Raphael and Holly dropped down onto her apartment balcony and quickly ducked through the doors. Holly closed the heavy curtains behind them before turning on any lights. She turned around to find that Raph had made himself comfy on her couch and was watching her.
She raised her eyebrows at him, asking a silent question. He must have gotten it as he just grinned and shook his head. She walked over to him and sat down.
"I'm surprised the others haven't been blowing up your phone trying to find you." She said, swinging her feet up onto the couch.
"They probably are, but I didn't bring it." Raph rested his hands behind his head and leaned back.
"But what if they need you? They won't be able to get a hold of you."
"Have they tried to get a hold of you?" He asked with his usual level of smugness.
"No." She replied, knowing where this was going.
"Then they don't need me." He laughed as she shoved him. "What?"
"How do you know that they will know you're here?" She screwed up her face, going over that sentence in her head again to make sure it made sense.
"It's not like I have a wild and crazy social life here. I know two people, and Donnie would be so mad if I went to see April without him." Raph scoffed.
"I suppose your right." She had to agree with him. She sank back in the couch and sighed. "Thanks for coming tonight. I guess my life is a little boring without you guys in it."
"Yeah, we are pretty great." He smirked.
Holly just rolled her eyes at him. "And so modest too."
Raph chuckled again, "Hey, someone's got to point out how awesome I am."
"Well, I would tell you, but we don't need your ego to get any bigger." Holly said jokingly.
"No one can do it like you." He was smiling at her, but it wasn't his normal cocky smile, it was softer and more sincere.
Holly blushed and smiled back at him, she wasn't used to dealing with this side of Raphael, but she had to admit that she was enjoying it.
Raph cleared his throat and instantly put on his tough-guy face again. "I should go, it's getting late and I'm probably already in trouble." He stood hastily, he had managed to make himself uncomfortable by letting his mouth blurt out what he had been thinking, and it showed.
Holly followed him to the French doors, she cracked the curtains slightly to peek out at her neighbors' balconies, although she didn't expect to see anyone. "Alright, it's all clear. Be careful."
"I am a huge mutated turtle, who is going to mess with me?" He said. Holly just laughed, it was true, she wouldn't want to be a Purple Dragon and bump into him in a dark alley. "So, uh." he stuttered, "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Of course." They smiled at each other, and before Holly could even blink, Raph had disappeared out of the door and up onto the roof-tops.
Fong and the two other Purple Dragon members walked the city streets towards Stockmans apartment building. They stuck as best they could to dark alleyways and shadowy corners so that any passersby would be unlikely to catch their faces.
Stockman had given Fong a case of fake notes that they were going to be "delivering" to his apartment, that would at least get them in the building. However, getting to the girl was up to them. He and the two meatheads knocked on the glass doors to the apartment building.
Bud, the doorman, looked up from his newspaper and saw a small group of men standing on the other side of the glass. He stood and walked over to them and opened the door a crack.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" He asked politely, although every fiber of his being screamed at him to lock them out.
"Yeah, Mr. Stockman has asked that we drop these papers off at his apartment. I have his door key but not the complexes' key." Fong said. He wiggled the keys in front of himself to make a point.
"You can come in, but I will have to ask that your associates stay in the lobby. I'm sure you can handle dropping off a briefcase on your own." Bud wasn't about to let these three go wandering through his building. He had seen the skinny one before and he hadn't liked the look of him then. But now he had two muscle men with him and he liked that even less.
Fong just nodded, he had expected something like this to happen. Stockmans' old paycheck was capable of affording an upscale apartment, and the other tenants wouldn't be too thrilled if anyone could wander through their building.
Bud let them into the building and returned to his post behind his desk. The two muscle-bound morons took a seat on the bench that was on the far wall of the lobby. He watched the skinny one get on the elevator and press the "up" button, and after a few minutes, the car arrived with a ding and Fong climbed aboard. Bud watched the needle as the car took him up to Stockmans floor, just to be sure he was going where he said he was.
Fong got off the elevator on Stockmans floor, but instead of going to his boss's apartment, he made a beeline straight for the stairs and hurried up to the top floor. He ran a hand through his hair, straightened his jacket, and made sure to have a smug grin on his face before he knocked on the door.
Holly had been on the phone with April when someone banged on her apartment door. She frowned slightly as she wasn't expecting anyone to be visiting her this late. Especially not through the front door. She supposed it could be one of the neighbors just checking in on her, which wouldn't be that surprising since her mother often asked them to keep an eye on her. She crossed her living room and pulled open the door.
"Hello. My boss would love to have a word with you." Fong said dramatically. Holly was caught off guard and almost dropped her phone. Without thinking, she tried to slam the door shut in his face, but Fong was quicker. He jammed his foot over the threshold so the door wouldn't close and forced his way into her home.
"What are you doing here?" She said raising her voice hoping that one of her neighbors would hear the commotion.
"I told you already, I'm here to take you to my boss." Fong stepped towards the young girl, but she darted farther into the apartment out of sight. "Don't make this harder than it has to be." He followed her through the hallway cautiously.
As he stepped around the dividing wall to the kitchen, he had to duck as the girl swung a frying pan at his head. He stumbled backwards and bumped into a wall, and Holly used his moment of disorientation to jam the pan in her hand right into his gut. Fong doubled over clutching his stomach, he hacked and coughed trying to catch his breath. Holly didn't wait another moment, she grabbed her phone and keys off the counter and ran as fast as she could out of her apartment.
April could hear everything that was happening through the phone. Apparently Dog Pound and the others had figured out that Holly was involved with everything and had gone after her instead. She tried to yell frantically down the line but it was no use. Holly and the man exchanged one or two sentences, but after that, all she could hear was rustling and the occasional grunt from Holly. She hung up the phone and did the only thing she could. She called Leonardo for help.
Holly didn't really have a plan of action. She took the stairs three at a time but she knew that the Purple Dragon guy was hot on her heels. She stopped briefly a couple of floors down and decided to go down the fire escape at the end of the hall-way. She might be able to slip out that way, provided there wasn't a whole battalion of gang members waiting for her. They probably saw her as a silly little girl that they would "handle", but that would be an assumption that would make them think twice about hassling teenage girls again. Holly ran to the window and slid it open all the way and a cool wind whipped through her hair. She climbed out onto the fire escape and carefully climbed down to the street. Thank god she hadn't changed back into her pajamas before calling April.
Fong was livid, He couldn't believe he had let a girl get the better of him. He hurried out of the apartment and ran over to the elevator, he would be able to get to the bottom floor much faster than she would on foot. The happy elevator music seemed to mock him as the car lowered him down to the lobby. He burst out of the doors and turned to the two men he had brought with him.
"Did she pass through here?" He demanded. The two goons shook their heads.
"She? What are you talking about?" Bud asked, He had a bad feeling about this.
"It's none of your business." Fong glared at the lobby attendant. "Go check the surrounding alleys, I'll stay here in case this guy gets any ideas."
The other men rushed out of the building and each took a different direction. Fong pulled a switchblade out of his pocket and waved it at Bud. "Don't even think about trying anything." Bud held his hands up, he would have gone for the silent alarm if he'd have gotten the opportunity.
Holly dropped onto the street just as another of the Purple Dragon guys rounded the corner of her building. He yelled something to someone and started running down the alleyway towards her. Holly took off the other way trying to put as much distance between herself and the gang members as possible. She dug her phone out of her pocket as she ran, pulling up Aprils number as she went.
It rang once before April answered. "Holly!" she shouted, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Holly said hastily. "That Fong guy burst into my home, so I hit him with a frying pan."
"Nice." April said, delighted that her BFF was safe for the moment.
"Not really, I just startled him." Holly rounded a corner onto a well-lit street, she was hoping some Good Samaritan would see her distress and come to her aid.
"I already called the guys and they should be on their way, but isn't Raph close by?" April asked quickly.
"Even if he is, I couldn't reach him. He doesn't have his phone." Holly glanced behind her, there were two huge guys chasing her down. They were maybe half a block behind her and were surprisingly fast considering their size. "I'm heading your way, I hope I'll see you soon."
Holly ducked around another corner and dove behind some garbage cans. A few seconds later two sets of thundering footsteps clomped past her hiding spot and continued down the street. Holly was getting sick of running around the streets, she needed to get to Aprils as fast as possible. Or failing that, she needed to find Raphael.
Holly peeked out of her hiding place, the two big guys who were following her were long gone, but the skinny one was up to something. She hadn't seen him since she bolted from her home, but he was definitely the one she was the wariest of. She scanned the rooftops for some sign of Raph. She had been following his usual route back to the lair but she hadn't seen him yet. She started running along the streets again, keeping her eyes on the skyline.
A few blocks down, Holly caught sight of someone on one of the buildings ahead of her. The figure was short and stocky, and it had a huge shell on its back.
"They're so conspicuous." Holly said to herself. She went to take a breath so she could yell out to Raph, but before she could even get out a syllable a hand clamped down on her mouth and another grabbed her around the waist. All that she managed was a muffled yelp, and she hoped that was enough to get someone's attention.
Raphael had been taking his time getting back to the lair. He had been reminiscing about his time with Holly and didn't really feel like sharing any information with his brothers. He hopped across the rooftops and paused atop one particular building when he saw his brothers a few buildings away. Raph groaned to himself, he was going to get an ear full.
"Raphael!" Leo yelled to him. "Have you seen Holly?"
Raph frowned, "Yeah, I just left her place about twenty minutes ago." He had thought they would figure that out on their own, but apparently, he was giving them too much credit.
"I know that. I mean have you seen her since then?" The tone in Leo's voice made Raph nervous.
"Ok, what is going on?" Raph crossed his arms.
The others looked at each other briefly. It was Donnie who spoke up this time. "April called us and said that Holly was chased out of her apartment by some Purple Dragon members not ten minutes ago. We were hoping she had found you already since they're pretty intent on taking her to Stockman and Dog Pound."
Raph clenched his jaw to stop himself from breaking something. "We need to find her now."
"We will." Leo said, "But you're staying with me so I can make sure you don't do anything you'll regret." Raph just nodded. If he'd had stayed just a little longer, none of this would have happened. "Spread out and search the area, and contact us if you find anything."
Mikey and Donnie nodded and split up from their brothers, they each took a different direction and started their search for Holly. Leo and Raph headed towards the Fortune Cookie factory since there was a chance that she was already there.
Fong had dragged the girl into an alleyway that was nice and dark. He had spotted the turtle on the roof by following the girl's gaze, she had been about to call to them, but he had grabbed her just in time. She had managed a squeak but he didn't think I was loud enough for it to matter. Fong watched the lone turtle be joined by the others on the rooftop, but they soon split up and disappeared along the skyline again.
Holly kept squirming in Fongs' grip, but he was surprisingly strong for such a scrawny guy. He kept hissing threats in her ear, but she would not yield to him. She had just watched the turtle boys split up to search for her so she needed to get away now while they were still close.
"Alright princess," Fong whispered. "We're going to see the boss now, so be a good little girl and maybe they won't hurt you too bad." He started dragging her backwards into the alley.
Holly had had enough, she lashed out furiously against the man now dragging her away. She kicked him hard in the shin which made him loosen his grip on her, and when he did she bit his hand hard, hard enough to break the skin. Fong yelled out and let go of her for a second, so she drove her elbow into his abdomen. She didn't even look back before she started running for the street.
Fong checked his hand quickly, a few droplets of blood shone brightly on his skin. He cursed under his breath before chasing after the girl again. He grabbed her arm as she was running away from him and spun her around to face him.
Holly let out a scream as Fong grabbed her arm, she had been hoping to get further away before he was after her again, but this guy was tougher then she thought.
"You little bitch" Fong spat as he slapped her across the face.
Holly fell to the ground, her glasses flew off her face and smashed against the hard concrete. Fong reached for her again, but this time she was ready. She whacked his hand away from her and struck out at him again, Fong hopped backwards not wanting to be hit in the gut for a third time that night. Holly jumped back to her feet and turned to face the man who had ruined her night.
"You fight like a girl." Holly said brazenly. She would not let this guy intimidate her again.
"Don't think I won't hurt you just because you're a kid." Fong said.
"You are going to regret anything you do to me." Holly snapped back, she was angry and scared and wanted to make him suffer for everything he had done.
"I'm not scared of those turtle freaks." Fong said softly.
"You should be." Holly replied.
Fong had heard enough, he ran at the teenage girl ready to actually inflict pain on her and swung, a fist at her face. Holly blocked it, she felt the force of his blow rattle her bones. She stumbled backwards from the impact slightly but righted herself quickly. Fong swung again and Holly decided that avoidance would be a better option than actual confrontation.
She kept backing away from him until her foot slipped off the sidewalk and she toppled onto the street. She landed with a thud, cutting up her hands and elbows. Holly groaned from the gutter, Fong was standing above her looking pleased with himself.
"Like I keep telling people. I didn't become the leader of the Dragons on my charm alone." Fong laughed as he reached down to pick her up. He hesitated when he saw the triumphant look on her face, and suddenly felt the atmosphere around them change. He turned around and came face to face with Michelangelo.
"Dude. Not cool." Mikey said waggling his finger at Fong.
Fong gasped and tried to back away from Holly, but Mikey had seen the commotion from the rooftops and was not about to let him get away that easily. He grabbed Fong by the scruff of his neck, dragged him back into the alley, and tied him up to a fire escape.
"You can hang out here for a while." Mikey said rather coldly. He turned to Holly and crouched down beside her. "You were awesome. Are you alright?"
"I think so." Holly said quietly.
"I'll call the others, Raph will be pleased to see you." He nudged her and gave her a cheeky wink. He pulled up Leo's number first and waited while it rang.
"Mikey, any luck?" Leo asked quickly.
"Yup, I found her. You can tell Raph to relax now." Mikey helped Holly back to her feet, she held her hands up in front of her to examine them, she had probably done more damage to herself falling over than anything else.
"Where are you?" Leo asked. Mikey gave him the street names and listened to Leo for another moment or two before hanging up the phone.
"Come on, let's get out of the open. Leo would be so mad if we made the front page of the paper." Mikey grasped Hollys' upper arm and helped her off of the street. He place a quick call to Donnie since he was still fairly close by as they climbed slowly up the fire escape to the roof.
It took longer than usual for them to reach the roof, and by the time they got to the top, Donatello was already waiting for them. "Hey, you look rough." He helped Holly over the ledge, and she instantly dropped to the floor to rest for a moment.
"It probably looks worse than it is." She said, cradling her hands from the pain.
"You should see Fong, he looks worse." Mikey chimed in.
"It's nice to see you were paying attention." Donnie said trying to cheer up the situation. Holly just laughed harshly, it didn't feel like she had been paying attention. Her swelling cheek and aching elbows said differently.
"Come on, let's get you back underground." Donnie helped her back to her feet.
"Wait, what about Fong? We can't just leave him here." Holly said suddenly.
"Why not?" Mikey asked. Holly just gave him a look like it should be obvious why they could leave a known gang member chained up in an alley with an old ninja weapon. "Alright, alright. I'll go get him."
Mikey quickly hopped over the side of the building and clambered down to the street level again. Holly and Donnie stood next to each other while she tried her best to clean off her scraped-up hands.
"Uh, guys. He's gone." Mikey poked his head back over the roof-top and held up his chain that had been wrapped around Fong.
"Are you kidding me?" Holly said with frustration. She tried to calm herself down with a deep cleansing breath. "We have to find him."
"Why?" Mikey asked.
Donnie and Holly just looked at each other, they knew Fong was getting desperate. If he was willing to try kidnapping Holly from her own apartment, who knows what else he would try.
"I'll call Leo and let him know what's going on. You call April, and let her know you're ok." Donnie said to Holly.
"What can I do?" Mikey asked.
"Go see if you can find Fong, he can't have gone too far." Donnie said while punching up his big brothers phone number.
Mikey nodded and started clambering across the rooftops in search of the runaway gang member. Holly called up April and gave her a quick summary of everything that had happened, while Donnie called Leo and Raph to see where they were..
"Hey Donnie, what's going on?" Leo got straight to the point
"Mikey and I have Holly safe, but Fong got away and we're not sure where he's heading." Donnie said.
"Do you think he'll cause problems?" Leo asked.
"I don't know, but where ever he goes it's going to be a bad day for someone." Donnie said matter-of-factly.
"Alright, we'll keep an eye out for him, just in case." Leonardo hung up the phone and turned to his pacing partner. "Fong got away."
"That weasel!" Raph shouted, Leo gave him a disapproving look, but let it slide. "He'd better hope he doesn't run into me." He punched one hand into the other letting out some of his pent-up frustration and anger.
"Would you relax already? Holly is fine, but we should try and find out where He's going." Leo said shaking his head at his overly emotional brother.
"What does it matter where he's going? If he goes back to Dog Pound empty-handed he'll be impaled." Raph said with a shrug.
"Yeah, that's exactly why we're concerned with where he's going." Leo reiterated.
The two teenage turtles started heading back towards where Mikey had found Holly. It would stand to reason that he would be heading in their direction since they had gone to the gangs' hideout, and hopefull,y they would bump into him somewhere in the middle.
They spotted Mikey a few buildings away, and he waved to them, with a big cheesy grin on his face, and pointed down to the street. Fong was shuffling along frantically in the shadows, checking behind himself making sure he wasn't being followed. He would quickly sweep the rooftops occasionally, he obviously knew the turtles were going to want to find him, but he kept moving as fast as he could towards an unknown destination.
