Random quote: "What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger."
~Friedrich Nietzche
Disclaimer: don't own 'em..... yet -evil grin-; still writin' fanfiction
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The girl awoke two days later. She again heard the sounds of voices, and this time they were much closer. She groaned as she got to her feet, climbed the manhole cover, and slithered into the nearest alley.
There was a flash of movement on the rooftop, but it was gone when she looked up. There was an eerie calm in the alley, until she heard the snickering.
"You just don't learn, do you freak?"
The gang stepped from the shadows. The girl groaned and shook her head. "I don't have time to deal with you." she rasped.
Before the girl could react, the leader had her against the wall, holding her above the ground by her throat. "Make time." he hissed, slamming her once against the wall, then dropping her. She rolled and got to her feet. She braced herself for another beating, but when she turned around, a stick knocked the feet out from under the Dragon closest to her. Soon, a pair of swords were at the leader's throat.
"Leave her alone if you know what's good for you."
The leader just swallowed and nodded. The figure let him go and he scrambled off.
The girl eyed the figures warily. There were four of them and they looked tough. She couldn't see them, just their outlines.
"Hey kid, ya alright?" asked one of them. He had a Brooklyn accent, making him sound tough.
"What is your name, little one?" another voice asked kindly. He appeared to be the leader, and he held the others back from getting too close.
The girl lost it. She got up and started running, hollering over her shoulder. "You're never taking me back!" She ran all of three feet before falling over from sheer exhaustion.
She struggled to get up when she heard the figures advancing. "We will not hurt you." a soft-spoken voice said soothingly. The girl relaxed despite herself and slowly all four figured advanced into the light.
They were turtles. Big, giant, strong and lean-looking turtles. They each wore different color masks and they each had different weapons.
"Why are you all alone?" the turtle with the blue mask asked. He had a pair of kantanas, Japanese swords, strapped to his shell. He appeared to be the leader.
"None of your business." the girl spat, angry at being this weak.
"Hey, kid. We just saved yer butt. The least ya could do is answer some questions with a little less hostility." the red masked turtle said. Tucked into his belt were a pair of sais.
The girl lowered her eyes, defeated and exhausted. "I am sorry." she said. "I am aloe because..." 'Lie' she told herself. She faltered, thinking up a good lie.
"Hang on." the purple masked turtle with the bo staff said. "You have a severe fever. We have to get her help." he said, turning to the others.
"Dudes, let's take her to the Lair!" the orange masked turtle twirling the nunchakus said.
"You... You're the one I hear sometimes..." the girl said suddenly, her voice shaky and weak. "On the skateboard down in the sewers. You yell 'Cowabunga!' sometimes. I hear you sometimes..."
"Whoa, dudette! That's right!" he exclaimed. "Wicked hearing, little dudette!"
The girl shrugged painfully, then broke out into a coughing fit. She shivered when it was finished and the purple masked turtle picked her up.
"That's it." he said, leading the others to a manhole cover. "We have to at least bring her fever down."
The blue masked turtle nodded. "I agree. It doesn't seem right to just leave her."
"Alright! The dudette is coming with us!"the orange masked turtle said, sliding down the ladder. "Send her down!" he called.
"Mikey, she's too weak right now to be tossed around." the purple masked turtle scolded gently. "Can you hold on to my shell?" he asked her.
She nodded. "Yeah." she said, clinging on with both hands to the massive shell. She wrapped her legs as best as she could around the the turtle and he slowly climbed down. They reached the bottom safely and the other two appeared beside them. The red masked turtle was the alst down and they hurried on their way.
Soon, they arrived at a tunnel separate from the rest of the sewers. One of the turtles pulled a pipe and a hidden door opened up. They stepped through the hole and came out into a rather large room. T.V.s stacked on top of one another filled almost an entire wall and there was a couch and a few amchairs in front of them. The girl was set on the couch and the turtles gathered around her.
A new scent reached the girl's nose, followed by a pleasant-sounding voice. "My sons, who is this?" A four-and-a-half foot tall rat came to stand and then kneel in front of the girl.
"Master Splinter, we found her topside. Those Purple Dragon thugs were beatin' on her and we had to help her." the red masked one said.
Purple mask came back with several ice packs. He put them on the girl's head, arms, and eye.
"This will help with the fever as well as the swelling." he explained.
"I'm... fine..." the girl said, trying to get up.
"Whoa, little dudette!" the one they called "Mikey" said. "Slow down!" he gently pushed her back onto the couch. "We won't hurt you. Calm down."
"Who are you?" the girl asked, looking at each in turn.
The blue banded turtle spoke up first. "My name is Leonardo, though most call me Leo."
"Donatello. Or you can call me Don or Donnie." the purple masked turtle said.
"The name's Michelangelo! My bros call me Mike or Mikey, though." the outspoken orange masked turtle said.
"Raphael, or Raph." the red banded turtle said, arms crossed.
"And I am called Master Splinter." the rat said.
"Or Sensei!" Mikey threw in, earning a whap to the head Raphael. "Ow!"
"Alright, ya know our names. Now how about yours." Raphael said.
The girl studied her now-fascinating fingers. She was silent, but when she looked up, she saw the five waiting expectantly. She finally spoke.
"I have no name." she said.
Mikey burst out laughing, thinking it was a joke. "Good one, little dudette!" he said. His jaw dropped when he saw that she wasn't joking. "What? You're not kidding?"
The girl shook her head. "No, I am not. One of the nicer names the Purple Dragons call me is the Nightstalker, but the is not my true name."
"So you're like... nameless?" Mikey said softly.
The girl nodded. "It's no big deal." she said.
"No big deal? That's almost as bad as never having pizza!"
"What's pizza?"
Mikey grasped his heart and pretended to have a heart attack. "What's pizza, she asks." He got up. "Don't worry, dudette. We'll get you a little slice of heaven soon."
The girl smiled, revealing sharp canines." "So... how did you guys get to be so... green?" she asked curiously.
Master Splinter spoke then. The turtles all gathered around him and the girl sensed a many-times-told story beginning.
"A long time ago, I used to be a pet rat to a man by the name of Hamato Yoshi. He was my Master and I learned the art of ninjutsu from studying his training sessions. One day, a man by the name of Oroku Saki came and killed my Master. I tried to save him, but I was tossed out of the window.
"I lived in the sewers for some time, building myself a burrow. One day, four baby turtles fell on my head from the world above and I cared for them.
"One day, I awoke and the turtles were crawling in some bright green ooze. I gathered them up int a coffee can, getting the ooze on myself in the process.
"When I woke the next morning, I found that we had all nearly doubled in size. As I took the turtles for a walk around the sewers, I was amazed at their dexterity. They could walk on two legs and even said their first word: Splinter. They all enjoyed pizza and I often gave them some. Intelligence followed soon after.
"I knew that the world above would not understand them, so I began to train them in the art of ninjutsu; of stealth and silence. They are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." he finished.
The girl nodded thoughtfully. "So you guys are ninjas." she said. She smiled. "wicked."
"Now you know our story." Leonardo said.
"How about you tell us yours?" Donatello suggested.
The girl closed her eyes. It was painful to remember. "Just don't send me back." she said, opening her eyes.
"Send you back where, my child?" Splinter asked gently.
"Back to them." she answered mysteriously, then launched into her story. "You see, I was actually born a tiger cub in a zoo. I had both a younger sister and an older brother. The zookeeper there, after trying for three months to keep all three of us plus our parents, decided that one of us would have to go. My sister was younger, and therefore she was cuter and brought more money in. My brother was older, fiercer, braver. He attracted more men to the zoo. But me, I was the runt, the outcast, the dud. I didn't have the cuteness of my sister nor the ferocity of my brother. So they got rid of me. The owner sold me to a local circus, where I was beaten, whipped, starved, anything they could think of to break my spirit. They trained me to perform, then sent me away after my first performance because I was "old news" and didn't bring in money. I was passed on to a lab that tested human products ib animals and that was where I was exposed to the mutagen that made me what I am today." It wasn't an easy story to tell, but the girl plowed through it. "They wanted to run my tests, but I escaped. I have been living on the streets and in the sewers since I was about nine years old in human years."
Shocked silence met the end of her story. Donatello broke it.
"So the Purple Dragons have been attacking you-"
"For six years now, yes." the girl said with a nod. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.
"So much pain, my child." Master Splinter murmured softly. "So much sorrow."
The girl closed her eyes and her breathing slowed as she finally gave in to sleep. The last voice she heard was Mikey's.
"She still needs a name."
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Sorry if I botched the origins story... Couldn't remember half of it and was too lazy to look it up :D. Hope you enjoyed this chapter regardless!
THREE reviews before I post the next chapter, pretty please. Thank you!!
-12kirby12