Chapter
Five
The
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
"Damn." - Raphael, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The sitting room was dark, over shadowed with a creeping chill that the haunting flames of lit candles swaying within red paper lanterns only gave a further ominous and uneasy feel to. The room was empty, void of any comforting items that normally would have populated the space. At the center of the room, the air seemed to twist and shimmer in an oily kaleidescope that distorted the rest of the room behind it. The air was thick, smothering the room in a heavy blanket that pressed down in a near suffocating manner.
You should have broken the seal. You should have let me out, Little One. I would have given you the power to eliminate your enemies.
Sara stood before the distorted space in the middle of the room, glancing about with her eyes only, searching for the disembodied voice that sent a blood curdling chill down her spine. There was something horribly familiar about the voice as it slithered about her with unseen clawed hands that traced her every line and curve, prodding for a weakness...a loose seam. Feeling the clammy cold writhing about her, a sense of panic started to rise up within her, causing a frantic search from the spot she seemed cemented to. Glancing down at her feet, Sara's eyes widened as red iridescent coils threaded up her legs like a demonic vine. Sara began to thrash, hands gripping to the coils and viciously making a desperate effort to pry the vile things off her.
Let me out. You need me. You need my power. Let. Me. OUT!
The voice roared, the sound resonating throughout the whole room as if a massive freight train had passed through, the growth of the coils speeding in response. More of the coils slithered in from across the floor, lunging up at the frightened teen, latching on and consuming her body beneath their unbearable presence until only her face was left exposed, her mouth gasping for a panicked breath as she tried to mutter out a cry of protest.
Sara's grey eyes fluttered beneath her closed lids before opening wide, pupils constricting as she sucked in the panicked breath she had been unable to take in her nightmare. For a moment she lay still, staring up at a ceiling that was constructed from a dark brown brick that appeared to be weathered and scared by time yet still retained a classic look. The pupils of her eyes were returning to normal, although they widened in order to use what dim light was about her to see. A sense of uncertainty crept over her as she tried to piece together what had happened. The last thing she remembered before being struck from behind, Those humanoid turtles. What the hell was that anyways?! A trick of the Foot? A genjutsu?
A dull throbbing began to thump away at the back of her head, reaching around to tickle her forehead rather quickly. Muffling a groan, Sara reached up and rubbed at the center of her forehead, and tried to at least sit up. The attempt was a bit difficult, but somehow she had managed to push herself up into a slouched sitting position and chanced to inspect where it was she was currently residing. It was a room, that much was obvious, but it was a massive open room that looked rather close to a living room of sorts. There was a decent amount of light spreading throughout the room, highlighting the several arcade games clustered off to the left with what looked like a mini half pipe sitting behind it. Looking around slowly, Sara took note of the fact that she was sitting on a large burlap covered couch with a pillow stuffed behind her. A kitchen was off behind the couch's position, looking somewhat discolored but other than that operational. It appeared that there was more to the large space, disappearing with the curve of the room and several hallway like entrances.
"Weird." Sara murmured, while looking off to her left where a large TV was set up before the couch alongside several recliners. I'm...in someone's home...? There was a cozy feel to the whole area, but there was a sense of cold to it as well as if it were open and outside the normal sense of a house. As she looked about herself, Sara started to feel an odd buzz tingling at the back of mind. A buzz that she had come to long since recognize as a sort of precognitive warning, a "spidey-sense" if you will. Was it an alarm to warn her of danger, or was it just a signal to let her know that there was something else about to happen? Not wanting to take a chance on the latter assumption, Sara slid back down on to the couch and set herself back into a sleeping position and closed her eyes, relying solely on her hearing to tell her what it was that she would not see.
Not even a moment longer than when the buzz started, voices started to drift into the open area from what seemed like every direction thanks to the surrounding brick walls. At first it sounded as though there many voices, a trick of the reverberation that the walls induced, but as Sara focused her hearing on the stronger pieces that were the root core of each voice, she counted three distinct voices that sounded male. As the young teen started to worry around the thought of being in the possession of the Foot Clan, her ears picked up a much more cheerful and friendly tone that what would have been associated with any Foot ninja. If these guys are not apart of the Foot Clan...who are they? Her whole body began to fidget beneath her own forced sense of worry, and as the voices drew closer the young teen froze.
"I wish you could have been there! She was awesome!"
"What I'm curious about, is how she managed to make copies of herself to fight the Foot."
"Easy guys." A pause. "Master Splinter thought it would best if there was at least someone else around when she wakes up."
"Why would Master Splinter think that...oh, right."
"Yeah, I think he wants to avoid the whole 'freaking out' thing when she wakes up and sees us."
Sara cracked an eye open slowly in response to the conversation. It was a rather odd conversation that had the teen wondering just who it was that had brought her out of the subway tunnel. However, her own thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat, sending the teen into a ridged frozen state with eye still open. Slowly, Sara allowed her open eye (her left eye) to slide over towards open side of the couch and then stared at one of the strangest sights she would swear to ever come upon at that moment in her life. Her breath caught within her lungs, pausing momentarily as if for some reason that if it continued it would obstruct her reasoning as to what, or rather who, stood there staring down at her with what could only be described as a rather friendly look.
Or at least as friendly of a look that human sized rat standing upright, dressed in a wrap around tunic of dark color, and holding a walking stick could provide to a now wide-eyed teen girl staring up at him. "Well, it would appear that you've finally come around. That was a rather terrible knot at the back of your head young one." There was an Asian influenced accent to the rat's voice, that fact almost slipping passed Sara as she seemed more focused on the long whiskers twitching about the long cone-shaped muzzle covered in dark brown fur. Large black almond shaped eyes held a glint from the dim lighting, but held no threatening promise to them that at least offered a small amount of comfort to Sara as her mind suggested the idea to freak out while noting at the same time that there's was a possible chance the humanoid turtles she thought she had seen in the subway, were in fact...
"Ah! Master Splinter!" A rather cheery voice called out. "We got them!"
The rat nodded, both in response to the calling voice and also to the shell-shocked teen still looking up at him with ever widening eyes that continued to grow. Looking up towards the voice that approached with loud bounding steps, the anthropomorphic rat stared with what looked like a faint smile. "Michelangelo, please, your voice level must lower or else you'll give our guest a further headache." The rat pointed out while gesturing down towards the couch ridden teen with a slender hand that ended with small but sharp looking nails.
Out from over the top of the couch, the face of yet another oddity to register right up there with the talking rat. Round, green skinned, and blue-eyed, the face stared down at Sara with a wide grin as it seemed genuinely thrilled to see her awake. "Hey, you're awake!" The cheer was animate, and accented with what sounded like skater lingo. "Guys, she's up! Come look!"
Shaking his pointy eared head, the rat almost rolled his eyes as it appeared that the other had failed to heed his subtle gesture to lower his voice. Glancing down at the teen who had shrunk further down into the couch cushions, the rat offered an assuring look while noting the fact that she was now possibly crossing the line into the beginning stages of freaking out. Seeing, and sensing this, the rat looked up again and beckoned someone towards him with a wave of his claw. "Ms. O'Neil, would you please come this way? I believe our guest may need a piece of familiarity."
Before that piece of familiarity could come around the couch, another green face popped up over the top of the couch beside the first, an inquiring look pressing across his face as he lifted a brow. "Wow, she is awake. I would have figured she'd be out for at least a good four hours or more." He mused while stroking his chin.
Sara's eyes refused to blink as she continued to stare wide-eyed at the anthropomorphic beings hovering over her. It was the rat who fanned the two others off in a shooing manner as yet another someone else appeared at the head of the couch arm where her head rested. Fortunately for the young teen, this face was a piece of familiarity as it was of human resemblance. A redheaded woman loomed over the teen, her sharp green eyes holding a sympathetic concern for the girl she had never once met until now. A very small amount of relief prickled along the back of her spine, but it wasn't enough as Sara finally made her first move by scrambling with the speed that a toddler would envy. In her mad dash to clear her personal space of humanoid beasts and possibly the only other human in the room, Sara's hand slipped as it hit the other couch arm just on its outside lip, and before anyone could move to help her, she disappeared over the end of the couch.
The redhead stared dumbfounded after the vanished teen, feeling a sense of confusion and understanding all at the same time. "Uh, hey, you..." She was cut off as the upper half of the girl's face appeared over the top of the couch arm, grey eyes darting between the triangle of bodies before her. Sweat beaded her forehead as stress had finally caught up with her. The red haired woman exhaled a quiet sigh as this scene seemed so distantly familiar and couldn't help but smile faintly. "I can totally understand why you're freaking out right now, but no one's going tâ"
Sara's gaze flashed an angry glare that challenged the woman to even dare say her next few words. How could she not freak out? There was a rat dressed in human clothing standing on two legs reaching just below her own height by a foot, and then there were two others that were literally giant turtles! And they said not to freak out. "No kidding! How do you not expect me to freak out or worry whether or not I'm in danger?! I have a rat and what looks like two kappas, talking to me!" Sara snapped back, her speech hurried and almost near shouting as she pointed over at the two humanoid turtles that were now exchanging confused looks with one another.
"Ah, so you are familiar with Japanese folklore." The rat mused while stroking his thin beard dangling from the underside of his jaw. "And from what Leonardo has told me, you also seem to capable of utilizing advanced ninjutsu abilities, such as replicating multiple copies of yourself." He lifted a brow while watching the teen stare at him suspiciously from her crouched position behind the couch.
"I must have been hit harder than I thought." Sara muttered under her breath while side glancing off to the couch for a moment as she tried to piece together what may have happened in the subway tunnel.
"Yeah, that Foot Ninja caught ya pretty good at the back of your head." One of the turtles pipped up, his eyes and a bit of his upper face hidden behind a band of orange cloth knotted at the back of his head so that two tails dangled down along his neck. He seemed to be rather excited by the fact that she was awake, and didn't even seemed fazed by the fact that she was eying him with possible distrust and judgment. "It hadn't been for Leo, you would have face planted into the concrete." He chuckled at the little thought that tickled a mental picture for his own viewing.
The brow about Sara's right eye pulled up in a rather defiant manner as if shooting some smartass remark at him mentally. The other turtle standing beside the one sporting orange, folded his arms across his armor covered chest. "No kidding. But I'm confused as to why the Foot attacked you in a mass group like that." This one sported a dark purple band of cloth in the same manner as the other, and as he turned his head to look over at the rat he addressed as â Master Splinter, the twin tales twisted along the curve of his neck and shoulders. "I believe I heard them say something about a Clan, uh, Haru, I think."
"They said Haruno." A rather gruff voice interjected, a touch of a Brooklyn accent hanging across his words. "Geez Donny, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one." A third turtle entered into Sara's once in a lifetime 360 degree field of vision, his appearance was a bit more on the muscular side making him physically bigger than the first two turtles. And like the other two, he also sported a band across his eyes, only in red. His own gaze stared the teen down, burning amber reaching close to the color of the mask on his face, challenging her to even try some of the tricks he had been witness to.
"Just how many of you are there?!" Sara questioned while now looking about in every direction to see what else would pop out before it caught her off-guard.
The rat chuckled quietly beneath his breath while slowly moving forward with the aid of his cane. "All together, our family consists of five members." He replied while nodding towards another turtle that had stepped out of the shadows, and like the others bore a band of cloth over his face, this one colored a dark blue that framed a pair of bright golden eyes that watched her intently like the one in red. "And outside our family, we have friends like Ms. O'Neil." He then turned back part way and with a nod of his head, indicated towards the woman standing still beside the couch.
This had yet to completely assure the teen who continued to hide behind the arm of the couch. "A family?" Sara questioned while rising a bit higher above the couch arm so that her full face could be seen. Setting her fingertips against the couch arm, Sara lifted from a kneeling position on both knees, to a crouched one sitting on the balls of her feet to set herself ready for a possible attempt to run if the need arose within the next minute or so. "You'll have to forgive me for not exactly believing anything I've seen here so far. Talking turtles and a rat are not a common sight."
"You are of the Haruno Clan, are you not? Or were the Foot mistaken when they identified you?" Splinter asked while making his way to the couch and sat down, leaning forward a bit on his walking stick a raised brow. "Now, I'll have to ask you to forgive me when I say that you don't look fully Japanese." He nodded at her physical appearance.
The rat had a point, and with this, Sara agreed. She looked nothing close to Japanese, or any Asian decent. Her complexion and body structure made sure that everyone recognized her as "American", but it was the shape of her eyes that did give away a bit of where her background lay. Pulled in a gentle slant towards the outside corner of her eyes, something near what would be categorized as cat-like, they tattled on her quietly. "I'm only a third, and yes, I am of the Haruno Clan through my mother." Sara muttered back in reply while not entirely sure as to why she had done so.
The four turtles stared with confused looks between one another, while the only other human present stepped forward out from behind the far couch arm. "They guys said you were fighting the Foot." She mused, carefully crafting her way into gaining further information as to who this girl was. "I have a bit of a good grasp on the abilities that the ninja from the Foot Clan posses. So it's hard to imagine one teenager going up against a rather large group and only coming away with a knock to the back of her head."
"Sorry to disappoint you." Sara grumbled back while glancing over at the four turtles who now stared intently at her, waiting to hear a further answer. "What?!" She snapped out of annoyance to the fact that she was set under a spotlight. "I think it's only fair you explain you before I start saying anything about myself! I'm not going to just open up so quickly, especially since you seem to have an intimate knowledge of the Foot as well."
The rat nodded in understanding to this, and then with a claw, gestured towards the open armchair sitting across from the couch. "If you would like to take a much more comfortable seat, I will explain to you our origins in the hope of gaining a small amount of your trust." He replied while awaiting for her final response, knowing it would take her a moment to consider this the rat looked back over his shoulder as gesture for the turtles to make themselves comfortable as well (and hopefully aid in the disposal of a rather intimidating presence that two of them were providing at the moment).
Hesitantly, Sara started to slowly stand to her feet and edge her way towards the armchair that looked welcoming, but at the same time offered a musty ancient look. Keeping her gaze on those who seemed to have surrounded her, or at least from her point of view. Sitting down in the armchair, making sure to stay seated on the edge of the seat as a safety precaution, Sara stared across at the rat that had been called Master Splinter a few times already.
An thus, Splinter's tale began, "Our story starts years ago, beginning with my life in Japan. I was once a pet of my Master, Hamato Yoshi. My Master was a great ninja, and when he would practice, I would watch him from my cage and mimic his movements. Like any great master, he had a rival. A man named Oroku Saki. Not only was Oroku Saki a rival in the ninja arts, but also in love as he and my master both shared common interest in a woman by the name of Tang Shen." Splinter watched the teen girl as he spoke, noting the look of interest now creeping over her expression. "However, Tang Shen fell in love with my Master. This angered Saki very much, to the point of blind rage. Tang Shen persuaded my Master to flee Japan, to leave behind a useless fight that would not solve or prove anything. Agreeing, my Master and his new wife left and came here to America, and made a home here in New York. Saki vowed vengeance no matter what and spent years tracking us down. The day finally came when Oroku Saki and my Master finally came face to face. Coming home one night, my Master Yoshi found his beloved wife dead on the ground."
A flicker in Sara's gaze caused Splinter to take special attention now with her eyes as something seemed to stir behind them. It was as if something else was now staring back through her, something that had come to gain interest in the tale being told. While there was sympathy and curiosity in Sara's gaze, there was also a sense of hunger and underlying malice that Splinter could not place.
"Oroku Saki had found them. My Master fought with Oroku Saki, knocking into my cage and dropping it to the ground. Free from my cage I leaped for Oroku Saki, and dug my claws and teeth into his face in an attempt to protect my Master. However, my attempts were to no avail. My Master was slain, and I lost my right ear that night. With no home or family, I was left to wander the sewers of New York, scrounging for food. One day, I happened upon a strange glowing canister that was broken and spilling liquid from within. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there were four baby turtles crawling about in the liquid. Rounding them up into a coffee can I watched over them that night, afraid that they may suffer illness from what they had been exposed to. The next morning I awoke to find that the baby turtles had doubled in size, and that I myself had grown as well. While the baby turtles roamed about the sewer, I noticed something peculiar, one of them was beginning to talk. Over the next few days the turtles grew even more, both physically and mentally, as did I."
Looking between Splinter and the turtles that stood behind him in a near uniform line, Sara tried to wrap her mind about this whole story. She had heard theories about chemical waste or radioactive material mutating all forms of life, but the idea that something like that could be true with its results standing before her, was a bit far fetched to say the least. Four turtles mutated, by god only knows what, to anthropomorphic appearance along with an aged rat... "Ooookay." Sara murmured under breath while scratching at the back of her head, careful to avoid the spot that was still sore from being knocked...or at least it should have still been sore. Sara only had enough time to raise a curious brow before her train of thought was interrupted by Splinter.
"I would like to introduce to you, my sons. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Named after the great Renaissance artists, I have trained in the ways of the ninja, bestowing upon them all that I had learned from my Master Yoshi." Splinter further explained, and thus also concluded his tale. "You may call me Splinter." He stated while setting a hand to his chest and then gestured towards the red haired woman who had taken a seat on the couch arm. "And this, is April O'Neil."
Sara continued to stare quietly at them all, a slightly suspicious look still pulling across her face, but there was now a small air acceptance coming from her. "Nice to meet you." She returned, while sitting in a slightly more relaxed position on the edge of the chair. "I'm...I'm Sara Reeve." Sara introduced herself, if not a bit begrudgingly as she had come to a somewhat conclusion to the fact that this group had absolutely nothing (maybe) to do with the Foot Clan. "I just moved here the other day with my family from Colorado."
The turtle named Michelangelo, the youngest out of the four, perked up in response and somehow managed to clear the space between him and her in half the time frame of what it took to blink. Crouching at her right hand and clutching excitedly to the arm of the chair, he stared at her with big blue eyes. "How old are you? What's your favorite food? Do you like video games?" He asked in rapid fire succession, leaving hardly any room for her to answer each of his questions while she stared at him with wide eyes that expressed a rather keen amount of shock at how quickly he had moved and now talked.
The one named Donatello groaned while smacking himself in the forehead, his younger brother's over excitement slightly embarrassing him at the moment. "Great first impression there Mikey." He muttered beneath his breath.
Raphael shook his head with a grunt and stared at Sara with an ever present judgmental look on his face. "So what would the Foot want with you anyways?" He asked, or rather demanded, rather roughly.
Sara nearly shot the red banned turtle a glare in response to his tone towards her, but instead opted to merely allow her brow to twitch with annoyance. "How should I know?!"
"Well they attacked you didn't they? And they seemed to know something of your background." Raphael pointed out bluntly, his voice level starting to rise as he slowly found Sara to be rather annoying for one reason or another. "So apparently you should know something!"
This one...is irritating. Sara chewed angrily on her thoughts as her jaw clenched beneath her lips. "I don't know why they jumped me in the subway."
"Raph, enough." Leonardo cut his brother off as he opened his mouth to retort with possibly a shout that for some reason tipped off the older out of the brothers to the possibility of screaming match erupting between Raphael and the girl named Sara. "Master Splinter, do you know anything about the Haruno Clan that may cause the Foot to attack her?" Leonardo looked down at Splinter, who seemed to be mulling over several thoughts of his own.
Splinter studied Sara for a moment, the glint he had seen in her eyes was a bit of a curiosity, and at the same time it bothered him. There's something else looking through her eyes, watching and listening. The Haruno Clan. I remember that Master Yoshi had made mention of the Haruno Clan often, and even went out on missions with them if I'm not mistaken. There was something else...something about the clan that was considered 'dark'. They were guardians of something, but what, I can never remember. "If Sara-san does not know why the Foot attacked her, then she does not know. We are all in the dark on what the Foot maybe scheming in the absence of their leader." Splinter assured his sons, while also giving Sara a reassuring look. "Sara-san, you do seem to know at least who the Foot are and what they are capable of. Please, think of us as allies against the Foot. My sons and I are on your side, willing to aid you when you need it."
Sara stared at the anthropomorphic rat with a blank studying look, her head tilted to the left as she seemed to be debating before her eyes slid over to April O'Neil, as if asking whether or not she should put her trust in this 'family'. Although this was quite possibly the weirdest thing to witness and even believe, Sara was convicted by her own thoughts that no matter how odd it was to be surrounded by humanoid animals, it wasn't as odd as some of the things that had happened to her (or some things about her). A defeated smile suddenly cracked across her face, causing Michelangelo to grow even more excited at her side. "Something tells me that I'm really going to need it."
