Disclaimer: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles belong to Mirage Studios, Peter A. Laird, and Kevin B. Eastman. I use them without permission, and without monetary profit.
Author's Note: You too can play the Ninja gesture game! The rules are exactly the same as Rock, Paper, Scissors, only instead there is Ninja Stars (splay hand like you display the number five), Ninja Knife (all fingers touching each other, like a Karate Chop), and Ninja Darts (point one finger, the rest curled down into a fist). Tada!
Chapter Five:
Chassidy woke up to see the amused coal black eyes of a giant rat. It took her a while to remember him and everything else; Stone, running away, Danny, the sewers, mutated turtles... and Master Splinter. It took her only a moment after that to realize he was amused because she had fallen asleep while meditating.
"Do not fear. My sons frequently nap when they should be meditating. I am guilty of doing so as well in my younger days."
The girl nodded not knowing what else to do. "I didn't sleep well last night so I'm a little tired."
Splinter made a noise of understanding and eased his eyes shut, returning to his meditation.
They were in the dojo, both sitting on the thick padded blue mats that were piled in the corner. Splinter explained that they were used for practicing throwing techniques and Splinter because it was easier on his old bones. She was given a squishy mat because he was unused to roughing it. She was thankful. She hadn't been too thrilled with the thought of sitting on the cold concrete floor, the cement seeping away her precious warmth.
She stared at him a while, then with nothing else to do, closed her eyes and counted her breaths, regulating them so that they were the same. Then the numbers ceased and all that was left was the same breath in and out. Eventually her mind was a blank, a clean slate with nothing to think and nothing to see in her mind's eye.
Chassidy drifted off to sleep again, her head jerking up once she came awake enough to realize it was starting to droop towards her lap.
"Go sleep, child." Splinter's voice was heavily amused and paternal. Like a grandfather humoring a favored grandchild.
She didn't have to be told twice. Chassidy gave him a small bow and backed out of the dojo and bowed again, the way Master Splinter had advised her when she entered the dojo.
She picked up her shoes from the edge of the dojo and retreated to her room gladly.
"Ninja Dart beats Ninja Knife."
"1, 2, 3."
"Ninja Star beats Ninja Dart."
"1, 2, 3."
"Ninja Knife beats Ninja Star."
"1, 2, 3."
"Ninja Kni-"
"Would you knock it off? You've been playing that for three hours now!" Raphael hissed so that no passerby would wonder why the sewer drain was yelling.
"You're just jealous because we're not bored." Mike grinned at his brother and dodged the clumsy grab Raph made at him.
Leo didn't bother opening his eyes as Raph's lunge jostled Don against him. Nothing that he did or say was going to stop them, he was just going to waste breath if he tried.
However, Mikey was aware that if he irritated his brother while he was in this mood Raph was going to do more than just half-heartedly lunge at him. There was going to be a fight, and they were supposed to be monitoring the apartment at the moment. Don and Mike played their gesture game in silence instead.
After an hour, they tired of it and instead decided to tell horror stories. Raphael was okay with this mainly because he was the King of Horror. The stories he told were so gruesome and bloodthirsty that Mikey was usually left cowering in the corner, and Donny wincing sympathetically for the victims. Raphael knew human anatomy just as well as Donatello, and so Donny could think of nothing scientifically unsound in his horror stories.
Besides, they were just fiction. He could enjoy a good story.
Leonardo decided that since it was getting closer to daylight hours, and if they didn't move to a location closer to the apartment, they were going to be stuck in the sewers unless they wanted to be seen by anyone out for a morning jog or driving to work.
Silently with the sky lightening almost imperceptibly the turtles snuck from their hiding spot, swiftly climbed the fire escape on the side of the apartment building and perched on the four corners of the building, watching for activity below, and especially watching out for men who fit Stone's appearance.
They located Stone's truck in the parking lot from the license plate Chassidy had given them, and Raphael volunteered to hide out in the bed of the truck underneath the blue tarp for insurance. There was a small argument over this because Leonardo didn't like the idea of putting one of them in danger, but Raph was determined, and in the end Leo relented mainly because he had to.
Raph did what he wanted to and you either went with it or wore yourself out fighting against it.
It grated on Leo's nerves because his goal was to return all four of them home and in one piece, yet Raph's constant death wish got in his way. He fought to keep his temperamental brother alive more than he fought to win against their opponents.
With Raph grinning to himself because he got his way and hiding in the bed of Stone's truck, their surveillance was both more relaxed and focused. Now all they had to wait for was a guy to come and take the truck away, but they were also hyper aware of Raph. As the sun rose, the more danger he was in. If Stone thought something was out of the ordinary in the bed, he would investigate and find a huge mutant turtle with a mask and weapons wiggling his fingers hello.
Since Stone knew they existed, being a part of the Foot, he wouldn't stand in shock, he'd most likely attack. They had a very slim element of surprise. But the point wasn't confrontation. The point was reconnaissance. Leo was tying himself in knots, thinking of all the possible scenarios where they ended up fighting to get Raph free from his stupid hiding spot and retreating. If this went wrong all they'd get out of this was a work out and first-hand knowledge of Stone and his truck. But that was by no means what they came for.
Leo was ready to go down and tow Raph back up the building by his toes when a man who fit Stone's appearance made his way out of the building and to the parking lot. Without a single glance at the bed of the truck, eager to get someplace by the way he strode and the way he held his head and gaze, the man climbed into the truck and took off.
With three shadows following in his wake jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
Chassidy woke refreshed though her face throbbed horribly. She knew from the tender, whisper-like inspection she made with her fingers that her black eye had continued to swell, and now sight from that eye was impossible. She really wanted to stay in her room until she started to look like herself again. At the same time she couldn't just cower in the room, because it wasn't her room, it wasn't even her apartment.
She wasn't going to get to go to work any time soon regardless of where she was living because they didn't like people showing up with bruises that were larger than a quarter. Those were easily explained away. Anything larger looked suspiciously like domestic bruises, no matter if they were or not. Unfortunately she couldn't explain away a black eye, broken nose, and split lip any other way but a fight. But she wasn't known for her volatile temper or getting into fights, so conclusions were going to be drawn; right ones.
She would have to call in sick again. If she went into work looking the way she did, they would try to help her and right now all she wanted to do was lick her wounds.
Chassidy knew that if the sewer den didn't have electricity, most likely it didn't have a telephone either. Though it was obvious they had water. She had spied a very crude but interesting looking water purifier in the kitchen area that Splinter had used when cooking their meal. It wasn't like any purifier she'd seen before, but it had worked and she supposed that's what mattered most.
She also wanted an ice pack for her face. The bruises were radiating warmth, and it wasn't helping her comfort level. She also wanted some more of the pills Donny had handed her, but had no clue where they would be stored.
Chassidy realized as she went in search of ice cubes that she wasn't going to find any, or cold water. Though at the moment room temperature would be colder than her face, so she found a fairly clean rag, used some of the water from the huge, bizarre purifier to clean it in a bowl and then wet it down with more water.
She was lying on the couch with the rag over her eye and a small bowl of water on the floor nearby when Splinter found her.
"I trust you slept well?" Chassidy sat up straight quickly, having not heard the rat enter the room. She placed the rag in the water again.
"Yes, thank you."
Splinter nodded and headed to the kitchen area. He made preparations to cook something and she wanted her watch again. She could even picture exactly where it was - on the nightstand beside the bed. But she'd run out of the apartment with absolutely nothing but the clothes on her back. Stupid, she knew now, but at the time she wasn't thinking of the long-term effects.
"Master Splinter? I don't want to disturb you, but Donatello gave me Tyloenol and Vitamin D to help with my bruises. But I don't know where they would be."
The old rat looked up at her then scrolled through his memory. "I do not know where Donatello stores his pills. I prefer more natural methods."
"Natural methods?"
"Yes. Since coming to America I have found replacements for the herbs that do not grow here as they grow in Japan. Come with me. I have a modest collection of herbs in my room."
Chassidy eased up from the sofa and padded after the rat as he made his way towards the bedrooms.
Splinter's room was much different from what Chassidy had been expecting. Though it had the same concrete walls and floor, the room was very obvious influenced by another culture. There were tatami mats, though very worn, pieced together on the floor and a cot snuggled into a corner with a nest of blankets piled on it. A small square table sat in the middle of the room with a skirt around it that was patched together with a myriad of loud and fruity fabrics and two thin pillow-like squares, one lime green, the other a white and purple floral print.
On the walls were more of the Japanese prints and script paintings like the one in the living room. The pictures were of Japanese mountains and lighthearted one of a curious monkey hanging from drooping branch, reaching down the touch the steaming water of an onsen.
"With the help of my son, Donatello, we have found that your comfrey works very well on bruises as a poultice."
Splinter knelt on the bright green pillow square at the table and reached underneath it to retrieve a large lacquered box. The lacquer was faded and flaking off in places, but the painting was still visible on the whole - a scene of a war, a procession of armored men on horses marching towards a collection of farmers wielding their tools of the trade menacingly. The scene wrapped around the box so it appeared as if the samurai were pursuing the farmers who were behind them.
Getting up, Splinter hobbled into the kitchen with the box. He opened the lacquered box and pulled out a blue bottle that held the comfrey leaves. Chassidy watched in fascination as the mutant boiled some water on one of the camper stoves they had and poured the water into a cup that he'd placed the leaves in.
Splinter continued to prepare a small pot for soup, which, this time was much more American; straight out of a can. Splinter dumped 2 cans of chicken noodle soup into the pot, which he explained was from a nearby homeless shelter that knew that someone lived in the sewers and left offerings at the base of a ladder at the nearby manhole.
He explained to Chassidy that they had a handful of human friends that frequently helped them out since they could hardly live the life of a human. He told her of April O'Neal and Casey Jones who were very kind to chip in for a pizza now and then and pay the turtles for chores and fixes around the house. Donatello was very good at fixing things, and while not as talented as his brother, Leonardo was competent as well. Michelangelo lacked the motivation and Raphael lacked the patience. Instead they usually scoured through the newspapers for rewards for returns of lost items, but mainly bounty hunting of a sorts.
Though it made the police wary to not know the face of the civilian that handed over more than a few wanted criminals and bail skippers, at the same time they welcomed the help. All four brothers helped in this and they did the bounty work under the name of Mitch-Rafe LeDon.
Splinter winced as he said the name. Chassidy laughed.
All together the money wasn't much, but it was enough for them to survive, which was more than when Splinter was raising them.
He asked Chassidy to retrieve the rag she'd been using as a cold compress and told he that cold wouldn't help her anymore - that warm was best to encourage blood flow and flush out the blood that was sitting under the surface of her skin. Soaking that in the water until it was warm, he folded the rag until it was a square and placed the leaves on it. He handed her the poultice and continued to monitor the soup.
"Master Splinter, could you tell me where the nearest phone booth is? I need to call in sick to work."
"If you will wait until after our dinner I can lead you to the manhole near a phone book. There is a jar of change that is somewhere in the living room that we use for such occasions."
Since Chassidy hadn't thought of needing change, she was grateful for it because she had no money with her either. She would have to go to the apartment during the day when Stone was gone to pick up some of her stuff though it should be Stone who moved out, not her. She had paid for everything for the past four months, but even if she tried she wouldn't be able to kick Stone out - the lease was in his name since she was only 17 to his 24.
Maybe she could ask one of her new friends to come along in case Stone asked his Foot buddies to watch the apartment. She wasn't sure that he'd think to do that yet, but he would eventually and she felt safer having someone along with her, especially a known enemy of the Clan.
They ate their meal in companionable silence and then Splinter escorted Chassidy to the payphone for her to make her excuses and hope they didn't decide to fire her after how many weeks of work she'd had to miss this past year due to Stone's free fists.