Later that night I went out. I happily avoided Leo and Master Splinter and slipped by Raph and Don in the living room, who were talking about the shell cycle. They waved towards my black form, nothing out of the ordinary for Raph and I. At least, nothing visible. His eyes burned me though.
That night I stopped a few more murders than usual. There was an uprise attempt against justice. It was rather easy to quell, but the Night Watcher came just as I murdered the last one.
"Ya keep stopping me from doin' my job." Raph said as he pushed over another dead body. It was a middle aged man who somehow got into the gang Purple Dragons. I leaned against the wall next to my bloody mark and picked at my nails.
"Perhaps you should find another part of town to deal in?" I remarked. I glanced at him through my mask. He turned to me in a way that made me think he was glaring at me.
Raph stomped his way towards me with loud clanking sounds he didn't usually make. I walked a step back every step he took towards me, and eventually I was against a wall.
"I was here first, Night Terror." Raph said with a point of his finger to my sternum. I smiled behind my mask, because I enjoyed this role. The comic fight between Night Watcher and the Black Mask Terror. I shuffled past him with ease because he wasn't actually holding me back. I kicked the camera that one of the thugs attempted to use to catch me. Its screen was cracked, but a red light told both of us it wasn't off.
"Well, shall I end it for you? I mean, too many justices will lead to destruction, right?" I asked him. Raph chuckled cynically.
"It would be my pleasure." He murmured.
Raph jumped at me. I landed face first against the ground, an unwelcome experience. I twisted my body beneath the Night Watcher and shoved him off of me. I didn't let him try anything before I could clamber on top of him and hold him down. I managed a single punch before he kicked me over him.
The body I landed on made a squish sound beneath me, and it made me shiver and scamper away from. A girl, perhaps early twenties. She was pretty, blue eyes and blue hair. There was a tattoo on her arm, a name really, in really curly letters. The name was clear though, the name Mom inked into her skin.
"Li- Night Terror?" Raph asked. He stopped his attack and stared at me from his crouched position. I crouched down beside the girl and brushed a single finger across her bloody jaw, frozen in shock.
"I gave her a chance to leave. I don't kill them brutally, I really give them chances. A chance to redeem themselves. I've had a few take it, and I see them walking in the streets, smiling at me with a new life. Fear does much more than destroy, it gives hope. I was taught that. But some," I tilt the woman's head down, away from me. "Don't take it. And I'll regret it, if only for a short while."
I looked over at Raph for a split second, and then at the people around us.
"Remember Tommy? That first time we met. He had a chance. I was going to leave him, just take the leader for my own and leave. I regret his death, minimally now." I said, as if it would change what Raph thought of me. He was here, and earlier today he had been right up against me. I wasn't sure there was much I could do, save kill in cold blood, that would get him away from me. I glanced up at Raph again. Raph was standing, and his metal stared down at me.
"So why do ya do it? If it hurts ya so much." he asked genuinely curious. I smiled at Raph behind my mask.
I glanced at the camera to see where it lay. It was pointed in the opposite direction, just recording a brick wall. I stood up, mostly to keep the cramp out of my calf, and I unbuckled my mask.
"Because someone has too." I said once my face was clear. Raph stood and stared at me for a few moments.
"Doesn't have to be ya." He said. I tucked the mask in my pocket and brushed my hair back from my face.
"I know." I answered. Raph hesitated for a second, like he didn't know what to say to me.
"You can stop. Let the police and I do the work. Go back to whatever life you had before." He said, but his tone conveyed something else. We both knew I didn't have a life to go back too.
"I could, but I won't. I chose this life, and I'll be damned if a metalman and a couple guns stop me." I responded with, effectively closing the road he was going down.
"I gave you your chance." He said as he returned himself to a crouch. I lowered my body as well and put my mask back in place.
I returned home with some aches in my back, and my arm was hurting from being bashed into a brick wall, but I walked in humming. Raph turned in an hour previously, so I had the house to myself. I used that time to bathe the blood from my body, and grimaced at how much there was this time. I hated getting body fluids on me, especially body fluid that weren't mine. Who knows what was in their systems upon time of death?
After the bath I munched on a turkey sandwich with some milk to help, and proceeded to fall asleep in my room. Tonight was the night I didn't do anything important, so I didn't set any alarms and slept well through the morning. I woke up at twelve, and probably would have slept longer but I heard shouting. Over the years I had gained instincts to wake up at the weird sounds, like two voicing shouting abuse at each other loud enough for me to hear.
I contemplated whether it was worth it to stand up and go see what the problem was. Should I get in the way? Or should I sleep another few hours? I slipped my eyes closed, prepared to sleep through another one of Raph and Leonardo's fights. Then I heard my name.
I sat up and sighed heavily. Okay, I'll sleep through anything they have to say, except when my name is part of the screaming match, and I know they don't know any other Liza's. Mikey would have said something by now.
I slid on yesterday's clothes and slid them into a comfortable position. With heavy eyes, I left the room.
"Are you insane?!"
"It's none of ya damned business, Leonardo!"
"Yeah it is, you're my brother!"
I processed the words slowly. Whatever got Leonardo angry had to do with me. I had a couple theories, none all too fun. Couple of them ended up with my head cut off. One or two ended with me at least alive. Huh, death by turtle.
I figured the fastest way to my doom was over the stairs, which is exactly what I did.
"Elizabeth freaking Lanier, what are you doing here?" Leonardo blew at me from across the room. I kept my legs relaxed to take the shock off of them from jumping ten feet before I even decided to face the turtle.
"I came to see why I was woken up. To my name, by the way." I muttered. The immediate appearance of Leonardo, who was looking at me like I was the source of all his problems, kept me from trying to get any closer to him. His hands were twitching, and I had forgotten my dagger upstairs. Safe distance, instinct mode on. Step one, define your opponent.
"You-" Leonardo paused to glare at Don. Don glared right back, but he was doing it in this calm way that said, 'I'm mad at you, but I also don't care about you.'
Leonardo turned back to me.
"The beer? Kissing Raphael? What... the shell were you thinking?" He asked. I blinked a few times at him, and turned my head to look at Raphael. He looked well scolded, and something told me he hadn't spilled willingly. I looked back at Leonardo to see he had stepped closer to me. Well, he did have a reason to be mad. Maybe not this mad, but mad. Also...
"How do you know about that?" I asked. It was Donnie who stood up to the plank to answer, and I looked at him just enough I could still see Leonardo still in my peripheral vision.
Don waved to the ceiling and I looked up with him.
"We have cameras, which are always on. They got everything you did last night. The drinking, the minor fight, and," He harrumphed. "The, uh, kissing."
Fair enough. I nodded to Don but looked back at Leonardo.
"Okay, I get the anger. But why are you this mad?" I asked.
Leonardo crossed the living room faster than he should have, and by the time I could finish a blink, he had his katana at my throat. I stiffened up my body on reaction to the sudden weapon and enemy. My opponent, Leonardo. Step two, define his style.
"I am not mad, but absolutely livid. You were the eldest in this house when we left-"
"Woah now. I may have been eldest, but that doesn't mean I am the most responsible. Raph got the beer by himself, not me. I just had come down to make nice so we wouldn't have constant fights every time we were in the same room." I snapped before Leonardo could finish his sentence.
"You got a lot more than just nice." Leonardo hissed.
"And so be it," I hissed back. "It happened, get over it."
"I would watch my tongue if I were you. I'm not above murdering a murderer." Leo ground out, almost quietly like he didn't want his family to hear. I drummed my fingers on my leg, trying to stave off the tingling in my neck.
"Look, Leonardo... I'm not trying to start a fight," I said, a faux calm, "I'm trying to stop one."
Leonardo was not having any of it. He pointed his other sword at Raph.
"He is a turtle!" Leonardo said. He pointed at me. "You're a human. It wouldn't work."
"Now who told you you had to love your own species? Cause I'm pretty sure there's a zoo just down the street with a Liger." I said with forced humor. I took a deep breath through my nose afterwards, and decided screw it.
"Look Leo, we can keep going on like this, but there was nothing wrong with what we..." I stopped at Leonardo's narrowed eyes. "Well maybe there's something wrong in your eyes, but not in mine."
"Liza, shut up," Mikey whispered from behind Leonardo, "He's angry, you won't like him when he's angry."
I took the rather bold move and looked away from the enemy to his brother. I smiled lightly at Mikey, a small attempt to make him feel better.
"It's okay Mikey. Master Splinter won't let him kill me." I soothed. I glanced back over at Leonardo again, and watched his hand twitch again. I felt the blade press against my throat microscopically stronger, and then Leonardo removed the blade.
"Leave." He whispered.
"What?" I asked, shocked.
"Leave." He said again, simply. I connected the dots then. Oh, I was free. But why didn't I want to be free?
"You're kicking me out?" I asked. I looked over at Raph then. He hadn't said a word since I came in, but his eyes were blazing yellow, which told me enough. There was a fight coming, but it wasn't with me.
"Yes. You're right, Master Splinter won't let me kill you, but he can't stop me from kicking you out." Leonardo explained. I glanced at Leonardo for a second before I looked back at Raph.
"Alrighty then. I'll be out of your... scales soon. Just let me," Raph's eyes lowered to the ground, and he turned the opposite direction. "Get my stuff."