then you're alright in my book." Joey turned to Maddie. "I like this kid."
"So glad you aprove." She went back into the storage room.
"So," Joey leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. "You're some kinda ninja, are ya?"
"Yup."
"Well," He leaned back. "Guess I seen everythin' huh."
"Just 'bout." Joey smirked.
"Yeah. You know what?" He looked around. "This actually has some good timin' to it."
"I don't get ya." Joey chuckled.
"Just lookin' for a place to lay low." Raphael crossed his arms. "Maddie too."
"You knew the bar wasn't safe, didn't you" They exchanged looks. "You left Maddie there."
"Look-" Joey grunted as he was pushed back the wall. A pair of smoldering eyes looked into his.
"If you eva put Maddie in danger again, I swear ta god-" He pushed the boy away and reached into his belt on instinct.
"Why you little-" Maddie's hand came out from behind him and grabbed the back of his collar. "Punk!" She pulled him back from the door.
Michelangelo sat sideways on the couch in Erika's little home in a deserted building of New York City; repairing the broken wheel of his skateboard. Erika sat behind him, weaving a braid into the knot of his bandana.
"So you really found all this stuff in the junk yard?" He looked at the things hanging in front of the windows.
"Mostly. Some were just lying on the sidewalk, or in the park."
"Neat."
"Mmm." Mike twisted the screw into the axle of his skateboard.
"Think you could show me how to make one of those wind chimes?" He tilted his head back to look at her.
"Sure." He grinned, flashing pearly white teeth.
"Cool." He brought his head back up and continued tinkering with his skate board.
Bam-Bam-Bam!!
"Yeah, that happens a lot around here." She took the stuff over to a table nearby.
"I'm gunna check it out." He set his skateboard down and jogged off to the door across the room. "Stay here."
"Alright." Erika went to get some beads. Mike closed the door behind him slowly and disapeared down the hall. He jogged down the rickety stairwell and out into the street. It was nearly 3 o'clock, the sun set shadows at an angle. Mike edged around the front of the building and peered into the alley so he wouldn't cast any shadow. Two kids sat hunched over a large silver gun, fiddling with the bullet chamber. Three black bullet holes were visible in the wall to the right side.
"Hey!" Mike called, the kids looked up. "Get away from that!" They took off in the other direction of the alley, leaving the pistol. Aww man. Mike went over and picked up the smoking gun. He looked it over cautiously and emptied the bullets into his palm. Damn. He took the gun with him, and went back up to the appartment. Erika came out of the kitchen with a small shoe box of beads, ducking under the clothes line. "Hey." He laid the gun on the table. She turned to it with disaproval.
"What happened?"
"Just some kids. They beat it after I showed up." She nodded. "Don't worry, I'll take it with me and get rid of it." She seemed pleased and went back to the couch.
"Come, let me finish this before you go out again." Mike grimaced.
"Yeah, keep forgettin' 'bout work." He sulked over to the couch and sat down again. Erika resumed braiding.
"Had work to do."
"Right." Raph lowered the box down the ladder to Don. Mike was in Maddies room helping her move things.
There were four rooms total, and one in the back Don was planning on hooking up as a bathroom. He had also found the nature elemental, so there were two others moving in. One room left. Don set the box down and leaned against it.
"Jeez, I forgot we had all this crap." He opened the box. Leonardo came beside him and looked over his shoulder. "Remember these?" Don pulled out a set of small leg weights Splinter had them wear when they were young in order to build up their leg muscles. Leonardo took one from him and held it up.
"Thought we hid those?" Raph asked from above.
"Yeah. Till Master Splinter caught on." Don shuttered. "That was a dark day."
"Hope you guys learned your lesson." Leonardo put the weight back and turned to go to his room.
"S'cuse me?" Raph put his hand up to his ear. "…If I rememba' correctly you put yours in the pile too, my friend." Leonardo waved him off and continued on to his room. Raphael chuckled and ducked back into the hall. In the first room on the right a matress had been drug from the local junk yard and set up against the wall. All the collections of the turtles old toys and gadgets were carted down to another maintenince room down farther in the sewers.
Joey promised to get Maddie some money to get some sheets and things the next day. Tonight she was sleeping downstairs. Raphael stood in the doorway and crossed his arms. Maddie sat on the matress, propped up on cement blocks and a few milk crates, watching Mike run around the room displaying its 'possibilities'. "…Mike, where the hell are you plannin' on getting a maze of hampster tubes?" Raph asked skeptically. Mike looked at him quickly, interuppted from his interior design pitch.
"Make 'em out of those out of those plumbing pipes piled in the back." Raphael rolled his eyes. "Shut up dillweed! You're just jealous I thought it up before you!"
"Yeah. That must be it."
"Butthead."
"Dork."
"Gack face."
"Dweeb."
"Dingus." Raphael opened his mouth to respond when he remembered Maddie, sitting there watching them.
"Shut up, Mike." He mumbled and turned around. Mike grinned and went back to entertaining Maddie while Raphael finished draging out the last of the boxes.
Next Day
"Of course, Don-san. Noriko is collecting her tree from the green house."
"Tree?"
"Small, small bonzaii." Mr. Tagahasi laughed. Don smiled and nodded.
"Oh."
"I shall retrieve my bag." Mr. Tagahasi bowed slightly and left him. Don turned and kicked a stone off the path. While he had rather sucessfully found two prime candidates, he had the mistake of insisting they come down to the sewers with him without any test. Now he was feeling guilt and a bit nauseaous. If it was proved he was wrong, he was in deep shit.
"Come to me, elemental." He looked up to the strange voice. Noriko was farther down the path holding the bonzaii tree, facing a tall man. He had long white hair pulled back in a pony tail, a long white coat over a blue cadet uniform, a pair of slick sunglasses shading his eyes. He held out towards her a crystal on a chain, throbbing excitedly with a green glow. She was fastly spellbound. "…Join …" Noriko began to walk towards him.
"Hey!" Donatello grabbed his bo from behind his shell and began to run. The man looked up with his black eyebrows slanted down. He raised his hand, a black burst shot from his palm and pushed him back. Don's bo fell to the ground as he went flying back down the path, landing a good hundreds yards back on his shell. Noriko looked over her shoulder quickly, broken from the trance. Don groaned and pulled himself onto his hands and knees. She turned back to the man and his simple smile.
"Doku renge soukougeki." She raised her hand, in some meaningful pose. Two vines shot from an strange plant growing along the side of the stream. They swiftly wrapped around the man's leg and stomach. The large fist sized buds shot up to his level on either side of his head, as if facing him. The petals opened up, ooze spreading from the inside of the petals to the stigma. Little bags hanging from the base of the bud leaves shook like tiny maracas.
The man cursed to himself and gripped the crystal, fading into space. The flowers fired, but only into air. Lotus venom splashed onto the ground and seeped into the dirt. The vines unwove themselves and shrunk back into the plant. Noriko straightened her hair and picked up Donatello's bo, running back to him.
"Are you alright?" She knelt by him and set the bo down. Don propped himself up on his elbows.
"Uh, yeah…" He looked at her cautiously. "…Are you ok?" She nodded. "…What was that?"
"I thought that's what you wanted." He returned her smile tentatively.
Michelangelo checked his helmet over on the way down to Erikas appartment. Donnie had done a pretty good job fixing it back up. The hard plastic cover had been sutured back together, some of the cracked pieces glued back on after being salvaged late at night from the skate park. Mike wasn't skating today. He promised to teach Erika to board though.
"Hey Erika, ready to 'catch some air'? 'Pick the nose'? Ride the--" He pushed the door open to her room, having been left ajar. "Erika?" She sat in the middle of the room hugging her knees. Everything had disapeared. The couch, furniture, stove, fridge, food, even the shelves he noticed as he looked into the kitchen. Everything was gone. Erika wiped her eyes with her arm and looked over at him. "What happened?"
"All my things are gone." She sobbed.
"Hey, hey, hey," Mike ran over to her side and knelt down. "Don't cry!" He wrapped his arms around her. Maybe there was something funny he could do to make her smile.
"They took everything!"
"Hey, don't worry! We'll get it back!" She shook her head.
"I didn't even see who took it."
"Well… well, that doesn't matter! I'll find it!" She kept crying. Oh man. "Erika-" He looked down at her. A cool wind blew through the flat and whirled around them both. Mike grimaced as the tails of his mask flapped around his eyes. Erika's hair blew around him and tickled the back of his neck. The wind howled and blew back out another window. Mike opened his eyes again.
Erika's hair and skin had turned snow white. All her clothes had transmorficated themselves into a short white dress, light and glittery. The tips of two glassy double fairy wings touched the floor, folded over her back. Her tears glistened with tiny diamonds. Mike swallowed, Erika opened her eyes and looked at him. Her eyes were the same color of her tears; crystaline white, shimmering with diamonds. She wiped the tears away with the side of her lily hand. She closed her eyes again as a gust of wind blew through the room. The tails of Mike's mask blew in front of his face again. He brushed them out of his face as the wind blew back out of the room. Erika had turned back again.
"Uh… You can stay with me, Erika." She looked up at him, tears running down her cheek.
"Really?"
" 'Course, you'll love my brothers." He stroked her cheek and put his arm around her to help her to her feet. "You'll be safe with us too." She nodded. "Don't worry about a thing."