Late for the show, but ready to go!
So, I just started watching Rise for the first time a little while ago. I wasn't originally all that interested in it, because I was a bit put off by the new character designs and animation. But that was before I realized that once you see it in motion, it really grows on you! I instantly fell in love with the less serious and more comical nature of the story, and I knew that I was going to want to make a character for this. So, this is the result, so far.
I know there are already are several stories out there that follow this similar formula, but hopefully I can do this different enough that it won't just seem like a repeat of other works. For example, don't be fooled by the chapter title, rest assured that this is not the first episode of the show, but happens some time after it. Also, there will be no 'love at first sight' in this story. That is just so contrived and feels very Mary Sue, which makes for not very interesting story telling.
Anyway, enough of my ramblings. If you're still interested at this point, then I can only hope you enjoy what I have to offer! (Also, in case anyone wonders, the character art on the story is my own design.)
"Help! Somebody help me!" The cry rang loud, but falling on deaf ears as the shouting ricocheted through the abandoned alleys of New York City. There was no one to care in this city of cold capitalism and crime. Crime was simply a factor of life here, crime was occurring all the time and no one cared about it, and crime was what was happening right now.
Even so, despite all the known residents being numb to the desperate pleas of another in need, there were, in fact, a few unknown residents that did actually take an interest in acting when trouble was afoot. There were four, to be exact. Four brothers who did take the time to protect the innocent, fight for what was right, and do their best to defend those who could not defend themselves.
Except – fighting crime wasn't exactly what they'd had planned for their agenda that particular evening. . .
It was Leonardo who first reacted to the shout, lowering the pizza he was currently about to shove into his mouth.
"You guys hear that?" he questioned, mostly rhetorically.
"You mean the screaming coming from the alley over there?" Donatello casually thumbed behind him. "New York, what a town," he joked with a shrug.
"Sounds like somebody's in trouble," Raphael commented in a more serious tone.
"Do you think we should go try and help them?" Michelangelo wondered, his expression shadowed with concern.
"It's probably just some lady getting her purse snatched," Donatello scoffed, appearing to be much more interested in his cell phone than in the current situation. "Let the police handle it," he said, waving them off.
"Come on, bro. What's with that attitude? We're supposed to be trying to be heroes, right? This seems like an easy beginners mission," Leonardo reasoned.
"Sure, until the lady we're trying to help freaks out and tries attacking us with said purse," Donatello argued, always more of a realist than his brothers.
"Yeah, kinda sucks getting yelled at and called monsters, but – what if it's more than just a purse snatching?" Michelangelo offered.
"Mikey's right. The least we can do is check it out. Let's go, guys," Raphael ordered the others, Donatello with a reluctant groan.
Leaning over the edge of the rooftop, the turtles peered into the alley to discover a rather unexpected sight. Instead of a human scuffle, what they found were several Yokai, or mutants, it was hard to be sure these days, getting bound and carted into the back of a van by Draxum's Guardsmen. They weren't even trying to be subtle this time, their monstrous hound mounts growling and snapping at the victims.
The last one they were attempting to load was a girl who appeared to have taken on a cat-like form, and most likely the one to have yelled. She was giving the brutes a lot of trouble, struggling for all she was worth and continually slipping out of their grips with her nimble, now fur covered appendages. They were putting forth a lot of effort to get the ropes on her.
"Well, whadaya know? Looks like Draxum's rounding up some fresh recruits," Leonardo surmised.
"Yeah, and she doesn't even have a purse," Michelangelo pointed out unnecessarily. Donatello fixed him with an irritated glare.
"Good thing we checked! You guys ready to bust some heads?" Raphael asked the group.
"Right behind you, fearless leader," Leonardo confirmed.
Raphael dove in first, the others joining in the fray moments later. Having the element of surprise certainly helped give them the advantage this time. All of the enemies were knocked to the ground, and the brothers hopped back to strike a dramatic pose.
"You guys having a party? Hope you don't mind us droppin' in," Leonardo quipped.
"It's the turtles!" One of the minions roared.
"Get them!" The other one barked, the hounds immediately going on the attack.
Meanwhile, the cat girl had dropped to the ground. The rope they'd been endeavoring to bind her with falling and tangling up with her legs. She attempted to scramble to her feet, but she predictably didn't get far before tripping and smacking back to the concrete.
Despite their best efforts, Raphael could see his team was starting to get slowly pushed back. They needed to change tactics quick, or else they were going to fail this mission!
"Donnie! Help the captured mutants! We'll hold them off," Raphael shouted to him, currently in a power struggle using his tonfas to hold one of the Guardsmen at bay.
"Why am I always the one who has to help the people?" he protested back, whacking one of the hounds away with the booster-powered end of his staff.
"Because you can get them free the fastest!" Raphael shot back, with surprising logic. Donatello felt his eyes roll.
"Fine," he consented, abandoning the battle and leaping into the back of the van where several freshly mutated humans were currently bound. They stared at him with confused curiosity.
"Well, don't everybody jump up at all at once," he mocked at the lack of reaction, moving to the first guy and using one of his tools to slice apart the ropes. Several seconds later, and they were all free.
"Thankssss man," a snake-looking guy hissed his direction before slithering off into the night. Donatello shivered. They might both be reptiles, but snakes never ceased to be creepy.
Since the Guardsmen were busy fighting, they weren't able to stop their quarry from escaping. Much to their clear frustration. However, as Donatello exited the van, he noticed the cat girl still lying on the ground, a hound hovering menacingly over her. She was desperately attempting to get the rope off her so she could flee, but in her panic, she wasn't being very successful. All she could do was brace herself, right before the beast pounced!
However, Donatello pounced faster! In one motion, he managed to dive in front of the hound, scoop up the quivering girl, and roll out of the way, causing the dog to smash its nose into the pavement instead. Donatello glanced down to find her staring up at him, mouth slightly agape in total astonishment.
"You always this bad at running away?" he couldn't help but wonder, but she seemed too stunned to speak.
Now that he was able to get a good look at her, he could see that her fur was mostly a soft gray with darker stripes running through it here and there. She was wearing a dark, maroon hoodie and jean shorts, but with black leggings underneath that covered her legs. Her feet were engulfed in a bulky pair of leather boots. She also had a pair of large, pointed ears sticking out of her head, and a set of thick tails protruding from her lower back.
Wait a minute! Tails?! Donatello had to do a double take to confirm what he saw. He was about to ask her about it, but never got the chance. For at that moment, one of the henchmen had broken away from the main scuffle to begin charging towards them. Donatello had only a half second to realize with dismay that since his arms were currently full of cat girl, there was no way for him to defend himself! The brute brought his sword down with every intention to kill!
But the blow never came. Before it could, on what seemed like pure reflex and desperation, he realized that the cat girl had reached around and pulled the staff she'd seen him using off his belt. She was now holding it out in front of them with both hands, effectively blocking the attack.
Donatello froze for a moment in shock. What on earth was even happening right now?! He quickly snapped out of it, however, when he felt the pressure of the Guardsman leaning into his attack. He heard the girl grunt in her effort to continue to push back, but it was clear that his overwhelming strength was rapidly overpowering her. He had to do something fast!
"Rotate the ring towards him and hit the button in the center!" Donatello shouted down at her. And surprisingly, he watched as she followed his instructions to the letter!
The turbo engines popped out of the sides of the staff before roaring to life, the thrust currently directed towards the attacker. Now with the added momentum backing her up, the thug was violently blown back away from them, the girl releasing the staff when she realized that it was going to end up dragging her with it! The flying Guardsman proceeded to collide with his comrades, effectively bowling them all over, and complete with the comedic sound of pins falling into a gutter.
Finding their foe was now temporarily stunned, and all the victims rescued, Raphael realized that this was an ideal time to duck out. He knew that they wouldn't be able to completely beat these guys, so better to quit while they were ahead.
"Mission accomplished, boys! Time to bail!" he commanded, snatching up Donatello's staff for him as the group hustled out of the line of fire.
Once they felt they'd lost the baddies, the guys slowed their pace, coming to a stop in front of a closed convenience store. That's when Donatello finally set the girl down. She wobbled a bit on her unsteady legs, but they didn't seem to notice before immediately moving onto celebratory cheers at their success.
"Ha, yeah! We did it!" Michelangelo called, as they all exchanged high 'threes'.
"Finally! A successful mission and nothing got destroyed," Raphael added.
"Except for Draxum's plans, cuz we ca-rushed those!" Leo boasted.
"A little collateral damage never hurt anyone, right?" Donatello reasoned, before a certain sense of awareness brought all of their attentions back to the cat girl, who still happened to be standing near them.
Although, to say she was standing was actually a bit of a stretch. Since she currently had her back propped up against the wall of the store, staring at the pavement in front of her with rather labile and unfocused eyes. It was like she didn't even notice that the turtles were there.
"Uh, what's going on with her?" Raphael wondered with concern. Leonardo stepped over and waved a hand in front of her face.
"Yoo hoo! Cat girl? You're all rescued and stuff. You can go home now," he informed her, since it appeared as though she didn't seem aware of this fact. He scooted his hands towards her in an 'off ya go' gesture.
"You're welcome, by the way," Donatello couldn't stop himself from adding.
Reacting to the sudden hand right in front of her, she flinched and finally lifted her head to glance around at them with a wild look, as if just realizing that she wasn't alone.
"Ha-I, I can't. . ." she rasped and swallowed hard, giving her head a quick shake.
"What do you mean? Sure ya can! Everything's going to be okay now," Michelangelo tried reassuring her with a big smile. She only stared back with at him with a blank expression.
"Either way, it's too dangerous for you to stay here. You need to get yourself someplace safe. You understand?" Raphael informed her strictly. She nodded slightly, but continued to remain rooted to the spot.
"That means leave! Go on, shoo!" Donatello elaborated bluntly, waving her away.
The girl flinched again, but this time obeyed, backing away before turning and shuffling up to the nearest street sign. They watched as she gazed up at the names for several, excruciatingly long moments. She then peered back and forth in either direction, looking for all intents and purposes like a lost kitten. Until finally, Donatello couldn't take it anymore!
"Where are you trying to go?!" he loudly demanded, causing her to jump and spin back around.
"C-Central Park?" she seemed to decide unsurely, before marching off to her right.
"Uh, Central Park is the other way," he then informed her, not even attempting to hide his annoyance.
"O-oh, right," she acknowledged, before rounding the corner and disappearing behind a building.
"Jeeze, Donnie. Did you really have to be so harsh?" Michelangelo asked skeptically.
"Perhaps not. It's just people who can't make decisions are so obnoxious!" he lamented.
"You guys think she's gonna be okay?" Raphael cocked his head in consideration.
"Sure she will! Donnie gave her directions, right?" Leonardo assured him smoothly.
"Yeah, but? Why did she say she was going to the park?" Michelangelo couldn't help but wonder.
"It's not our business, Michael. Not our business," Donatello decided, turning on his heel and marching off towards home.
. . .
Katerina wandered aimlessly until the sight of foliage alerted her to the fact that she was finally close to the park. She hurried out of the street and under the protection of the large trees. There she leaned up against one and slowly sank down to the earth beneath it. She gripped her knees up against her chest as a powerful shiver shook her body.
Now that the adrenaline rush was wearing off, and her mind was able to slow, the impossible events of the day suddenly came flooding back to her. This had all started on her way to work that morning. It had been an average day, much like the one before it. A little breakfast, a little Capimon, and the usual not wishing her mother a good day, mostly because she was always still asleep.
She'd almost made it safely to the front door of the business, when there was a sudden, pointed jab on the back of her neck. Like a mosquito bite, but so much sharper, almost as if she'd just received an injection of some sort. She'd slapped at it, but didn't find anything, so planned to just brush it off. That was, until, the real pain began. It was like every nerve ending in her body was suddenly on fire! It felt as though her limbs were getting warped and stretched, even to the point where she was experiencing the agony in parts of her that she was pretty sure had never even existed before!
There was a scream, she couldn't be sure if it had come from her or someone else. Then the sound of something breaking. After several long moments of the horrible sensations, she'd managed to recover enough to push herself back to her feet. Only to hear another shriek that definitely came from across the street.
She'd turned to find a woman staring right at her with a look of pure terror, before turning to flee in the opposite direction. This really caused her to wonder at what was going on! So, she flipped around to find a window conveniently reflecting the scene in front of it.
In it was what appeared to be some kind of animal/human monster hybrid. The creature was covered in fur, and had a very feline appearance. Even more disturbing though, was that it looked like this thing was wearing her clothes!
Katerina gasped in surprise, backing away from the creature. However, as she stumbled away, so did it! She stopped and slowly brought her hand up, and the monster mimicked the movement exactly. That's when the horrifying realization dawned on her. It wasn't some mutant on the other side of the window, it was her own reflection!
Glancing down at herself, the panic really started to set in when she saw that, sure enough, her hands and arms were now covered in a thick, gray fur. She brought her hands up to her face to find that it no longer felt normal. Now it felt fuzzy and warped!
There were suddenly more shouts coming from down the road. She had the briefest of glimpses of several people beginning to run towards her, and they looked angry. That was when the seemingly endless chasing began.
Frantically scrambling the other way, she quickly found to her terror that there were people everywhere! No matter where she went, all of them reacted violently at the mere sight of her! Some crazy-fuel filled logic in her brain decided that it might be a good idea to try and go home. That quickly proved to be a mistake, as her mother reacted no better than the strangers outside, even threatening to hurt her!
Fleeing from one terrifying encounter to the next, it wasn't until nightfall that the real scares began. That was when she started getting pursued by what appeared to be heavily armored goblins and their horrible monster dogs! She tried to evade them for as long as she could, but after all day of continually avoiding all other forms of life, her energy reserves were running on near empty.
They eventually managed to corner her in an alley, before dragging her towards a suspicious-looking white, unmarked van. They opened the back only to reveal more animal/human monster hybrids, all trussed up and lying about haphazardly. They had brought out ropes in order to do the same to her, and in her desperation and fear, she'd made one last ditched effort to do something to save herself, and yelled for help.
Surprisingly, help actually did come, but in the most unexpected way possible. As four other reptilian creatures suddenly swooped in and managed to set them all free. The one with purple accents in particular had succeeded in saving her from getting mauled to death by one of the monster dogs, but then afterwards, harshly ordered her to go away!
She had no idea what was even happening anymore, let alone where she was supposed to go from here! So now, there she sat, wondering when she was going to wake up from this nightmare! She didn't get a chance to ponder much longer, because a moment later, the sprinkler system for the park decided to spring to life. She had to leap up and sprint over to the sidewalk to avoid getting soaked!
Plodding along the path, it wasn't long until she came up to an unoccupied bench. Well, at least it would be a place to sit that wasn't sopping wet now. So, in her exhaustion, she plopped down before spending the next long while simply staring out at the dark nothingness.
. . .
Back at the lair, April was impatiently waiting for the boys to get back. Doing her best to occupy herself with foot tapping and finger drumming, but it wasn't working. She pulled out her phone to check the time and decided to send off another ranting text asking where on earth they were.
However, a few moments later, clomping footsteps and loud, jovial voices altered her to their inevitable return. She hopped up to meet them head on, and they all froze and grimaced when they found her staring them down with an angry expression.
"Where have you been?!" she demanded. "You've been gone for hours!" she hollered testily.
"Sorry, April. We didn't mean to be gone so long," Raphael confessed sheepishly.
"After we got the pizza, we were really hungry, so we just thought we'd stop for a sec for one slice," Michelangelo began explaining.
"Yeah, but, then we got a bit – distracted," Leonardo continued.
"I told them to just leave it alone, but would they listen to me? Noooo," Donatello scoffed.
"Distracted? Distracted by what? And where the heck's the pizza?" April snapped back. They all deadpanned as the realization simultaneously dawned on them.
"Uhhhh, oops," Michelangelo managed to offer with a shrug.
"You forgot the pizza!?" April roared in response.
"In our defense, we were kinda busy running for our lives," Leonardo told her cryptically.
"What?!" she asked, but before they had a chance to answer further, Splinter waddled into the room.
"Ah, finally back, huh? So, is everyone ready for pizza and movie night-wait, where's the pizza?" he wondered at his son's empty hands.
"That's what I was just tryin' ta figure out! That was the last of my paycheck, ya know! You guys've ruined movie night!" April threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Splinter demanded of them. The three younger turtles all turned to their brother with hesitant looks. Raphael blinked back at them and sighed.
"Okay, so, here's what happened. We stopped for a slice of pizza, just one!" he quickly emphasized. "Then we heard this scream, right? And someone calling for help. So, we decided to check it out to find Draxum's goons kidnapping some mutated humans," he paused for a moment to let that sink in. He continued when it appeared no one had any comments, good or bad.
"Well, we couldn't just let them get away with making off with those innocent people, so we jumped in to help," he explained with a reasoning tone.
"And we kicked butt!" Leonardo finally decided to jump in. "All the captives got away with no problems," he boasted.
"Actually, that's not entirely true. That cat girl was certainly trouble. Since she was the reason why we had to bail in such a hurry and totally forgot to grab the pizza," Donatello protested, still sounding grumbly.
"I don't know. She seemed to do an okay job of saving your hide," Leonardo teased, as he recalled the earlier events.
"Excuse me! I'm the one that saved her. And the only reason she was even able to use my staff was because I told her exactly what to do! If it weren't for me, we both would've been sliced in half," Donatello defended haughtily.
As April was listening to them argue, her ears began perking at the direction the conversation was taking. This 'cat girl' was starting to sound interesting.
"Yeah, but, she was acting really weird afterwards. Like, all the other guys ran off, but she just stood there all spacey," Michelangelo commented with a frown.
"That was weird. It's like she was acting like she was lost, or something," Raphael agreed, rubbing at his chin in contemplation.
"Well, she was lost, wasn't she? That's why Donnie gave her directions," Leonardo reasoned.
"I guess, but I still don't get why she said she couldn't go home, and then, why did she need directions to the park?" Michelangelo asked innocently.
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute," April suddenly interjected, halting the story. "So, let me get this straight. You rescued this 'cat girl', who actually helped you fight off Draxum's men. And then afterwards, she told you she couldn't go home, and then needed directions to a park?" she wondered dubiously.
"Yes, April, that's what they've been saying. Try to keep up," Donatello huffed.
"And then what? You just, let her go?" April continued, her tone slowly growing more aggressive.
"Well, yeah. She just sort of, wandered off," Leonardo elaborated.
"Seriously?! How old was this girl?" she asked them.
"She looked like a teenager to me," Raphael offered with a shrug.
"And you didn't think that it would be a good idea to ask her why she couldn't go home, or why she was going to the park, at this hour?!" She was now almost shouting again, waving her arms wildly around the lair as if to emphasize that it was very dark outside, even though they were currently underground.
"Noooo. . ." Leonardo trailed, now sounding rather unsure of himself.
"What is wrong with you guys?!" she demanded, they glanced around at each other. "Normal kids don't hang out in parks by themselves in the middle of the night! Especially not freshly mutated ones! That's what homeless people do! She was probably tryin' to tell you she couldn't go home, because she doesn't have one! And you just let her walk away?!" April lectured harshly in disappointment.
"So what?" Donatello shot back. "There are literally thousands of homeless people in the city. Are we suddenly required to start helping them all now?" he argued irritably.
"Not homeless mutants, and not ones that Draxum seems pretty keen on gettin' his hands on. What do you think's gonna happen to her if she tries to spend the night in a park, out in the open? At best, arrested and sent to some lab where they're gonna do weird tests on her, or more likely, she's just gonna get recaptured," April fought back.
"April does have a point. The behavior you were describing sounds like someone with emotional trauma, and parks are common places for the homeless to spend the night. Draxum's men might come to the same conclusion, and if they get to her first. . ." Splinter trailed.
"Then all that work'll be for nothing!" Raphael realized with dismay.
"Not that! Draxum's going to try and use this girl against us, you ding-dong! Especially if she shows prospective skills as a warrior," Splinter snapped at his eldest son. To which, Raphael looked disheartened and whined a bit.
"So, what you're saying is, we should go check on her?" Michelangelo guessed.
"Yes," Splinter nodded, dragging out the word. The turtles shuffled their feet, not appearing to be in that much of a hurry to leave.
"That means now, you bums!" he snapped, causing them all to jump and make for the door. "Wait!" he suddenly commanded, as if thinking better of something, and halting them in their tracks. "To risky for you all to go. Better to just send blue and purple," he decided, waving them off.
"Why us?" Leonardo wondered.
"Because purple can fly and you can teleport," Splinter stated flatly.
"Sort of," Raphael couldn't help but add, earning him a dirty look from Leonardo.
"Ugh! Fine! Let's just get this over with!" Donatello lamented as they hurried out.