A/N: - Hi again – it's me! I'm writing as fast as I can but I don't have too much time to spare at the moment! I will, however, try not to keep you waiting toolong for each new chapter! Ok, I'm going to make a plea for publicity – if you know anyone who you can recommend my story to then I would be really grateful as I have to prove that Fanfiction is worthwhile if I want to be allowed to keep writing it – due to my brother's complaints that I'm hogging the laptop! Thank you very much! Enjoy the chapter – and don't forget to review afterwards!!!!
"Master Splinter, Raphael is missing."
"Missing, Michelangelo?"
"His trench coat is gone and everything."
"Then he must be found. You and Leonardo will go after him while Miss O'Neill and I remain here with Casey and Donatello."
"Yes, Sensei. Geez, if he's just out seeing a movie then I'm gonna have to kill him!"
"You shall do no such thing, Michelangelo. Now fetch Leonardo and find Raphael."
"You got it, Sensei, dude," Mikey winked and strolled out of the room, "Oh, Leonardo," he put on a fake accent, "we got to go fetch the naughty Raphael!"
"Ok, Mike," Leo responded, "we'd better take our trench coats,"
"Yeah, good idea, fearless leader." Mikey clapped Leo on the shoulder.
"It comes with being me," said Leo dryly.
Wandering the streets, wrapped in their trench coats, Mikey and Leo searched the streets for their missing brother. Raph had obviously gone out voluntarily or else he wouldn't have had his trench coat with him. That, if nothing else, gave the frantic turtles some comfort because it meant that Raph hadn't fallen into the wrong hands…at least not yet, anyway.
Meanwhile, Raph kicked a discarded soda can as he walked around the streets of New York. He could hear male voices jeering and a woman sobbing and…a baby crying? Raph snarled in his gruff voice and followed the sound. What he found made his anger boil up inside him – and, in true Raphael style, he exploded.
"I'd know that insane and furious roar anywhere, dude!"
"Raph's close by; come on," Leo ran off in the direction of his brother's voice with Mikey right behind him.
They reached Raphael and saw him fighting off several of the Purple Dragons.
"What the shell are you guys doin' here?" he snapped at them.
"Looking for you – you shouldn't have run off like that Raph," Leo leapt into the fight to help his brother while Mikey got the woman and her kid to safety.
"What was I supposed to do? Sit and watch while Shredder attacks each of my brothers in turn and ends up destroying us all?!"
"No, but there was no need to get us exposed and put at even more risk than we already are." Leo protested against his hot-headed brother in red.
"Whatever, bro," Raph shrugged off Leo's criticism. There was only so much of that guy he could take. His brother was always such a perfect little Sensei's pet that it infuriated Raph when he was told of Leo's many successes and compared to him so he looked bad.
"Ok, guys," Leo ordered when Mikey got back, "we should get outta here. Mikey, is the woman safe with her kid?"
"I took 'em home, Leo, so there's nothing to worry about."
"Good job, now let's go!"
"Why should we?" Raph confronted his older brother.
"Raph, we have to stay hidden,"
"What's the point? From what I could hear of Donnie, Shredder seems to be planning an attack in three days. He knows where we are, Leo! We have to move!"
"And we will; but not without you," Leo grabbed his brother and, along with Mikey's help, practically dragged Raph back to the house.
The Turtles were helping April pack her few personal items that she had taken with her. There was little excitement…until Mikey found a picture of April in a grass skirt doing the hula dance in Hawaii. So, naturally, he began hula dancing round the room.
"Come on and hula, do the hula hula, honey," he sang in a high-pitched voice.
"Mikey, give that photo back, and stop dancing around! I was the best hula dancer there!"
"Oh come on, Ape, it's a bit of fun. And anyway, I'm better at shaking my booty than any hula dancer!"
"If you say so, Mike," April sighed, snatching the photo off the comedian as he continued to jump round the room "shaking his booty" in Raphael's face as said turtle was trying to pack up April's many facial products.
"How the shell did you manage to get hold of all this?" he asked as he emptied yet another draw of face masks at the same time as pushing Mikey away from him.
"What? Oh, them. I got hold of them the last time we were here and never took them back to my apartment with me. I figured if we ever came here again we would be under stress – and stress lines are some of the worst lines to get on your face – really difficult to get rid of!"
"I'll never understand women!" Raph mumbled under his breath, wrinkling his nose as he sniffed the nozzle of a tube of hair removal gel-cream, "Ugh! This stuff stinks real bad!"
"So do you but I don't complain!" April retorted, throwing a cushion at the turtle in red, who caught it and threw it in turn at Mikey, hitting him square in the chest.
"Hey! That's not nice, Raphy," Mikey scolded.
"Since when am I nice?" Raphael responded smoothly.
"Uh…never…" answered Mikey nervously, backing away from his brother who was twirling a Sais in his right hand.
"Exactly," Raph's eyes gleamed but he didn't chase Mikey; he didn't feel like undergoing another series of lectures. First would be from Donnie and Leo on how Raph should give Mikey a break. Then from Casey who would complain that it was his job to fight Raph. Then from April nagging Raph to stay focused on the packing of her cosmetics. And finally Raph would receive a lecture from Splinter about how it was neither the time nor place to start chasing and fighting Mikey.
"Yo dudes," Casey entered the attic room he shared with Leo and Raph later that evening. They were sat on Leo's bed and were talking in hushed voices but they looked up and shut up when he entered for fear of him hearing them.
"Hi, Case, what ya doin'?" asked Raph casually.
"I just came to tell you that Splinter said we're leaving at midday tomorrow. We're gonna go and hide out in a place Shredder will least expect us to be."
"Which is?"
"I dunno…that's all he said," shrugged Casey, flopping onto his own makeshift bed and staring up at the ceiling.
"I just hope we can keep out of Shredder's way long enough to formulate a fool-proof plan to get rid of him," Leo sighed.
"Yeah, so far he's bounced back and bitten our butts every time!" Raph cracked his knuckles and then clenched and unclenched his fists.
"We need to get April somewhere safe though; she will have to stay in hiding while we fight," Casey said, sitting up and studying his fingernails.
"Yeah, but you're just hoping that, when we defeat the Shredder, you two can get a relationship going!" Raph laughed.
"Yeah, you're right; that is what I want…"
Midday the next day arrived and the four turtles, two humans and an old rat left silently through the back entrance of the house. The walked through many a dark alley and took a couple of short-cuts through the sewers, knowing that if they didn't then they would risk being seen and Casey and April suddenly appearing would freak everyone out. They spent all day walking to a small slum-like layout of housing in a dodgy area just outside of New York by about a mile. It was a safe place compared to the city itself and there were sure to be some abandoned houses from where the occupants had died of diseases or had simply moved up in career and status and had therefore been lucky enough to have the funds to move to a cleaner and more respectable housing estate that was actually in New York.
"How do we know if a house is deserted?" Mikey asked as he peered through a grimy window into an unlit room.
"Simple, we knock on the door – people round here probably won't even know who April is and they sure as hell won't have ever heard of me! So, I just knock and if no-one answers then we wait around for a bit. If no-one comes in the next twenty four hours to that particular house then we know it's deserted!" Casey explained every small detail of his plan to the others, who listened intently and seemed to approve of the plan – but only if Casey did the knocking!
"Hello? Who are you and what do you want?" a small voice asked, trembling, as a young child peeked round the door of a particularly grubby looking house.
"I'm Casey Jones and I need to speak with your parents if that's possible."
"I only have a mummy," the little boy said.
"Then could I please speak with her?" Casey was making up a different story at each house. They had now decided to find somebody who would let April and Casey stay with them as the turtles had insisted that they would not risk their human friends' lives through staying in the same place.
"Hello? You wished to speak to me?" the child's mother, a fierce looking woman with ratty unkempt hair that was flecked with grey, was at the door with the barrel of a shotgun aimed between Casey's eyes.
"Ah, I guess folks in this area ain't too trusting of strangers, huh?"
"We like to be cautious; a lot of dodgy people wander the streets these days."
"Tell me about it," Casey muttered, but not loud enough for anyone to hear, "Look, I'll come straight to the point. My friend and I are not welcome in our own homes anymore and we really need a place to stay. We promise we'll pay our way and help in whatever way we can. But you gotta understand; our lives are under threat and maybe, when we…uhh…trust each other, then I'll explain why we're here."
"How do I know you are not a spy from a demolishing company? And why should I give you a place to stay when I can barely survive myself?"
"Because…because…" Casey struggled to find the words.
"Because I'm doing a report on the housing in this area and need some views from the inhabitants. We're from Channel Six news and we want to try and improve the living conditions for you and your friends and family. Please, we will not ask you names or ask you anything that may get you into trouble later." April stepped forward from where she had been standing back and watching Casey squirm.
"How long do you need to stay?" the woman asked, lowering her gun and opening the door a fraction wider.
"Only for a few weeks – a month tops."
"Very well, but you will be paying your way and helping me around the house." The woman's voice was sharp and commanding but not quite as hate filled as it had been before.
"Thank you so much. You won't regret it! I'm April O'Neill, by the way, and this is my assistant and friend, Casey Jones."
"I'm Marcie and my son, who answered the door to you, is Benny. Please, do come in." she opened the door and bundled them in before shutting the door hurriedly behind her; "I suppose you'd better come and meet my family." She led them to a large, damp, dark room in which five people were seated on the floor playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.
"Whoa," Casey stopped and stared at the five children. One he recognised as Benny, "I guess you're a single mum then?"
"My husband died in a brawl three months ago to this very day."
"I'm sorry to hear that," April led a hand on Marcie's shoulder, "and who are these charming children?"
"This is Alice," she pointed at a toddler with dirty blonde hair who was hugging an old rag close to her, "and Kirsty," an older child wrinkled her nose and scowled at Casey and April, "and this is Benny," the small boy waved hesitantly, "and there's Owen and Peter, the twins," two young boys with filthy faces and shaved heads drew back at the sight of the strangers, clutching one another for comfort.
"Who are they?" Kirsty demanded of her mother.
"This is April and Casey from Channel Six news, here to help us and do a report. They're going to try and improve the living conditions for us out here, isn't that great?"
"We don't need no help; we can take care of ourselves just fine."
"Kirsty, please? I need you to co-operate. You're eight years old and you have your whole life ahead of you; I don't want you to waste it here."
"I don't want no strangers taking over our home! It ain't fair! We got rights too and that don't mean any old city people can just come in here and think they're too good for us, offering us charity!" Kirsty stormed out and Marcie sighed, rubbing her temples.
"She tries to help but it's hard on her, living here. She's only eight and yet she is forced to behave like an adult and handle situations that no child should ever have to face. I just want what's best for her."
"We know, don't worry. We have some friends that could help you do this place up a bit if you want. They'd be happy to help…if you can keep their secret."
"Secret?"
"They're in danger too. They have rather an unusual appearance. I'm gonna go see them now and tell them we've found somewhere to stay. I'll bring them round if ya want,"
"That would be great, thanks," Marcie smiled. Even her smile seemed strained. April wasn't surprised. A single mother with five young children, all under ten years of age, and fighting to keep her family alive in a place that was a death trap for anyone who did not take care and have the knowledge of what sort of violence you could encounter and how to handle it. She watched as Casey left, disgust and sympathy mixed on his face. The smell in the house was of smoke mingles with something that smelled distinctly of vomit. Just like the sewers, she mused, wondering what the turtles' reactions would be upon seeing the house and meeting the family who lived within.
A/N: - And there you have it! My next chapter of this story – I really hope you are enjoying reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it! I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can but I'm up in Bath for most of this week at some sort of presentation conference thingamajig with my school! See you soon!