A/N: Again, thanks to the reviews, I love them all. Along with my reviewers. I'm sorry about the tense mix ups in my grammer, but sometimes I get a little tired and lazy. I do have a beta, but they do let little things escape them. I'm going to start to read over my material before I post it now, so hopefully there are little to no miss ups. Thank you of telling me, I appreciate it. Now to my one-on-ones:
Pacphys: Don't worry, Callista will get a surprise soon enough from Raph. Just look for up coming chapters. Thank you so much for the compliment, I'm glad I've gotten you interested in the story line.
Reinbeauchaser: Thanks for critiquing, I know some of my stuff is off and I need someone to look it over other than my beta. First off, I know I didn't explain it quite well, but Delaney calls them amphibians because that is what is written in the tabliods, and there was also the fact that I was misinformed and didn't catch it soon enough, but thank you for catching it. THe department, I haven't really been in one, so I wouldn't know, but I tried with what I did. And the whole Det.Glanson thing... well, I think I wrote that at like eleven at night, and added it after my beta read it, so that doesn't help... sorry. And I did catch the 'once' that's suppose to be 'one', but didn't save the document that night, even though I thought I did. Thanks for all your help! Keep up the good work!
boogalaga: Thanks for the compliments, I really enjoy them.
Mickis: I hope this was soon enough for you. I tried t fine tune this as well as I could in the time that I have. Hope you like it.
JeFfYzGaL2: The chapters need fine tuning, but I'll keep them coming.
sayian-girl-cheetah: Don't worry, all of them will have to work at it... mwhahaha, I am a little evil in some ways. And don't worry about the fiction, I have two others of my own that I should be working on.
TheAngryPrincess13: Thank you, glad you like it!
ReluctantDragon: Thank you, and yes, there is a reason that there is a similarity in the number of girls and turtles...
Now, on with my fiction!
Chapter Four: Wake up Call
Delaney felt herself waking up as the reality of the cushions under her became apparent. She was either on a couch or a very lumpy bed, and either case she was grateful for it. She wouldn't think that ninjas that wanted to kill her would put her on a semi-comfortable object over a cold floor. She took her time in opening her eyes; she didn't really want to know what was going on in reality. She wanted to slip back into her dream world where she could make anything happen. Where she could die a million times over and still come back to life miraculously like nothing happened. And her parents could do the same. She moaned as she realized she wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep and decided to take a peak at her situation.
She didn't know how, but she knew it was early morning, probably around six or six-thirty. Very early for her, and she had a very hard, long night last night. It was a complete mystery as why her subconscious decides to wake her up at early hours, but she dealt with it most of the time.
There was a very dim light that lit the tunnel; she found it to be coming from the manhole cover just a few dozen feet away from her, located down a large tunnel. The object she was sleeping on was a couch and she had to admit that it was a lot more comfortable than her father's was. There were a few dozen television sets displayed in front of her and she was quite tempted to turn at least one of them on, but decided against it. A light blanket covered her from the waist down; someone must have given it to her during the night. Once looking at the ceiling she made two decisions on where she was. Either a very good-looking dungeon with a generous jail keeper, or she was down in a re-made sewer lair. Somewhere in her mind that was still part child she was hoping that it was the latter of the two choices.
Once her eyes adjusted to the dim light she began to recognize shapes around her. She heard some shuffling of feet and some grumbling voices and looked over the back of the couch that she was sleeping on. She saw an old looking subway car parked at the side of the huge tunnel with what looked like lab equipment. Four turtles began walking out from different tunnels on the upper level of the lair each holding their weapons in their hands walking toward another section of the lair. Michelangelo was the last one that Delaney saw and he yawned as he stepped out from his tunnel. He glanced down at the couch, but seemed to not notice Delaney peaking over the side at him and his brothers. They all stretched and walked down to the 'ground floor' and proceeded into another tunnel.
Of course this peeked Delaney's interest and she got up from the couch, seeing that she was still in the clothes she borrowed from Eros and tried to follow the four turtles. She looked around the corner they disappeared behind and found them in a type of training room. They were still stretching and then began to go into a lotus position like they were meditating. After a few minutes another door to the side of the room opened and a four-foot rat stepped into the room with the turtles.
'Well, this is new,' Delaney watched as the rat started to train with the turtles. Even though he looked to be getting on in his years, he kept up with the turtles and even beat them in their training. The turtles called him a number of names, including master and sensei, but it seemed that his name was Splinter. She never heard or read anything of him from the tabloids from what she could remember. After about an hour of training the turtles bowed to their master and began to walk back toward the main section of the lair.
"Crap," Delaney whispered to herself and ran back to the couch and laid down. She was awake, couldn't help that. Why act like she was still asleep?
After a few moments she saw Michelangelo's face peak over the couch and look down at her, "Good, you're awake. Are you hungry?"
"You have no idea," she looked up at him with her arms behind her head.
"What do you want?"
"Even though it's not a breakfast food, I could really go for some pizza right now. Some good deep dish action sounds good right about now."
"You like pizza?" Michelangelo asked apparently excited from the mention of his favorite food.
"Doesn't everybody?" Delaney pushed up so she was leaning on her elbows and asked him seriously.
"Something tells me that you are going to fit in just fine here," Michelangelo walked around the couch and looked down at her, "I think you should wake up your friends unless they want to miss breakfast."
"My friends? They're here?"
"Yeah, they didn't want to leave you behind," Michelangelo nodded his head toward the middle of the room and smiled, "I'll go tell the guys that you're up. You go get the girls, and we'll have a nice breakfast."
"Okay," Delaney sat up on the bed and yawned, "By the way, what are we having for breakfast?"
"Probably some scrambled eggs and bacon if we have any left."
"Sounds good, great defender," Delaney stretched and got an annoyed smile from Michelangelo as he headed toward yet another portion of the lair.
She pushed her self back on her legs and properly got a good stretch. She walked over to the center of the large room and found all three of her friends spread out on the floor on top of some blankets and what looked like old mattresses. Delaney looked at her friends with amusement written on her features as they were displayed out on the floor of the lair sitting right next to what looked like a small collection of water with a small bridge over it. It looked as if the turtles did not have rooms for her friends- or for her either for that matter. Eros hung over the sides of an old lazy boy at the side closest to the couch she was lying on. Apparently the turtles drug the large old chair over from the television portion of the lair for one of the girls to sleep in. Eros was in the most peculiar position, but she was still asleep. She probably got that way in her attempts to find a comfortable position to rest and fall into one of her heavy sleeps. The old mattresses and blankets were entangled on the floor between Callista and Amity who were both trying to regain hours of lost sleep.
Delaney cleared her throat finally grabbing the attention of one of her sleeping friends. Amity looked up at her slightly annoyed and tried to wipe the sleep out of her eyes.
Delaney bent toward her and gave her a cheesy smile, "Wakey-wakey, eggs and bacey."
Amity got up a little more graceful than Delaney was expecting from the mess of covers and stepped toward her, "Glad to see you're awake. You missed a very interesting discussion about our hosts last night."
"Really?" Delaney smiled at her friend's excitement over a discussion with Michelangelo and his brothers. She walked over to Callista and began to poke her on the side of one of her temples, "Come on, Callista. Time to get up."
"Five more mmpuh," Callista grumbled and mumbled the last word so Delaney couldn't hear it.
"She's not getting up," Delaney shook her head toward Amity, "At least not for another five 'mmpuh's. What ever those are."
"Well, I wouldn't even try Eros, D," Amity warned, "Believe me, let her sleep."
"All right," Delaney stepped out from the center of the room, "Breakfast is being cooked. You hungry?"
"A little," they walked a few feet from the indoor pond and Amity looked over her friend from head to toe, "You feeling okay, Delaney?"
"Fine, whatever they poked me with only knocked me out, I guess. Why?"
"Well, you're taking the fact that we are in the lair of four mutant turtles and a four foot rat rather well."
"You mean Splinter?"
"You've met him?"
"Not formally. I peeked in on one of their training sessions this morning. They're very good," Delaney looked around the lair and took a deep breath, "And I know this may sound weird, but I feel in my element here, you know?"
Amity looked again at her friend with a confused expression and shook her head, "You've lost me."
Delaney rolled her eyes, "I've believed in these guys ever since the beginning, and now to find that they actually do exist… to find this kind of proof… it's amazing. Even if the scenery could use a bit of work."
"You aren't going to tell any reporters, are you?" Amity asked concerned, remembering the promise she made to Leonardo before they brought all of them down there.
"And send a few dozen reporters and video cameras down here? Hell no," Delaney laughed at the proposition, "They may be mutants, but everyone deserves their privacy and life. Besides, I'm an endangered runaway remember?"
Amity smiled at her friend's compassion, "But that's the thing… we're down in the sewers with four giant, mutant, talking turtles. Doesn't that signal any warning bells or lights in that brain of yours?"
Delaney looked as if she took a moment to think about it, "Nope, not really."
Amity gave her a strange look.
"Don't look at me like that," Delaney rolled her eyes, "They may be mutants and yeah, to tell you the truth I do feel a little uncomfortable once in a while around them. But, if they wanted to hurt us or kill us they would have done so all ready. And as far as I have seen, at least from Michelangelo, they are friendly and willing to help us."
"I have to admit, you got a point."
"I have my moments," Delaney smiled and put her hands on her hips.
Suddenly, Amity turned away from her friend to come face to face with two turtles. Leonardo and Michelangelo came to see what was keeping the girls. They weren't allowed to begin eating without at least some of them present.
"Hey, where are the other two?" Michelangelo asked peering over Delaney's shoulder back at the center of the room.
"Sleeping," she answered simply, "So breakfast ready?"
"Yup, this way, babe," Michelangelo motioned toward a smaller looking section of the lair.
"Babe?" Delaney lifted an eyebrow and tried to stare down the turtle, which she found difficult to begin with since all the turtles seemed to be around the same height an inch over her, "You call all the girls that?"
Michelangelo could hear the distaste of the name in her voice and thought quickly to cover it up, "Only the pretty ones."
"Good save," Delaney gave a smart-ass smirk and walked past him toward the assumed dining area, "Michelangelo."
"You can call me Mikey," he pointed out as he caught up to her.
"Okay then, Mikey," she smiled and started to talk light conversation with the turtle.
Amity looked at Leonardo and gave a shy smile with a nervous laugh, "Delaney has a thing about names like 'babe' and anything that could be named derogatory against girls in general."
"Then she's going to have a problem with Raph," he rubbed the back of his neck and nodded toward Mikey and Delaney, "Ready to eat?"
"Starving."
The two girls sat on the couch that Delaney was sleeping on earlier and began to eat some of the scrambled eggs and what looked like burnt toast on their plates. Splinter took a seat on a large pillow with his feet neatly tucked underneath him. Mikey took an old looking beanbag next to Delaney's side of the couch and smiled at her as he began to dig into his food. Leo sat between Splinter and Amity, trying to balance himself on another large pillow without spilling his food. Donatello and Raphael took the last two beach chairs at the side of the room closest to the wall and began to chow down.
"Well, this is cozy," Raphael began to complain, looking down at his plate.
"I remember someone punching a hole through our last table we had," Leonardo said before he put another forkful of eggs in his mouth.
Delaney looked at the argument soon to come with interest. She didn't know all the turtles names yet or their attitudes. It was a bit of a learning experience. She looked to her side at Amity who shrugged her shoulders at her and went back to observing the turtles. Delaney then turned to her other side toward Mikey to find him nibbling on his burnt toast and watching the escalating fight between his brothers. He looked over at Donatello and they gave each other a small nod to confirm what was to come.
"You know, Leo. I was having a tough night. If you would just-"
Raphael stopped in mid sentence as he heard the familiar sound of a heavy object hitting the floor and two different voices yelling or cursing. Delaney turned to Amity and they both put an all-knowing smile on their face.
"The lazy boy?" Amity asked.
"Lazy boy," Delaney nodded, confirming the suspicions, "What would you say, five bruises?"
"I would say three if even that," both girls returned to their breakfast spooning the eggs with their forks and totally confusing the mutants around them.
Soon enough, Eros comes up from the center of the lair rubbing her behind and complaining about how hard the floor is, even though she didn't actually fall on the floor. More like she fell on Callista. Sure enough, Callista trudged out from the center of the room with her hair covering her face and her clothes mismanaged everywhere.
"Look, if it ain't the swamp thing resurrected," Raphael commented and chuckled a bit.
Callista blew some of the hair out of her face and glared at the red bandana-wearing turtle. She walked straight over to him and hit him upside the head, throwing his head into his own plate of eggs. All three of the other girls squinted by the action because they all knew how hard she could hit if she was annoyed enough. Michelangelo looked at Donatello and they both began laughing out loud at their brother whose face was now covered with scrambled eggs.
"You can keep your comments to yourself," she muttered and walked in the direction of the bathroom that the turtles pointed out to her last night, muttering all the way, "First I had to brought down a sewer, then the stupid jerk decides to comment…"
"Hey Raph, I think she likes you," Mikey said in between laughing and trying to chew the eggs that were in his mouth.
"Yeah right," he wiped some of the eggs from his face and turned to put his plate away, "I'll show her a piece of my mind."
"Raphael, no," Splinter said strong and tapped his stick on the cement floor, "Leave the girl alone. I will have a talk with her."
"Master Splinter," Delaney asked from the couch while trying not to be disrespectful, "If you don't mind, it might be better if one of us talks to her. She isn't too keen on a stranger telling her how to um… well, act. She may have another episode."
"Very well, but I don't want any more 'episodes' during peaceful times. That includes when we eat," he turned back to Raphael, "Understood?"
Both Delaney and Raphael nodded and the group watched as Raphael walked back toward his tunnel on the upper story of the lair. He passed a now better-looking version of Callista with her hair somewhat manageable and clothes smoothed out. They both stopped dead in their tracks when they passed one another and gave each other a death glare. Raphael rolled his eyes and snorted as he continued on his way back to his room. She shook her head and was immediately taken by the arm by Amity back toward the spot where they slept.
"What the-?"
"We need to talk," Amity said as she sat Callista down for a talk.
After the girls began to talk Mikey began to laugh again as the scene of Raphael's face being flung into the plate of eggs replayed in his mind. Soon enough everyone begins to join in the laughter and Delaney was surprised to see that even the old rat began to snicker a bit. Leonardo collected most of the plates with some help from Eros and went to the closest thing that resembled a sink to begin to rinse off the plates. It seemed as if Eros was taking the change rather well, probably as good as Delaney. Although, Eros has always felt comfortable in a situation where she was surrounded by her friends.
Splinter excused himself back to his room to meditate again on the mysterious shuriken and the symbol imprinted on it. Donatello stayed in the chair and turned on the television sets facing the seats in the room. Michelangelo got up from the floor and took the space next to Delaney and got comfortable. He was ready for some serious television time. Delaney looked at him with an eyebrow lifted and tried to let herself go. He wasn't there to hurt her. From what he said earlier, he was there to do the exact opposite. Slowly she sank back into the couch and turned toward the TVs.
"Is she always like that?" he suddenly asked looking at Delaney for an answer.
"Only when she gets annoyed or when she just wakes up," she explained nodding her head.
"And it didn't help that I fell on her from the recliner this morning," Eros came out from the kitchen and took the seat at the side of Delaney in the now unoccupied beanbag.
"I thought as much," Delaney smiled.
"Hey, give me some credit. Those things are hard to get comfortable in."
"Yeah, alright," Delaney turned from her friend and looked at Mikey, "So Mikey, just how were you guys… well, how did you guys come to be?"
"I believe that was the topic of last night's chat," he said looking over at Donatello, "Hey Donnie, you want to fill this one?"
"All right," Donatello straightened up and took a deep breath, "To put it in lamens terms, when the four of us were babies we were sucked down a sewer system coming up to twenty years ago and came in contact with a type of mutagen and as years passed we grew into our present selves."
"What about Splinter? Was he a rat in the sewer system?"
"No actually he was human," Mikey interjected, "He has a more complex story. He was a ninja master in Japan and then fled to the US after some bad dude took over. Came into the sewer system to hide and came upon us and the ooze. He began to mutate into the rat man you see now."
"Eloquently put, Mikey," Donatello rolled his eyes and put a smile on his face.
"Thanks Donnie," Mikey smiled back and turned to Delaney, "More questions?"
"Tons," she looked at the television that had a picture of a football game and took a deep breath, "but I doubt that you could answer them, Mikey."
"Give it a shot," he challenged her.
"And even then, Mikey isn't the brightest crayon in the box, I can always try," Donnie said earning a glare from his younger brother.
"I doubt that either of you know who is after me and why they killed my parents," she offered and saw their sympathetic and clueless faces, "I didn't think so."
"Delaney…" Eros put a hand on hers and tried to reassure her, but Delaney knocked it off and headed toward Amity and Callista.
"I'm going to see how Amity is getting along with Callista and their talk."
"All right, but I'm here if you need to talk," Eros called after her.
"It's hitting her hard, isn't it?" Mikey thought out loud.
"How would you feel if your parents were murdered on the same night with no other reason than that it seemed like a thing to do?"
"Huh," Mikey said and watched her as she hopped down to her friends and sat next to Amity at the side of the small indoor pond. Apparently Callista was done listening and was sitting on the opposite side of them in the lazy boy. Delaney put her head on Amity's shoulder and began to break down. It had been a while since she was able to cry for all her worth. She needed it.
"Oh no," Eros got up immediately and rushed to her friend, trying to comfort her. Eventually, Mikey could hear Callista get up and head over to her friend as well. She may be a tough girl on the inside, but she knew what to do when her friend was in trouble. Amity put an arm around Delaney and slowly watched as Delaney's tears began to recede and dry.
Mikey turned away from the scene unfolding near the pond. It wasn't any of his business to intrude. They were all close friends and they needed one another right now.
All at once the manhole cover moved to one side and a pair of long, feminine legs began to climb down, "Hey guys!"
"April!" Mikey smiled, happy to see his reporter friend, but then shook his head with the realization that they had some visitors that were very wanted by not only police and ninjas, but by reporters as well. He turned to Donatello as he too realized the problem.
"What's going on guys?" she hopped off the ladder leading down into the den and the two turtles rushed over to her before she proceeded too far into their home.
"Nothing, nothing at all," Mikey said looking at Donatello a little nervous.
"Yeah, everything's fine," Donatello added nodding his head, putting an arm around his brother's shoulder hopeful it would hide their visitors.
"Okay, fine," she looked at them knowing that they were hiding something, "So everything's going oka-"
"What's going on out there?" Delaney stepped out from the comfort of her friends and froze once she saw April O'Neal standing in the entrance of the lair with Michelangelo and Donatello, "Oh crap."
"Oh my God, it's you," April whispered to herself.
"Bad timing, dudette," Michelangelo sighed and slapped his own forehead, "Mondo bad timing."