"Don't drop me don't drop me don't drop me don't drop me." I hiss quietly.
At this point, I have been chanting this statement under my breath for the past half hour. Trust me, you would be too if you were clinging to giant mutant turtle for dear life as he jumps from rooftop to rooftop. And not just the rooftops of simple, small buildings. Oh no. I'm talking 40-50 something story tall skyscrapers in the smack dab middle of New York City.
I absolutely refuse to watch. When I did, I watched as Donnie leaped across a space between two buildings and I thought he was going to plummet to his death. Instead, he gracefully landed on his feet and continued to run forward, jumping again and again.
Nearly hypnotized by the acrobatic feat, I didn't feel Leo pick me up and start sprinting till we, too, were airborne. I shrieked as the alleyway, a full 40 feet below me, flashed by. My stomach clenched in a nauseating manner as the reptile leader's feet crashed into the hard ground of the roof. He stopped for a moment, looked at me curled to his chest with those godforsaken sapphire orbs for eyeballs, and spoke softly.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
It was such a simple question. So simple that even in my state of shock I should've been able to answer. Yet when I did, I sounded like a crazed woman who just saw a man get murdered.
"I'm f-fine." I stammered.
"Are you sure? You don't have to do this, you know? If you want, we can take the subway or even-"
"N-No." I interrupted. "That'll t-take t-too long."
Why the hell am I stuttering?! There is absolutely no need for it. But I can't stop. I can't fucking stop!
"Th-The s-sooner we g-get th-there, the s-sooner we c-can st-stop." I stuttered uncontrollably.
Leo seemed hesitant, torn between the task at hand and my hysteria getting the better of me. But even I knew which was more important, and being the one in charge, he had to go with his head and not his feelings. Still, that didn't mean I liked it.
Without a word, he adjusted his grip under my legs and back and started to run and jumped again, and again, and again.
That was when we had come up to the surface. We had made it the American Museum of Natural History and left in a matter of minutes. Yet with every rollercoaster of a jump, with every soaring building that flies by, every gut-wrenching churn my stomach; it feels like hours. You'd think that by now I would've gotten used to it, at least a little. But no. I can't watch the scenery of the city, the stream of cars racing below me without nearly screaming. And I don't want to scream. I've survived an animal infested forest and the escape of the most dangerous criminal on the planet on a highway with motorcycles, bombs, a helicopter, and a giant garbage truck armed to the teeth with weaponry. Freaking out over something as small as heights is just downright stupid. It really is.
So for the rest of the way, I remain scrunched up in a fetal position, pressed to Leo's chest, eyes screwed shut. I can feel the large plates of his plastron compress against my cheek, cool and hard. His arms, muscular and taunt in all of their masculine wonder, cage me in, almost protecting me. The heat radiating from his body is more comfortable than I would have ever expected. And he smells of something, something manly and simple but distinct. It's not so strong as to say that it's intoxicating, and not so pungent to identify it as cologne. But it's there and I like it.
If I wasn't such a prideful bastard, I would say that it was nice to be cribbed against Leo's lean torso. But I am, so I don't say anything.
After a while, though, I'm sure that I'll explode at any moment. And no matter how hard I try, I can't help but whine quietly. Unfortunately, Leo hears me and directs us away from the towering skyscrapers to the underground subway.
This is much better. All I really have to worry about is not slipping off of the top of the subway car that races through the tunnels at a million miles per hour, but Leo's hand wrapped my middle is there to prevent that from happening. The car rocks and squeals against the rails, the only source of light in the dark cavern. The wind whips into my face, hair billowing into knots. This is much better.
I'm not so sure I would've preferred riding on the inside of the subway car than on the outside. Sure, sitting down on a seat where I'm free from the howling wind while hitchhiking on the roof of a subway is much safer, but that would mean I would have to deal with people. I'm not saying that I don't have a problem with people in general. It's more or less the fact that I'm the problem. Just look back at what happened with Casey Jones when we first meet. Wouldn't want something like that to happen again. And with Leo's presence, I feel safe atop the car.
I know I shouldn't. I know full, goddamn well that I shouldn't want him here at my side like some kind of loyal protector. I know I shouldn't want him near me, let alone be touching me. Yet the way he caresses my waist, how is his hand is so big that his palm touches the lower half of my ribs all the way to my hip, is… I don't know what. But I don't want him to stop.
A sudden tweeting noise sounds off and my head snaps to the source. It comes from a small, walkie talkie device duct-taped to Donnie's leather backpack strap. He clicks on a button in which picks up the call.
"Hey, Mikey. What's up?" Says Donnie.
"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" Mikey's all too familiar voice crackles through the device hysterically.
"What's going on?" Leo asks, alarmed.
"The Foot Clan have the purple ooze! We need backup at police headquarters right now!" Mikey hurriedly says.
Wait! The Foot Clan have the ooze?! The Foot Clan as in the terrorist organization that just freed New York's most dangerous criminal? And purple ooze as in the substance that turns humans into animals and animals into humans?
By the terrified expressions on the two mutants' faces, the answer is yes and yes.
This is bad. This is very bad.
"Hang tight, Mikey. We'll be right there!" Donnie urges hastily before ending the call. He stands to his feet cautiously.
"We're on the move." Leo says as he does the same, pulling me up with him. And without an explanation, we jump right off of the subway. I scream as we launch through the space of air and roll onto the curved, metal roof of a new subway car. I grasp onto Leo's abdomen as far as my arms will allow me, eyes shut.
After a moment, I peek them open and observe Leo as he carefully crawls up to the front of the car, one arm propelling him forward and the other wrapped around me securely. He looks forward, focused and calculating, completely unfazed by the fact that we just nearly fucking died! And so does Donnie.
What the actual hell?!
They must be used to this kind of stuff. Me on the other hand, not so much.
I take deep breaths, nostrils replenishing his scent. I chance a glance at our first subway that's going in the opposite direction. All I can see is the tiny pinprick of white emanating from its headlight growing smaller and smaller by the second. The area separating the tracks is only 10 feet wide. One wrong slip when we'd jumped and we'd have slammed right into the subway itself or onto the rails of the subway car.
Damn! Am I glad that didn't happen.
"Hey!" Leo yells over the racing wind. I look up at him and nearly bump my head into his chin. His face is so close I can count the scales crowning his temples and forehead. "You good?"
"Yeah. I'm fucking fantastic," I say a little too sarcastically. I glance at the speeding floor of the tunnel, a blur of brown and grey. "I just love riding subways, especially on top of them where I can fall and die. I live for that adrenaline rush, man."
He chuckles, unexpectedly mirthfully. "I bet."
A short, breathless chuckle escapes my chapped lips. It relieves a swelling bubble that formed when we had taken that supposed leap of faith, and now it's slowly deflating. It releases the knot of tension that painfully twists in my stomach.
A ghost of a smirk creases his lips. "Sorry. About all of this."
"It's fine." I voice.
Suddenly, I'm flooded with heat, my cheeks aflame. I turn away immediately. I hope he can't see the redness that has most likely stained my face. Maybe he's found a way to set me on fire. I doubt it because he turns away and the uncomfortable warmth still plagues my neck.
What the hell is going on? Is there something wrong with me? Am I sick?! Have I suddenly caught some rapid disease and I now have a fever? If I'm lucky, it'll kill me before I can die of the embarrassment of being as red as a tomato.
—
The police headquarters is in complete and utter chaos. Even from up here, across the street at the top of a brick building, I can hear the mayhem unfolding within. Screams mutely echo through the walls, smoke fogs the windows, and figures dash to and fro through the thick of it all.
Leo puts me down and steps up to the ledge. "Stay here." He orders.
Before I can protest, he and Donnie are already off, racing to the scene.
Dear reader, please keep in mind that I am a teenager, a rebellious teenager at that. And when it comes to listening, and I am very aware of the fact that it might be important, it goes in one ear and out the other.
So what do I do? Well, I don't wait. Instead, I find the nearest fire escape and climb down it as fast as I can.
You may be just thinking of this, and if not, then I shall enlighten you. You're thinking (maybe) that I am all alone. That I am unattended. That this is my chance, maybe my one and only chance to make a run for it. To escape from these reptilian beings and into the streets of New York. I can finally, finally get out of here. The thought makes me smile with glee.
But as soon as I reach the bottom, I don't run. My feet remain glued to the cement under my shoes. And for some inexplicable reason, I don't want to leave. I don't want to run away. For the first time ever, I'm doubting myself.
Am I really going to go through with this? Am I willing to take the risk of living on my own, stripped of any identity, my only valuables still in the hands of my kidnappers, living the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for fear that the four brothers would hunt me down?
Absolutely. But when it comes down to it, can I actually do it? Can I really do it? No. I can't.
It's hard to explain, and more than anything I wish I could understand my own motives. All I can say is that something inside of me is pushing me to stay. I mean, I had a plan. I had a motivation, a passion even, to run away. As you remember, I swore I would. And I want to but… this something is holding me back. To stay in the security of the sewers and, if only for a little while longer, stay with the vigilantes.
I run to the sidewalk bordering the police station.
Leo and Donnie just crashed the party, literally. Much like a scene from an action movie, they swing through the window, a thunderous rain of shattered glass spraying into the lobby. They slam into two masked men wearing black suits and armor (I assume they're part of the Foot Clan) and land in a fighting position, ready to engage in battle. Raphael stands over one of the fallen Foot soldiers, a vial the size of a soda can in his three-fingered hand. He and Mikey inspect it with child-like wonder, an eagerness that shouldn't be there but is ever so present.
"Raph! What are you doing with that?" Leo yells out.
Is that the purple ooze? It looks like it.
I step inside the broken window to get a closer look.
It is.
A chill runs down my spine.
There's so much of it.
"Freeze!" An officer rounds the corner and barks out, holding out a gun. We turn to him immediately. "Don't move! Don't move!"
"No no no!" Says Raph panicky.
More officers come into view, guns at the ready, yelling out commands such as "Hands up! Freeze! Stop right there! We will shoot!" The brothers stand at attention, nervously swiveling their heads like cornered mice. Leo suddenly catches sight of me and pulls me to him. I huddle to his side for fear of what the men and women in blue-clad will do next.
"Get down on the ground!" An officer with a bald head and tan skin yells out.
"Wait! We're the good guys!" Mikey pleads hastily.
"Get down on the ground!" He screams louder.
Slowly, we get on our knees, hands raised above our heads. There are at least a dozen officers surrounding us, guns aimed. By the wild look in their eyes, they're frightened. You can tell by the way their hands shake as they grasp their weapons. My spine prickles with sweat and my heart's beating a million miles an hour.
This is bad. This is very, very bad.
"What are those things?" Baldy asks.
"They're monsters." A man with short brown hair whispers hesitantly. He sneers. "They're monsters!" He bellows loudly, a fiery edge to his words.
Although I'm sure the words aren't directed at me, his statement stings, liking being burned with a hot poker. There is a rage in his tone, a sudden spark that has lit an inferno of panic throughout his fellow brothers in arms. I can see it. Through the furrowed eyebrows, in their glares, even in the tightening of their triggers, they hate us. They hate them, the turtles.
"We're not monsters." Mikey squeaks weakly, his voice breaking. He looks like he's on the verge of crying. My innards ache at the notion.
Suddenly, two beings fly into the room in a flash of cloth and hair. A man and a woman race before the armed policemen, waving their arms frantically.
"Don't! Don't shoot!" The man screams.
"Stop! Don't shoot!" The woman cries. She turns to us and-
April? April! And is that Casey? What are they doing here?
"Don't shoot!" She says. Looking over her shoulder, she says, "Go!"
Wait a minute. Is she… saving us? Are Casey and April saving us?
"Go now!" She howls.
You don't have to tell me twice.
We get to our feet and in a blink of an eye, we're off. Leo scoops me up effortlessly and hops through the vacant window and into the night.
I'm glad that he's able to function properly because now my body is but a rigid statue. It's hard for me to wrap my head around it all, everything that just happened.
"They have a kid!" An officer calls out. "After them!" Their thudding feet follow after us, but after a while of running and rooftop racing, they fade to silence.
April and Casey had just saved us. They had saved us when they could've just left us alone. They could've let us fall into the hands of the authorities, to be questioned, poked and prodded at, and put on display like circus animals. The brothers would be shown to the world like freaks of nature and I'd most likely be sent to an asylum for a severe case of crazy. And yet April and Casey had saved us. This means that capture, be it from our enemies or New York's police force, is not an option. This mission, their very existence, is meant to remain in the shadows. And now they're exposed.
I hold onto Leo's forearm, not for balance but for assurance. What is to come for both the brothers and me is now but a blurry sheen of fog.
—
"It is all over the police scanner. They are hunting you. What happened?" Splinter asks urgently as we walk into the lair.
Leo storms through the room, each pounding footfall of his heels vibrates through the floor and up my legs. The others follow behind, just as peeved.
"Tell him, Raph." Leo barks out. "Tell him how you broke rank and got us all exposed." He snatches the silver and purple vial from his red-banded counterpart and shows it to his sensei. "And for the most selfish reason."
"The Foot was going to get their hands on it anyway!" Raph growls.
"You didn't know that!" Leo retorts.
"Stealing from police headquarters is no scenario where you wouldn't get caught!" Donnie rambles, hands clutching his bare head.
"If you hadn't lied to your own flesh and blood," Raph responds. Donnie bows his head, looking ashamed, "and give away our secrets to a total stranger." He motions to me, eyes alight and full of fire. I stare daggers at his head, suddenly angry.
"At least I didn't break into police headquarters and reveal your very existence in front of the cops," I say through clenched teeth.
"Oh, yeah? Well, at least I don't bite people and call them assholes!" His voice rises with intensity, and so does the rage boiling in the pit of my stomach, my anger brewing in a hot cauldron. "Or keep secrets from my brothers." He turns to his leader in blue who faces him.
"Oh! Like the way you lied to April?" Leo returns heatedly. "And now she's taking the fall for your mess."
That about shuts him up. Raph stands their, mouth opening and closing like a gasping fish and for once, is at a loss for words. A smirk snakes up my lips at his change in attitude, but it quickly vanishes when Mikey enters the conversation. Or, more accurately, when he starts to speak to his master.
"You should've seen the looks on their faces." He whispers. He slides down to the floor, his shell leaning against the candle-strewn podium. His baby blue saucers glisten with oncoming tears, his face ashen. "They weren't just… scared. There was… actual hate." He says, head hanging from his neck.
He looks so… depressed. So scared and crushed and more than anything I want to sit down right next to him and let him pour out his heart. Is that weird? I mean, again, I barely know him, and yet I have the motive to be by him in his time of need.
And do I do so? Do I aid him in his time of need, become a shoulder to lean on? No. I don't.
Splinter places a gentle hand on the younger turtle's shoulder. "It will be alright, my son." He reassures. "People fear what they do not understand." He takes his hand away, sending a forlorn look at the orange-clad reptile, and heads for his other son, Leo. Said son struts away from his fellow mutants to a corner where a caged door streams bright, white light. I follow the giant rat. "You can't walk away from this." Says the sensei.
"I told him, Master Splinter, but Raph, he never hears a word I have to say." He glimpses to the hot-head of a turtle. "I knew they couldn't handle the truth about the purple ooze and, you know what? They proved me right." He pockets the vial into a loop in one of his belts.
"Leonardo!" The rat says sternly, but gently.
"I don't know what to do! Donnie's nose is in his computer. Raph's brains are in his biceps. And Mikey's head is in the clouds. I can't get them all on the same page. To think with one mind."
"You shouldn't want them all to think the same. It's their different points of view that make the team strong. A good leader understands this. A good brother… accepts it." He finishes before turning away and walking to another part of the large lair.
Splinter leaves me thinking that he's right. Different perceptions bring different elements to offer at the table. Different angles of the scene and different opinions on how to go about their plans. Variety is the spice of life, right? Yet I'm not so sure that Splinter meant that having such diverse views should come together only to dispel into mayhem. Because at this point that's all there is.
Leo grits his teeth, pacing back and forth, practically fuming. He grumbles under his breath, incoherent from where I stand just six feet away from him. I watch him warily, the light glinting off of his green skin.
In this state, I don't know what to expect of him. He's unstable, like a hazardous bomb set to go off. A grenade with its string halfway pulled.
He finally notices my presence and returns my gaze, electric blue orbs glowing with buzzing fury. He sighs and rubs the back of his neck. It seems to calm him down. "Was I too hard on them?"
"What?" I ask. I'm not sure I heard him right.
Is he asking for my opinion? Like it actually matters?
"Was I too hard on them?" He repeats. "You know, about them breaking into police headquarters."
"You're asking me?"
"It's either you or Master splinter, and he's already said his part."
I ponder on his words and huff when I remember what Raph had said earlier. "Don't you think it's bad enough I knew about the purple ooze before your brothers did? And consulting their leader with his decisions on how he treats his brothers is just crossing the line." I cross my arms and stare at the floor, my sneakers becoming of great interest to me.
"What are you talking abou-" He cuts himself off and loosens up at his own realization. "Is this about what Raph said earlier?" I don't respond. He knows the answer. "Oh, come on. Don't listen to him. He's just being his usual jackass self."
I nod slightly. He's not wrong, I guess.
"Listen," he takes a step closer and I force myself to meet his gaze. He's so close I can see the grooves of his plastron where I was once pressed against, where I once found comfort in his embrace. "He may not trust you, and he has every right to." He voices softly. "I do as well, but I choose to trust you."
"Why?" I ask, clearly flabbergasted.
He pauses before speaking again. "Because you're scared. And confused." My eyebrows jump to my forehead in surprise. "And I may not be able to understand what you're going through, but I do know that being patronized for it is the last thing you need. And if Raph can't take it upon himself to show a little respect, then I sure as hell will."
I blink at his words. Wow. Just… wow.
"You… are way too nice." I return with a humorless laugh.
He chuckles. "At least you think so."
I smile at him and he returns it. It feels good to smile.
"Guys? I got something!" Donnie calls to us from across the lair. We both turn to the direction of his voice and dash to it.
"Talk to me, Donnie." Says Leo as he jogs.
We make it to the computer station where the purple-clad genius types away at the keyboards. The other two reptile brothers gather behind their intelligent sibling, hovering over his shoulders. I make sure I stick my tongue out at Raph before focusing on what Donnie has to show. I can practically feel the steam blowing out of the red-banded turtle's ears and I swell with pride.
"The computer's pinpointed the isotopic signature of the purple ooze. I can track Bebop and Rocksteady's exact coordinates." Two green dots pop onto the screen. "I got 'em! They're at 6,000 feet, traveling at 490 knots!"
"Whoa! They achieved the power of flight! Good for them, you know?" Mikey cheers gleefully. He looks like a completely different person than he was just minutes ago. He grins widely, his expression all too perky, but I know he's only masking his emotions.
It's like the old saying, "The person who smiles the most cries the most tears."
"They're on a plane, Mikey." Donnie deadpans.
"Oh."
I giggle at his antics and the way Donnie reacted to his younger brother's statement. They're just too funny.
"It looks like our mutant buddies are heading to Brazil." Donnie continues.
"How do we get there?' Asks Leo.
"By sneaking onto the next cargo plane at JFK." Donnie states.