"Please?"

"No."

"Pleeeeeeeease?"

"No."

"Aw, why not?"

Frankie shot Mikey a baleful glance. "I ain't never gonna touch one of those things again as long as I live. No way. Ain't happenin'."

"But no one else will play with me!" Mikey whined.

"I ain't playin' with ya either, Orange."

"Serves you right, Mikey," Leo admonished. "You were kind of…"

"An ass?" Raph supplied.

Frankie smirked. "'Ass' might work, I was thinkin' somethin' else."

Raph grinned and gave the girl a high-three.

A moment later Mikey had tackled Raph, and a full-out wrestle match ensued. Raph almost had the orange-banded turtle pinned, until Mikey did a twist and a flip and leapt across the room. Frustrated, Raph pulled out his sais, twirling one around his hand. Mikey's response was to grab his nunchakus.

"Stop!"

Both turtles straightened up, looking over to where Don had emerged from his lab. "Geeze, guys, I'm trying to work, can you keep it-" he stopped suddenly.

"You guys really are ninjas, huh?" Frankie's voice was small and sounded terrified. She was white and visibly shaken, sitting on the couch and picking at the fabric wrapped around her left wrist. "You're really ninjas."

Don was suddenly there, and said in a low voice, "We told you that last night."

She just nodded. "Yeah-"she drew in a shaky breath – "It's somethin' else to see it in action though." She shuddered.

"What are you scared of?"

Her eyes flickered to Leo then back to the wrap. She stared very intently at a ragged thread. There was a long silence.

"The Foot." It was barely a whisper.

Leo and Raph shared a glance.

Frankie swallowed and continued, in a slightly louder voice, "I ain't scared of much, y'know, but… them crazy ninjas… you can't fight 'em. They just…vanish."

"Okay, hold up a second," Leo interrupted. "Why were you fighting the Foot?"

"Ooh, ooh!" Mikey bounced up and down excitedly. "I bet I know why! I bet you're secretly Shredder's cousin's daughter-in-law thrice removed who holds the heart of Tengu in a mysterious jade necklace that glows during the fourth full moon of the sixteenth year!* Am I right? Tell me I'm right!"

Raph smacked him across the back of the head and muttered "That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard, Mikey, even comin' from you."

Frankie just gaped at him. Leo stared in disbelief while Don clutched his sides laughing.

"The hell…?" Frankie muttered, still confused.

"Well, fine then," Mikey grouched, "what's the real story?"

Frankie turned bright pink.

"Dudette," Mikey snickered, "Are you blushing?"

"It's kinda… embarrassing."

"We're related to Mikey. We can handle embarrassing."

"Hey!"

"It's a long story…"

"I don't have anything better to do, since you won't play Mario Kart with me."

Frankie looked at all of them, desperately trying to come up with an excuse. She drew a blank, though, and sighed, resigning herself to the story. She took a deep breath, and began:

"Well, see, I used to run with a bike gang-"

Mikey sniggered. "You were a biker? I thought bikers were supposed to be scary, not scrawny little-"

"You really wanna finish that, Orange?" Frankie glared at him. "'Sides," she added, rolling her eyes, "It wasn't a real gang, just a bunch of rich punks who thought they'd get their kicks hangin' with the real street kids. They were a buncha pansies. But they had sick bikes. Oh, by the way," she looked at Don, "I think there's somethin' wrong with the fuel injector on that bike you was workin' on yesterday."

Don slapped his forehead. "Of course! I can't believe I didn't think to check that."

"You and me both, braniac," Raph added, shaking his head.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's official: Raph's an idiot."

"You were, saying, Frankie?" Leo interjected loudly, trying to bring his brothers' attention back to the story.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Well, anyway, like I said, there were five of these older rich kids and a bunch of us younger ones, and for some reason we was always tryin' to get in with 'em, don't really remember why now, seems real stupid when I think about it.

"So we were just bummin' around, y'know, spookin' the old ladies walkin' outta the grocery store and tryin' to get them to give us money, just usual stuff, when one of the big guys, called himself Roger, decided that we gotta do more than lookin' tough and pickin' pockets and stuff. Guess he was bored."

"Wait, you're a thief?" Leo asked, looking wary.

Frankie just looked at him. "Hey, man, don't judge me like that, there ain't no other way to get by. When you ain't got a home and you ain't a part of one of them big organized gangs, you wanna eat, you gotta take it from someone. I tried the whole 'bein' good' thing, didn't get me anywhere. In the streets, you gotta learn to take what you want, otherwise you're never gonna get it."

Silence greeted her words. While none of the turtles thought that what she was talking about was right, they couldn't tell her that she should have starved before stealing.

Frankie suddenly grinned proudly. "I'm a real good pickpocket," she bragged. "I'm small and quick, I don't never get caught."

"You know, Frankie, that isn't really the best thing to be sharing." Don pointed out.

She shrugged. "I ain't gonna take anythin' from you, if that's what you're worryin' about."

"Why should we believe that?"

"Look, Leo, I don't got much. I got my knives and my clothes and I got my honour. I ain't petty, I only take what I need and I don't take nothin' from people who help me. And God knows there's enough who don't. When someone does, I ain't gonna screw it up by takin' their stuff.

"So, anyway, Roger and them other rich kids decided that we should start actin' more like a gang, and he said we had to sneak into some building and steal some stuff. Y'know that big skyscraper with the little Chinese house on top?

Leo stiffened. "It's called a pagoda, and that one is Japanese."

"Whatever," Frankie said dismissively. "Y'know what I mean. It's, like, one of the biggest buildings in the city. And the guy that owns it"-her face darkened- "is stinkin' rich. We used to like to joke around about what he got in there. It's kinda funny. I used to spend a lotta time talkin' about that thing. Now I don't even like to think about it.

"So, Roger and some of the other rich brats started schemin'. Wouldn't let the rest of us in on the plan, and I didn't really care anyway. Damn, I was so stupid! Can't believe I let those assholes control me like that."

"Let me guess," Don said. "You tried to break into the Shredder's headquarters."

"Didn't just try, we succeeded."

"What? How?" Don couldn't believe what he was hearing. It wasn't exactly easy to sneak into a building swarming with ninjas.

Frankie gave a short, sarcastic laugh. "Damned if I know. Stupid rich kids did some tech-y stuff and got us in. Course, they prob'ly weren't expectin' the welcomin' committee. We didn't get very far."

There was a long pause while Frankie stared ahead, reliving the memory. Her face was murderous. When she spoke again, her voice was soft and she said every word evenly, like she was trying to keep from jumping up and killing someone. The turtles didn't realize how close to that point she really was.

"They ran. Bastards. All them rich kids, as soon as they saw the Foot ninjas in there, they all just cut and left. Some of the others split too. Y'know, it was real stupid trustin' them rich bastards, but, damn, we were just kids. Thought we had loyalty and all that shit. But when it came down to it, it was just me and two other kids. We tried to fight 'em off, but what can three kids do against them Foot, right? They're too damn fast. Anyway, they grabbed us, and brought us to the guy that owned the place, all suited up in an outfit like a giant cheese grater or somethin'."

"The Shredder," Mikey whispered.

Frankie nodded. "Yeah."

"Why'd they bring a buncha kids to the Shredder?" Raph asked curiously. "You'd think the Foot'd just take care of you themselves."

Frankie shrugged. "I think they thought we were up ta somethin'. Doubt they ever had street kids breakin' into their buildin' before, they probably thought we was, like, the FBI or somethin'. Sure as hell didn't believe me when I told 'em we was just goin' for kicks." She shuddered and rubbed at her wrist absentmindedly.

After a moment, Don prompted, "And? What happened?"

"Killed my buddies. Almost killed me."

There was a stunned silence. Then Mikey shook his head. "Man, I knew the Shredder was an evil dude, but…"

Leo was livid. "There's no excuse for murdering children!" Raph had his sais clenched in his hands and even Don looked angry.

Frankie almost smiled at their reaction. "Good ta know I'm not the only one who has problems with that."

"Uh, not to be, like, offensive or anything," Mikey rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "But why didn't he kill you? OW!" he added when Raph slapped him across the back of the head.

"Knucklehead," he muttered.

Don looked thoughtful. "Actually, Raph, that's a valid question. It's not like the Shredder to just leave his victims alive. He must have had something planned."

"He did."

"What?"

"I said he did. He didn't just let me go." She suddenly got defensive. "I told him 'bout Roger and them others. I didn't wanna die like the other kids and I was scared and…and s'not like he left me all fine'n'dandy, either. I hadta tell him!"

"What happened?"

"Y'know that crazy knife thing he got on his hand? Well, he told me 'bout some place –dunno what it was called, I wasn't real concerned 'bout that part – where if you're caught stealing they cut off your left hand."

Four sets of eyes flickered to where Frankie's hands rested in her lap.

"He said he thought that was a good idea and that more places should be doin' it. But, since I never actually took nothin' and he wanted to make me an example or somethin', he didn't cut it off… just screwed it up enough to make me wish he had. Then his ninja freaks – erm, no offence – threw me in an alley downtown and left."

Leo looked sick.

Frankie looked around at all of them. "I never told anyone that story. Not even Roger and the gang, though they was askin' what happened after the Foot dumped me in our old hangout." She thought about it for a second. "Don't seem as bad when I say it out loud."

"It doesn't sound bad." Leo echoed disbelievingly, shaking his head slowly.

Frankie shrugged. "I mean, at least I survived right? Coulda…coulda been worse."

She grinned suddenly. "So, Leo, t'answer your question, I ain't…what was it… holdin' the heart of Pingu or whatever Mikey said. I'm just a street kid. Or, y'know, if you're an 'upstandin' citizen', I'm just a huge pain in the ass."

"That's…optimistic."

Frankie just grinned ruefully. "Gotta be, Otherwise I'da been dead a long time ago."

Mikey looed thoughtful for a moment, then blurted out, "So, who wants to play Mario Kart with me?"

"Oh, hell no!"

Raph rolled his eyes. "I dunno why you even bother askin' anymore, Mike."

Mikey stuck out his tongue.

"Optimism, dear brother. You should try it sometime."

-x-

A/N: Hey-ya! So, what'd you think? I hope it wasn't too lame, just sticking everything out there like that, but I really wanted Frankie to tell her story, so she did. I really like this chapter, personally. I had fun writing it. And, to be honest, I love writing as Frankie; we have completely opposite personalities so it's fun for me to be someone else for a while. Anyway, extra-special thanks to TMNT Redneck, Laughter's Tears, Mikell, and BubblyShell2, as always, for the reviews . You guys rock! For those of you I didn't mention…next time, review!

PS, if anyone can guess where Roger's name came from, you win…well, everything. It's a pretty obscure reference. You will win my everlasting respect and admiration, how 'bout that?

*This exceptionally awesome quote was borrowed from the one, the only, Mikell! Thanks again for letting me use it.