Glad y'all are likin' the story! -huggles- Love you all!!
Random quote: The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.
~ Robert Bloch
Disclaimer: don't own 'em..... yet -evil grin-; still writin' fanfiction
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The girl stretched and yawned as she awoke the next morning. She winced as she stretched out her sore muscles. She had taken some beating the previous, or was it the day before? Regardless, that gang had really done a number on her, though she she would admit it.
She fished out some crushed, stale crackers from her pocket and grimaced as she forced them down. A small bottle of water was drained and stuck back into her baggy pants pocket. She didn't like to wear clothes, but couldn't fight the necessity of them
She climbed up the nearest manhole, blinking in the harsh afternoon sun. 'Overslept again.' she thought to herself, kicking herself for not being careful. She wandered the streets, looking for a suitable store to... relieve of one of their produce.
There. A local fruit store. Nothing fancy. There was some old antique shop next to it, "Second Time Around" or something like that. She walked past it and stealthily nabbed an apple from the produce store, then walked casually out to the street. She ate the apple, discarded the core, then wandered into the antique store.
"Good afternoon." a young woman called. "I'm the owner, April O'Neil. Are you looking for someone?" she added, seeing the small girl shy away from the loud voice.
"No ma'am." the girl said quietly, disappearing down an aisle.
April forced herself not to follow. The girl wanted to be alone, let her. She would talk more if she wanted. April couldn't help but notice the rugged, dirty appearance, however. April bit her lip in worry. The streets were dangerous, especially at night.
The girl walked around for a bit, almost running into a young man stacking boxes in one of the aisles. She stumbled back, steadying herself with one hand."I'm sorry, mister." she said.
"It's alright. I'm Casey. Casey Jones." the man said, not turning to really look at her. He glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eye. 'Runaway.' he concluded.
The girl knew he was studying her. She quickly left the store, heading down the back alleyway. She listened for trouble and her fur tingled. Someone was following her...
"Stay away." she called to the mystery stalker. She headed to the shop, just in case.
"Hey girly." called a familiar voice. The thug stepped out of the shadows. The usual five others soon followed.
"Kinda sad, dontcha think?" the girl said, her mouth getting her into trouble as usual. "That six guys haveta pick on one defenseless girl."
"Shut up, idiot!" the leader snarled, backhanding her. The others leaped on her like a pack of wolves. They kicked her while she was on the ground, spitting on her for good measure. She stubbornly got up, her fighting spirit unwillingly to give in. She swung her fists and received even more abuse because of it. The thugs laughed as they hit her and they started shouting insults at her.
"Homeless!" "Orphan!" "Freak!" Their words blended together until all the girl could hear was "Homeless orphan freak!"
One final kick and a punch and she was down again. Someone came running out of the antique shop and the Purple Dragons scattered. "Freak!" one called back over his shoulder.
The girl staggered to her feet. Her lip was bleeding and swollen and she had another black eye. More cuts and bruises added to the already impressive collection she had on her body. She leaned heavily on the wall, the alley spinning around her. Her vision was fuzzy around the edges and she shook her head to clear it.
"Kid!"
The girl jerked to attention at the name. The man from the store, Casey?, was standing over her, gently her shoulder. She looked at his face through her one good eye.
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up." he sighed, picking the girl up. He carried her into the shop, despite her weak struggles, and set her on the spare couch downstairs. "Stay here." he said.
"Yes, because I'm in perfect condition to get up." the girl fired back. She tried to get up anyway and had to bite her already sore lip to keep from crying out in pain from her shoulder.
"Yeah, babe, she's pretty banged up." Casey said, walking into the room with April.
"Don't call me babe." April said with obvious frustration. She looked at the girl on the couch and put a hand to her mouth. "Oh my..."
The girl felt around for the hood she used to conceal her face and realized that it had fallen off in the scuffle. She started to try to run and fell back on the couch again, this time unable to keep from crying out. April immediately rushed to her side.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. It's alright, I'm not frightened by your appearance." she soothed, calming the girl down.
"I'm sorry." the girl apologized, hanging her head. "I didn't mean..." She stopped, eyes clouding with pain from her shoulder.
"Let's get you taken care of." April said with a smile. She started to apply some medicine on the girl's cuts and bruises, then she put a muscle relaxer on the girl's shoulder. It wouldn't hurt her, she had put medicine on herself before. So long as she didn't ingest it, she'd be fine.
"You need to eat something." April said , lifting the girl's shirt slightly. Her ribs showed clearly, even through the fur, and her hips jutted out. She was clearly underweight, dangerously so.
Te girl shook her head. "You don't have to-"
"But I want to." April interrupted. "Now, what do you want?"
"Um... Do you have any... meat?" the girl asked quietly, almost shyly.
"Yep." Casey entered with a whole slab of ham and the girl's mouth watered at the sight of it.
Casey set the ham in front of the girl on a tray. She ate hungrily and in a minute flat the meat was gone. She drank some water April got for her, rolled over, and went to sleep.
Midnight. The girl woke up and cautiously looked around. The coast was clear, as the saying goes. She slowly sat up, testing her injuries, and went to the window. She judged the leap to the fire escape and jumped. She landed wrong and pain shot through her leg. She had to bite her hand to keep from crying out, but she couldn't stop the whimper that escaped.
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"Are you alright? I thought I heard a thump." April said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she walked into the :guest room." The girl wasn't on the couch. April's eyes widened as she looked at the empty couch, then slowly they rested on the open window. The girl had gone.
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"It's weird, guys." April said over the phone the next morning. "She was there one minute, then gone the next."
"Well, maybe she just, you know, left./" a surfer voicer said over the phone. There was the sound of a slap, a loud "OW!", a then a loud Brooklyn voice sounded over the phone in the background.
"Of course she left, ya chucklehead. Tell her the kid'll be fine, Donnie."
"I'm not so sure." said a soft-sounding voice. "From what April told us about the girl's injuries, she couldn't have gotten far, and you know the Purple Dragon's will be back."
April shivered at the name. "They were so horrible to her."
"We'll keep a lookout, April." a leader-like, almost commanding voice said. "Don't worry."
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The girl didn't look too good. The bruises were dark and showed even through her fur. Her left eye was completely swollen shut, her right eye was bloodshot and slightly blackened from a previous scrap. Her muscles ached when she moved, though she fought the pain and moved anyways. She was running a severe fever, though she shivered as if cold. Thankfully, nothing was broken and everything internally was intact.
She managed to crawl into an abandoned tunnel, closed off from everything else. Dim light filtered through a hole that was small enough only for a very small rat in the ceiling. The girl collapsed on her side, panting with the effort of moving even a few feet. Her breaths came in ragged gasps and she shut her eyes. Sleep followed soon after.
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Coming in the next chapter: mystery girl meets the turtles! Will there be a battle, or simply a "kidnapping"? Find out, next!
THREE reviews before I post the next chapter, pretty please. Please and thank you!!
-12kirby12