A/N: Seeing as the prologue was so short and you didn't get any time with our four main men, I decided to do a double update and publish the first chapter with it as well. I hope you all enjoy and will review. Remember, reviews are love and Laurel would like to get some feedback on it too...
Chapter 1:
The New York skyline stood tall against the back drop of another bright sunset. The numerous windows of the skyscrapers shone with the orange and reds of the dying day. The shadows would soon fall over the streets below and make it too dangerous to travel out again. At least, it would be dangerous for most.
Four figures walked out from behind the top of the roof stairwell and toward the edge of the building. One leaned carefully on the edge of the building while another took a post on the other corner. One stood toward the middle as he typed something on a small handheld computer, while the last stretched out his back muscles. Trying to target those deep under his shell.
"Hey Leo," Michelangelo asked as he popped his neck and walked beside his brother, "Why are we patrolling over here tonight?"
"There are a lot of reports of frequent muggings in this area of town and now they seem to be escalating to robberies and violent attacks," Leonardo turned to Donatello, "What are we looking at here, Donnie? The Purple Dragons wanting to start up some more trouble again?"
"As if they could keep out of trouble for long," Raphael smirked from his corner of the building.
"It definitely isn't the Purple Dragons. The items that these guys are taking are not really within the dragon tastes," Donatello looked from Raphael to Leonardo, "Most of what is taken is valuable, but within refined sophistication like works of renowned art, sculptures and fine jewelry. They are probably reselling them on the black market."
"I definitely can't see a Mona Lisa hanging over Hun's fireplace," Michelangelo smiled at the visual. Donatello rolled his eyes and continued with his thoughts on the new group plaguing the city.
"They have been hitting in a specific pattern- starting with the ritzier homes in town and mugging those who live there and have now moved to particular exhibits that have caught their eye. According to my observations of their movements, their next target should be the Metropolitan Art Museum," Donatello hit the device in his hand a few more times and then clipped it back to his belt, "They are probably after those new precious jewels in the European History wing."
"The news reports have been plastering those jewels on the tv for over a week," Raphael quickly spun his sais, "A little too enticin' for those punks to pass up."
"Then the museum it is," Leonardo nodded his head, "The last thing we need is for these guys to kill someone over the jewels. From the way these guys are going it's only going to be a matter of time."
Suddenly a small roar sounded behind the three and Michelangelo rubbed his stomach, "Well, can't do a steak out without some pies, can we?"
The other three face palmed.
"Mikey…" Raphael groaned.
"Man, I could really go for some deep dish action right about now," Analise rubbed her stomach. Deidra followed behind her as they closed up the second to last exhibit. Analise shook the bars a little bit to make sure the gate was locked properly and then moved to the next hall.
"You are always in the mood for pizza," Deidra smirked at Analise and looked out the large windows that lined the hallway.
"Or oriental food. Oh! Or your cooking," Analise smiled and jingled the keys and little to get to the right ring, "I don't care what anyone says. Your cooking rocks."
Deidra smiled in appreciation, but then turned her head to the side of the room where one of the large, ground floor windows was placed. She squinted a little and stopped from following Analise.
'Was that a shadow?' she asked herself and waited a few seconds to see if she saw it again.
"Deidra?" Analise walked back to her friend and looked toward the same window, "What's wrong?"
"I thought I saw something," Deidra frowned and took a deep breath after she couldn't see anything, "Maybe I am catching your paranoia."
"Don't fool yourself, you were paranoid long before you met me," Analise rolled her eyes with a smile, "Just one more exhibit then we can turn in the keys and get out of here. That cheesy looking zombie movie is premiering tonight on FEARnet."
"Wouldn't want to miss that," Deidra play gasped at the notion.
Analise pushed her shoulder, "You're the one that told me about it."
"Sounds like a plan," Deidra laughed and swiped some of her bangs out of her face, "Now that I think about it, your whole idea of pizza sounds really good."
"Told you," Analise added in a singsong voice and opened the door to the last exhibit. She walked in and noticed a few of the shadows moved in the exhibit and the lights were already off before she reached the room, "Henry is that you?"
Deidra stepped forward toward the darkness and held her bag close since she held a short knife in the front pouch, "Henry, if that's you, you know better than to sneak up on me. Don't make me cut off those huge ears of yours."
Three figures came from the shadows in front of them and stepped forward.
"Um, they aren't Henry," Analise growled out with a little hesitation. Her instincts to run were hammering against her head as her sense of duty to the museum fought back harder. They weren't there for a tour and she knew it. Two of them held heavy bats while the last held a bag that he stuffed another handful of jewels into.
"Those are from the exhibit," Analise took a step forward ready to defend the museum property when Deidra stopped her.
"They aren't alone," Deidra said in a low voice and looked to the left side where two more appeared with knives, while on the right another two appeared with blunt objects.
Analise turned to hit the alarm, but one more thug closed the doors to the exhibit and cut off her way to the button. Analise backed up against Deidra's back as they looked at the group that was surrounding them.
"Bad timing," Analise said and looked at the four thugs on each side of her, "Very bad timing."
"You're telling me," one of the older looking men said and hit his palm with what now looked like a pipe. He looked at his friend with one of the knives, "Grab the bag."
Deidra tried to swing her bag out of the way, but another member grabbed it and threw it to the side. Deidra narrowed her eyes. There went her weapon.
"Okay, so run down?" Analise asked as she kept a close eye on the guys to her front and side as Deidra did the same.
"Eight of them, ranging from early twenties to early thirties," Deidra rattled as if making a primary profile, "Don't look to have much training. Brute force is their main weapon. Very little execution of any kind of plan-"
"Hey!" one of the older men snarled.
"I think they do it on the fly," Deidra nodded her head in affirmation of her own statement.
"Great, that makes them unpredictable," Analise wrapped a piece of her jacket sleeve around her hand as the guy holding the knife crept closer, "Just had to jinx us last night, didn't you?"
"Got to keep things interesting, don't I?" Deidra crouched low so not to be caught off guard.
"Interesting… right," as Analise went to look over her shoulder at her best friend one of the guys with the knives rushed at her. She whipped her head back to face him and screamed.
"Did you dudes hear that?" Michelangelo stopped by the edge of the building with one large pizza box under one arm, "It sounds like a dudette is in mondo trouble."
"Sounds like it," Leonardo grabbed both of his katanas as the sound of something being knocked over and broken sounded from the building.
"Like our kind of trouble," Raphael smiled and spun his sais as all four of them rushed the building.
"Wait, just a second," Donatello stopped his brothers from rushing in through the locked security system.
"That scream didn't yell caution, Donatello," Leonardo said through gritted teeth.
"Yeah, but you don't want a security system screaming our arrival, do you?" Donatello asked as he scanned the outside of the building looking for the circuits of security measures.
"Bros?" Michelangelo pointed to a large door that was wide open and leading to a large open truck, "Why don't we just use the open door?"
"Good job, Mikey," Leonardo lead the four of them toward the doors and carefully looked around the area around the truck to make sure that it was empty of all humans. At the side of the doors was a man with large ears who looked like he was knocked unconscious and holding lightly to a large key ring. Beside him looked to be the security guard with mace in hand.
"Must be the night manager and the night guard," Donatello guessed.
Another large something fell to the floor and what sounded like a fist hitting flesh echoed down the hall.
"We can help them later, it sounds like others need our help more right now," Leonardo ran down the hallway.
"A service I love to provide," Raphael grinned manically as the sounds of the fight grew closer.
As they came into the main room they all stopped in their tracks, and Michelangelo nearly dropped his pizza.
There in the middle of a group of four men with four other men already knocked out over some of the exhibit cases were two young women. One had cropped red hair with long bangs which she brushed back from her focused eyes in between her jabs and low kicks. Her loose fitting black shirt flowed over her dark blue jeans tucked firmly in a pair of combat boots. The other was a brunette with shoulder length hair that swayed and twirled every time she kicked and blocked exchanges from her attackers. She was wearing what looked like a tour guide outfit for the museum. She had a buttoned up white shirt under a dark vest and a light grey skirt, where she wore a pair of shorts underneath. Strange enough the two girls seemed to be having fun in the attack.
"Who exactly is attacking who in this scenario?" Michelangelo asked and placed his pizza off to the side so it wouldn't fall from his grasp.
"I am not quite sure, but four against two isn't the best odds," Leonardo ran toward one of the guys in the outer ring as Michelangelo went for the other one. Donatello held back and watched the girls' fighting style as it looked like they could handle themselves while Raphael was a bit too stunned to say or do anything.
"Deidra! Let's show them what some coordination can do," Analise yelled over her shoulder and held out her hands toward her friend.
"Let's," Deidra nodded and grabbed her arms. Deidra grounded herself and sung her friend to the side while holding to her forearms. Analise whipped out her feet and connected to the face of one of the attackers throwing him into the side wall, hitting the silent alarm. Analise landed and swung the momentum to Deidra who swung her body weight into the last guy that she was fighting and threw him into a glass case where he dropped the bag of jewels.
"Now, where are the last two?" Analise asked as she patted her hands together and both her and Deidra regained their balance.
"Already taken care of," Deidra crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Leonardo and Michelangelo who had just knocked the last two robbers out. Analise stood next to her best friend and put her hands on her hips as she looked over the two newest additions. She also noticed the other two still standing near the doorways that led to the back offices and loading dock.
"And they're not alone either," Analise nodded her head toward Raphael and Donatello.
"We aren't going to hurt you," Leonardo said as he dropped the unconscious thug to the floor and put up his hands. Neither of the girls screamed, but both of their eyebrows shot up in interest at the sound of his voice, "We actually heard you scream and came to help."
"I only screamed because he surprised me," Analise defended herself and crossed her arms over her chest.
Leonardo started to walk toward the two girls. Deidra immediately went into a defensive stance while Analise still looked confused by their presence. Analise looked over at Mikey and wondered if he knew how to talk too. If they were walking and could take out two men without a sound, she wasn't all that surprised that they could talk too. Michelangelo began to feel a little off guard as the girl focused on him.
As Leonardo was a couple of feet away from the girls Deidra brought her fist back for a punch and Leonardo stood a little shocked by the girl's sudden aggression. Before he could utter another word Deidra threw her fist toward him. He barely flinched as her fist passed by the left side of his face and punched a robber who was trying to sneak up behind him.
"You gotta be more alert of your surroundings," Deidra shook her head as she also shook out her hand.
"Your fist going to be okay?" Analise laughed a little at her friend's actions and looked at Deidra's hand. She looked over Deidra's shoulder, saw the large turtle with the red bandana and snorted at the way his chin was brushing the floor. She looked back at the two who were still a little shocked as well, "What's wrong with him?"
"Um, not too sound off or anything, dudette," Michelangelo rubbed the back of his head as if massaging it would make sense of the situation, "But Raph doesn't see girls fight like this that often."
"He should hang out with us more," Analise smiled and then paused as she focused on Michelangelo again. He turned stiff and watched her as if she was going to attack him. She noticed she was making him nervous and gave him a friendly smile, "I'm sorry your form looks familiar is all."
"Fighting form?" Leonardo asked.
"No, I didn't see you take down the thugs you did," Analise shook her head.
"She meant your body shape," Deidra picked up her bag and checked for her knife which was still in the front pocket.
"What about it?" Michelangelo patted the front of his plastron. He turned to Donatello, "I told you I was gaining a few."
"No," Analise shook her head and pushed her face toward Michelangelo's and then took a detailed look around him. Suddenly something clicked in her mind and her eyes widened, "You're those giant turtles that the tabloids are always writing about!"
"I hate to admit it, but I think you're right, Ana."
"Thanks for your overwhelming confidence," Analise frowned back at her friend. As she looked back her stomach growled, "All that fighting has made me hungry… I swear I can smell pizza."
"Well, we-" Michelangelo started, but Analise put up her hand to stop him.
"I love it when she does this," Deidra chuckled a little.
She sniffed a few more times and closed her eyes to concentrate, "It has only one cheese on it. Canadian bacon, and pineapple- Hawaiian, my favorite."
"She missed-"
"Shh!" Deidra stopped him and shook her head.
"…And rotisserie chic- No, wait…" she took a deep breath through her nose, "Teriyaki chicken. And it's right over by the now drooling fellow."
Analise walked over to where Donatello and Raphael were standing and took the pizza box from where it was sitting and brought it over to Deidra, "Check?"
Deidra rolled her eyes but opened the box and nodded to her friend, "Perfect, as always."
"I know my pizzas," Analise smiled.
Michelangelo stepped right next to her and looked at her, "Who are you?"
"Analise," she introduced herself and grabbed two slices, one she held out to him, "Slice?"
"…I think I'm in love," Michelangelo whispered to Donatello who followed Analise back over.
Donatello sighed in exasperation and tapped into his hand held computer once again, "Based on the knowledge of the human female, at least at most-"
"What do you mean at most?" Analise frowned and then bit into her slice as Deidra took a small piece as well.
"-and the demographics of the area, the probability of them knowing how to fend off and protect themselves against this kind of attack is staggering low. Not only that… they didn't scream when they first saw us," Donatello continued and looked at the two girls.
"Hear that? We're a minority," Analise nudged Deidra in the side.
"Me? An Irish girl. A Minority? That's redickalus," Deidra said as she finished off her piece.
"You mean ridiculous?" Donatello asked and put his last notes in the computer before putting it back on his belt.
"Nope, redickalus. And as for your statistics, you're off kilter," Deidra faced Donatello, "It depends on where you are pulling your statistics from and what age range they pulled from, if they did indeed do a spectrum of subjects."
"She speaks Donnie," Michelangelo pointed at Deidra.
A loud siren sounded outside the building and some red and blue lights shown through the windows.
"It looks like the enforcement is here," Deidra looked at the lights.
"And our cue to get outta' here," Raphael finally spoke. All four of them began to run toward a skylight.
"Wait," Analise took a step toward them, "Are we going to see you again?"
"Or is this how you guys operate?" Deidra asked as they looked back at the girls, "Appear once and then disappear for good?"
Michelangelo looked at Leonardo who seemed like he tried to ignore the question. Michelangelo turned from their unofficial leader and back at the girls, "I don't know about my bros, but you'll definitely see me again."
"Why do you say that?" Analise asked.
Michelangelo pointed to the opened pizza box, "You owe us a pizza."
"Same toppings?" she smiled in a bit of hope.
"Let's see how it goes."
"Okay, pizza Romeo, we gotta go," Raphael pulled on Michelangelo's bandana. All four of them slipped through the skylight as the police entered the exhibit hall.
"Are you ladies okay?" one of the men asked as he turned on the main lights.
"Just fine," Analise nodded, "Some thugs thought that they could steal from the museum."
"We found the night manager and security outside, they were knocked out."
"Henry and Albert," Analise realized in a worried tone, "Are they okay?"
"They'll be fine, just some bumps on their heads," the officer looked over to Deidra, "Agent Jenson?"
"Hello Lieutenant," she smiled, "A little late in response time, don't you think?"
"How'd you get here so fast?"
"Meet my roommate and best friend, Analise Arelle," Deidra motioned toward Analise who waved, "She's one of the managers of the exhibits and does the tours regularly."
"She was helping me wrap things up," Analise explained, "Which was good because I don't think that I could have handled all these guys on my own."
"Right," the Lieutenant nodded and wrote some notes in his notebook, "We need to get details."
"Then let's get them done," Analise picked up her pizza, "I want to get home soon. There's a new horror movie calling my name."
"Where and when did you two get the pizza?"