I suppose the one good thing about the situation was that we didn't have enough time for the silence to become awkward. My blue haired friend from before had pulled himself up the wall where I had pushed him and was staggering out of the alley.

"Ah," Mikey frowned, "we should get going. He's calling for back up. Come on!" He grabbed my hand and led me over to a nearby ladder. I followed him up it quickly. I could feel the adrenaline rush beginning to fade and a sharp pain in my ankle rising to take it's place. I took deep breaths as I climbed the last few rungs and tried to rest my weight on my good ankle once we made it up.

Mikey looked around. "If we head over there we can avoid them. Can you make it that way?"

I nodded and took a step forward. And then proceeded to stumble towards the ground as my ankle collapsed beneath me. Mikey's quick reflexes were the only thing that prevented me from reaching the ground.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked as he steadied me, eye ridges narrowed in concern.

"I did something to my ankle," I said quietly. I tried putting just a little bit of weight on it and hissed as my body protested the movement. Mikey and I both looked up as we heard the screech of skidding tires. Reinforcements had arrived. They were exiting the vehicle and heading towards our location.

"We gotta get out of here," Mikey muttered, eyes flashing between me and the approaching thugs. He looked at me, hesitated for a moment, and then scooped me up into his arms.

I yelped and held tightly to his shoulders as he leapt through the air. It felt like we were moving a lot faster than when I had been adventuring on my own. It wasn't too much longer before Mikey came to a stop and gently set me down.

"Thanks," I said, clasping my hands and glancing my eyes away. Of all my encounters with Michelangelo so far this one had to be the craziest. I tried to look at him a little more closely while trying not to stare.

It was obvious that at the very least he wasn't entirely human, but for all I knew neither was I. Heat rushed to my face as I imagined what he must think of meeting me again this way. In this costume. Ah yes, I was indeed still wearing what basically amounted to a leotard.

"You're hurt," I murmured, gesturing towards his bleeding arm. My hand stopped just short of him as I glimpsed blood on my gloved hand. I had my own fair share of scrapes, but this was more than I had sustained. My face fell and my stomach churned with guilt as I realized I must have made his wound worse when I grabbed on to him during our escape.

"Heh, it's no problem, just a scratch," he said holding up his hands.

I was already pulling the cloth from around my waist. I eyeballed it and then ripped of a strip. Mikey was watching me with a hint of concern. I just wanted to help, hopefully remedy the damage that I had caused, and (perhaps selfishly) I wanted to relieve my guilt. "Here, let me-" I finished my sentence with actions instead of words. I limped closer, hesitated for a moment, and then grasped his arm so I could wind the cloth around it as makeshift bandage.

I wrapped it tightly and tied it off. Mikey had been completely still the entire time.

"Soooo, are you New York's newest hero?" He blurted out.

I remembered again that I was still dressed in my so called hero costume. And now I recalled how I had been out in the streets fighting while dressed like that. I had just started to feel my blush fading, but it once again flashed to red. At this point my best hope was that the domino mask covered most of my blush.

"Superhero in training?" I squeaked. I collected myself, wishing that my face would calm down as quickly as my mind. "And you?"

"Michelangelo!" He said with a flourish. "But you may know me as the incredible Turtle Titan."

I cocked my head to the side. "Actually...I think I have heard of you." Christina's efforts to reassure me of my normalcy had included finding information about other New York superheroes. I had looked through the email she sent me this morning briefly, at the time more impressed by Christina's time management skills than anything else.

And speaking of... I smacked myself in the forehead. "I have to get home," I groaned. "My friend may have seen me fall off I building..." I explained somewhat sheepishly. I bit my lip as I tried to think of how I would get back.

Our harried escape had luckily brought me closer to home, but it was still a fair distance away. Now that I knew what to expect I found I could put a little weight on my ankle, enough that I could at least walk. It was going to a long and uncomfortable journey home.

I limped over to the edge, tapping my fingers against the rough stone wall. The wind was starting to blow in an icy chill and I shivered. I could just barely make out my apartment. For the first time that night, now that the chaos and excitement and fear and confusion had passed, I felt a little lost.

"Hey," Miley said from behind me. "Need a lift?"

It was a little more awkward to have him carry me now that we weren't running for our lives. Once I gave him directions he started off. I was careful to avoid his wound this time while still tightly clinging to him. The loud rush of air moving past us made it difficult to talk.

"You good?" Mikey asked into my ear with a hot breath of air.

I nodded, but then realized he was (sensibly) paying more attention to his footing than to looking for a visible reaction. "I'm fine," I said, trying to both loosen my grip the slightest amount and to relax from my stiff position. It was a little disconcerting to not be in control of where I was going, but I did feel extremely safe once I got over my own awkwardness.

It gave me some time to think. At first I thought that Mikey had been playing some sort of joke on me when he had asked who I was. I had gradually realized that he had been serious. At first I wasn't quite sure how to feel about him not remembering me, before telling myself to stop being stupid. Even though he had made a big impression on me that was probably just a little bit due to him being a mutant turtle. Or in a "turtle costume" as I had thought before.

It was strange because it didn't seem quite like him. Our multiple meetings and back and forth emails had felt like the beginnings of a friendship. I fingered the stiff material of the mask running around my eyes. Maybe there was more to this costume than I knew.

He dropped me off on a side street near my building. "I can make it from here," I said. "Thank you again."

"All in a night's work," he responded with a flourish. And then more seriously, "You sure you've got this?"

"Yeah, I'm good," I said, smiling up at him as I readjusted my clothing as best I could to make the torn cloth look at least a little like a skirt. I was close to my apartment, but I wanted to look semi normal as I walked down the street. I clasped my hands in front of me suddenly feeling a bit shy. "Thank you!" I said yet again. "Have a good night!" I exited the alleyway quickly before I could really start to embarrass myself.

I looked around for any people on the street before I emerged and luckily there wasn't anyone too close. I looked back at Mikey one last time, but there was no one there. He had disappeared into the night.

As I limped to my building I pulled my hair out on its ponytail and fanned it around my face. I finally remembered the mask I was wearing and removed it quickly. I felt a strange tingling, almost like a spark as I pulled it off. I didn't dwell on it, instead crumpling the mask up as best as I could to hide it from the other residents as I entered the building.

Although he had disappeared from view, Mikey stayed and watched from the shadows as the girl entered the building, just to make sure she made it there safely. This night had been more than a little chaotic, but it had been interesting enough that it more than made up for all the trouble. Just as the girl disappeared into the building it struck him that there was something familiar about her, but try as he might he just couldn't place it.

It was time for him to leave as well, not that he looked forward to getting home at this point. At this point it was late enough that "work" was no longer a realistic excuse. The best he could hope for would be to sneak in without anyone seeing him. As he started off he realized that he never got her name.

Christina had been very quiet at first while I told her about everything that had happened. I may have bent the truth just a little, although after she gave me a very pointed look I did admit that I might have been in a bit more danger than I first described. I did stick to my description of Michelangelo however, vaguely describing him as a costumed hero.

"And he carried you all the way here?" She asked, raising her eyebrows suggestively. "Tell me more."

I sniffed. "There's a certain code to secret identities you know," I said primly. I barely managed to hold back my smile.

Christina pouted. It was a relief to see that she was getting over her worry from earlier. Or maybe not such a relief, because she proceeded to get me back by being extra generous with the hydrogen peroxide she poured over my cuts.

Thank you to StrawHatCat. You are super sweet.

I tried to explain a little why Mikey didn't recognize Mikayla... there's definitely a reason for it. I decided on her powers a looong time ago; they directly relate to a certain mythological deity (although most of her powers stop at what we've seen so far, they just need some fine tuning.)

So here's the deal. For every review I will add at least 250 extra words to the chapter in currently working on. Chapters right now average 1,200-1,500 words, so 4 reviews would make a chapter twice as long! Or if there's a point that I really want to stop at it means an extra update. So what do you think? You could let me know with a review ;) (Thing 2 about this is that my by far shortest chapter has 500 words and the most reviews of any chapter in this story. You may be sending me the wrong message XD )