Disclaimer:…. I obviously do not own Ninja Turtles. Peter Lair and Kevin Eastman do.
"Well it's midnight, damn right; we're wound up too tight.
I gotta fist full of wiskey, the bottle just bit me; ooh, that shit makes me bat shit crazy.
We git no fear, no doubt, all in balls out. Oooh, we're going out tonight!
To kick out every light! Take anything you want! Drink everything in sight!
We'll go 'till the world stops turning and we;ll burn it to the ground tonight!"
"Burn it to the ground"by Nickleback
Three months pass and Moth or Marlowe as she was called, was quickly adjusted to the Foot clan. Although, it did frustrate her that as a new recruit, she had to do start her training right from the beginning, and pretend she didn't get it the first few times. And it didn't help that the 'sensei', Master Mashimi, kept teaching them the wrong things. For one thing, Ninjitsu training always starts with the basic, he kept mixing up the order where he was teaching them flashy, advanced moves and combos before teaching them the basics. And the stances and kata's he made them do was often incorrect. Moth's tongue was almost split in half from her biting it to refrain from correcting him.
The incorrect training aside, Moth also found she had a hard time socializing with other humans. But this was to be expected seeing as she was literally raised in a cave. Three months and the only friend she had was Quinn (Joyce). She liked Quinn; Quinn had real talent in Ninjitsu, she always seemed to get the moves right on the first try and she seemed to understand Moth, and Quinn was the only one Moth really liked because she was smart in the sense that she could understand things, it was a shame she decided to join an evil ninja clan. But, again Moth had a hard time socializing with other humans because she had absolutely no grasp on their slang, and warped sense of humor, and a lot of things 'human'. One instant, Travis (Clay) had made a remark to Quinn and Jones, saying that they were gingers with no souls. Moth immediately reprimanded him and ranted that all people had souls and demanded (at wooden sword-point) that he apologize at once. Keene (Patrick) then explained to her that it was only a joke from 'South Park', whatever that was. Moth narrowed her eyes and asked what was so funny about that joke, and they only face-palmed in response. She also could not shift from her 'savage' ways, like literally tearing at her food, and growling possessively at anyone who came close to her while she was eating, not brushing her hair, chewing her fingernails, scratching her ear with her foot (don't ask, there is a lot of flexibility training involved in that story and lets just say there was a dead bat in the end), eating insects, ect.
There had been this other instant where her group of new recruits were practicing their roof-jumping when Jones screamed at something and every else backed up. Moth saw that what had them freaking out; it was a really big prey-mantis. Moth had grinned a littler before she walked up the giant, green insect and gingerly plucked it up. She then drew I to her mouth, plopped it into her mouth and chewed on it. They stared at her in disgust and shock. Confused at their glances, Moth had asked "What? Oh sorry, if you wanted it you should have said so before." To that, they face-palmed.
Moth may not be very good with people due to inexperience, and general ignorance, but even she could tell that they were questioning her behavior. Kai especially.
Speaking of the youngest of the Oroku clan, he was just about the most closed-off, cold-hearted, arrogant asshole with-a-big-stick-up-his-OCD-shell, kind of guy Moth had ever met. Well, she may not have met many people in her life but still. Unfortunately, she had to 'work' with Kai every day, since he was head of recruitment that meant he had to teach the rules of the Foot to the new recruits. Though, she was no longer a 'cadet' anymore, she and Joyce had both become full-fledged Foot ninja after one month because of their impressive 'progress'. That meant they were both upgraded to better rooms, and bigger food portions (Moth actually never minded the old food portions, considering she could not each much in the mountains. Three meals a day was amazing compared to the one-meal-a-day-and-maybe-two-if-you're-lucky-otherwise-it's-stored-for-winter she was used to.). And they were also given actual weapons. Quinn was given a Naginata, while Moth was given twin katana. That was something she absolutely hated; they reminded her of her evil uncle, in fact that was the exact reason the swords her father had given her scimitar, because he hated Leonardo so much. And in the Foot clan they didn't use metal-splinters, which was another bummer. The third bummer about weapons was that she was allowed only one, that also kind of sucked because she was so used to using a tomahawk alongside her scimitar that it would perhaps be a bit easier to getting used to this whole Foot thing if she could carry around a small battle-axe to replicate her tomahawk.
But off the tangent, Kai was impossible. He barely ever spoke and yelled at the top of his lungs at people when they made the slightest mistake, he was a definite grammar-nazi, and he was OCD…. Really freaking OCD, she had once been shooting a target with shuriken, when Kai walked in and eyed the target. Moth expected him to compliment her for hitting the target nine times out of ten, when he yelled at her for not getting it one out of ten, which was after he walked over to the target and pulled out the stray shuriken which was half a centimeter away from the center of the target, then stabbed it into the center. When she questioned why he had done that, he muttered that it 'didn't look right.' And he chewed exactly thirty times every time he ate something, even gum; once he had mashed it with his teeth thirty times it went down his throat. And he trained obsessively, sure Moth herself had a tough training ritual, but he would perfect a kata a thousand more times than what would be considered extreme.
And to make matters worse, Kai definitely knew that something about her was off.
She had yet to meet Leonardo or Karai. Tonight she was; she and Quinn were becoming Front-Line Foot ninja. There was a small pyramid of power in the Foot clan, from the largest with the least power it was; Cadets, Foot ninja, Front-line fighters, Elite guard, and at the very top was the lady Shredder, Karai herself. She was now one step away from being an Elite guard. It also meant she would be have to see Leonardo more than she would ever want to, seeing as he trained the Front-line fighters. It took every iota of her strength to refrain from ranting when she was informed this by Jones (Cody), but she had only meekly nodded.
Speaking of Jones, he worried her, he really did. Moth could by his name and looking at him, that he was April and Casey's brood, and though she was glad that the couple did have another child after the tragic murder of Shadow, but Jones was….. Err…. In laymans terms; a disappointment from her perspective. He talked trash about his parents, he was ungrateful and resentful (He ranted about his parents being too strict because they literally smashed his phone with a hockey stick because he texted over his limit. Moth almost burst out laughing because that was nothing compared to the time she stayed out too late at night with her coyotes, and she was punished by being forced to crawl up a rushing creek by grabbing the rocks, and it was in the middle of winter.). He was pessimistic, he complained too much, he mouthed off to Kai (getting punched every time he did that) and he talked bad about people right in front of them. He was skilled when it came to Ninjitsu, he really was, but not skilled enough to justify he bad attitude. Moth questioned if he really ran away, or if his parents just kicked him out, kicking him out sounded like a rational thing to do if you knew him long enough.
"Guys, you don't have to do this." Quinn said to Reno (Kyle), Travis, Jones and Keene. Moth was standing next to Quinn, a small grin on her own face. The guys from their former Cadet squad decided to surprise them on the night before their promotion, with a ditch roof-hopping. Ditch roof-hopping was, in the Foot clan, pretty much running off from their patrol group and causing some small trouble around the city. Moth was reluctant, but she decided that since they thought she was a real Foot ninja, she should at least act like one.
"Of course we did, sure we're pissed that you get to be Front-liners while our asses are still Cadets, but we still a team right?" Keene asked, is gaze turned to Moth "I'm glad you decided to join us, Marlowe. You were always the life of the party back in the cadets."
Jones scoffed "She wasn't….. She was just a weirdo with no table manners."
"She can hear you," Keene hissed before Moth could defend herself "yo man, why do you gotta be such a dick anyways?"
"Why again did we invite him anyways?" Reno muttered, earning him a cold glare from Jones.
"Can't we just go guys? We're all friends here." Travis said and calmed each of them down.
Laughing about their plans, they roof-hopped away to the nearest closed convenient store. There, they grabbed (Stole, Moth had realized with a wince) toilet-paper, two chocolate cream pies, balloons, three two-liter bottles of Mountain Dew, several tubes of mentos, spray paint and, finally, a lot of shaving cream.
"What do we do with this?" Moth dare asked when they hefted their loaded plastic bags with them up to the roof of the very store they had just robbed.
"Patience Marlowe." Travis cackled and rubbed his hands together in a cartoon-evildoer motion, the others laughed but Moth just looked at him dumbfounded (because she had never watched cartoons.). Travis took Quinn's Naginata and used it to cut one of the chocolate cream pie's into 6 slices and distributes it among each of them.
"What's the other pie for?" Moth asked past a mouthful of chocolate pie filling.
"You'll see." Travis chuckled.
Jones made a face "Do you have to talk with your mouth full?" He growled "What, were you raised in a cave?"
"Yes, in fact I was." Moth responded; her 'comrades' burst out in laughter, under he impression that she had been kidding. Oh, if they only knew…
"I'd believe it." Jones said with a roll of his eyes "I remember one time I was reaching for the salt shaker, and you snarled at me and leered over your plate of spaghetti. It was like a wolf over a deer carcass."
'Hmm… I wonder how Raphael is?' Moth wondered, when she and her father discussed her joining the Foot, they decided that since she would not be home, her 'pet' coyote Raphael would stay with Michaelangelo and Venus DeMilo.
"Why do you do that anyways, Marlowe?" Travis asked "You act as if you really were raised in a cave…. Where did you say you were from?"
"Doesn't matter." Moth snapped.
"Let's just get on with the night!" Quinn insisted; Moth mentally thanked her friend for the save. They quickly devoured the rest of their pie and roof-hopped a few more buildings. The building they stopped appeared to be a...
"Wallmart? What are we doing on the top of a Wallmart?" Jones asked; he had been to the Wallmart in the center of the city many times, but wasn't this a bit random?
"Just watch and learn, ginger." Keene said and took out the mentos, one of the liters of mountain dew, and the balloons. The others milled around to watch as he filled the balloon with some mountain dew, then popped a mentos out of the tube and into his palm. "This, ladies, gentleman, and Jones; is a home-made snack grenade." He dropped the mentos into the soda-filled balloon and chucked it over the edge as fast as possible. They waited for a few split seconds before the heard someone scream.
"Heheh, good idea Keene." Travis said, and they all started making the 'grenades', taking swigs of mountain dew every now and then.
"Uh oh, cops." Quinn said as she heard the incoming sirens. "One of our targets must have dialed the NYPD."
"Ninja's out!" Keene laughed in a mock command; they gathered up their supplies and disappeared into the darkness of the night. Than again, it wasn't a very stealthy retreat considering they were chanting 'We're the ninja's of New York!' with the occasional 'Deal with it bitches!'
"Well genius, what do you propose we do next?" Jones asked Keene when they were a few good blocks away and were catching their breath.
Keene grinned "Just look at the building we're across from!" The cadet ninja pointed to the building from across the street. In bold Neon letters was the buildings heading NYPD.
Reno grinned and grabbed one of the many tubes of toilet paper "You guys ready for target practice?" The others nodded and grabbed a tube themselves.
They started to TP'ed the building, laughing whilst doing so. They even made a game out of it; fifteen points for every tube thrown, twenty points lost for every tube that ended up on the ground, fifty points for getting the roll on the building. They also had a bet that the loser would be forced to do something the winner decided. When they ran out, the winner was Moth while the all-time loser was Jones, who had the worse aim out of them. Moth had grinned and said she would tell Jones what to do soon; he had this wide, scared look in his eyes, and you tell he regretted his asshole-ly ways now.
"What next?" Moth asked after a quick swig of the mountain dew; having had very little caffeine in her life compared to these guys, she already had a nice sugar buzz going on. She found herself actually rather excited for their next dose of trouble.
"City hall is our next and last stop." Travis said; he, Moth and Keene grabbed the two-liter bottles and toasted them, before guzzling them down in a drinking contest, around them their comrades were cheering 'Chug' and after they drank about three cups their eyes filled with tears but they finished anyways. Travis was the winner, Keene had second place while Moth had ultimately failed.
"Geeze, you shoot soda like a baby." Travis taunted, letting out a belch.
"I very rarely drink soda; I am more used to water and liquor." Moth retorted, they all looked at her bug-eyed.
"Uh…. How old are you?" Keene asked suddenly.
"Twenty." Moth replied. And then pondered; when was her birthday? She didn't remember… All she could remember was that twice a year, she got presents (Her Birthday, and Christmas) but on her birthday she was told her new age, and she got cake with candles for every year old she was. Her father kept track, but she never really thought much of it.
"Wow, so am I." Quinn said "What about you guys?"
"Eighteen." Travis replied.
"Nineteen." Keene responded.
"Seventeen." Reno said.
Jones twitched and his eyebrow quivered, but he said nothing.
"How old are you, Jones?" Quinn asked politely.
Jones mumbled something, but it was too garbled and quiet to understand.
"What was that?" Reno pressed.
Jones sighed and his shoulders slumped in defeat "Fifteen." He finally responded, there was a silence following.
"….Seriously?" Reno finally said "Dude, I could have sworn you were like, eighteen or something!"
"Same thing could be said about Marlowe." Jones said, turning to Moth "I never would have guessed you were twenty."
"Are you calling me short?" Moth asked, pretending to sound offended.
"W-what?" Jones sputtered "No, I was just - !"
"What, trying to hit on her? Gross man, not all girls are cougars." Quinn decided to join in on the 'torment Jones' thing; everyone else gave a hardy laugh as Jones face burned a bright red that almost matched his hair.
"Okay, enough dicking around, let's get to City hall." Reno said and ran for the next jump, the others chuckled and started running, Jones was still blushing so Travis patted him on the back and they started off too.
Once they were there, they decided to finally use the cans of spray-paint, using their surpurb ninja-skill (Well, Moth and Quinn used their ninja-skill…. The others just kinda dangled from ropes and made random colored streaks on the building.)
When they were done they surveyed each others works.
"Is that some kind of deformed pickle?" Moth asked Keene.
"No… It's a dick." He replied.
"What's a dick?" Moth asked. Keene burst out laughing and patted her shoulder.
"You're funny Marlowe, for a minute there I thought you were serious." He said, then his eyes flashed "But if you want to see one…" Quinn suddenly pushed between them and elbowed Keen hard in the ribs.
"Ha ha ha, you are such a flirt Keene, but that's enough." She said. "What did you paint, Marlowe?" Moth pointed at hers, Quinn eyed it and her jaw dropped "Marlowe….. Is that…. Kanji?" She asked.
Moth nodded "It's a joke, the kanji means rice, because they're white." She said.
"Mar…. That's the most precise kanji I've seen…." Quinn seemed genuinely amazed "It's better than mine, and I… Uh, took classes for it."
"Thank you." Moth said "We should hit the roofs again, I have to give Jones his loser-dare now." She said with a laugh. Calling the others, they strapped on their shuko-spikes and scaled up the roof.
"What do you want me to do?" Jones asked, sweating nervously.
"Well, I couldn't come up with something, so I asked Reno." Moth explained, there was automatically a groan of 'oh no' from Jones "And this is what you gotta do." She grabbed the can of saving cream they hadn't used and handed it to him, then whispered the dare.
"Oh my god – NO!" Jones shouted, his face was flushed.
"You have to, you were the loser, you have to do the dare." Moth said, then drew out her katana from the cross-sheathes of her uniform (All of them were still wearing their uniforms, minus the masks which they kept under their belts just in case) "Do it, or I'll slice your head off and feed it to the buzzards, then give your tongue, brains and eyeballs to the centipedes, and take those centipedes and cook them on a stick so I may eat them!"
Everyone stared at her, Keene said "Geeze-Louise, remind me not to get on your bad side Marlowe."
Reluctantly, Jones did what was requested, he walked away a few paces and took a deep breath "Okay, no matter what I do, I am not gay." Whimpering, he stuck unzipped his fly and put the bottle of shaving cream in his pants and shoved it out of his fly. Face still bright red, he thrust his hips back and forth a few times before he pressed the top of the bottle and shaving cream came flying out.
Everyone but Moth laughed out loud – she pondered, how was that funny? Was that supposed to insinuate something?
"Dude!" Keene said and rubbed the laugh tears away from his eyes. "The look on your face is totally priceless!"
"Not as priceless on the looks about to appear on your faces." A new voice said; Moth and Quinn took out their weapons and the others went into their stances.
"Master Kai?" Travis said stupidly.
"What are you idiots doing?" Kai demanded in a growl "How dare you abandon a mission for foolishness! Especially Quinn and Marlowe! You two become Front-line fighters at dawn! It is not very zen to be fooling around with cadets." His voice was caustic.
The others were frozen with fear and some shame, but Moth only crossed her arms and rolled her arms. She walked over to Kai "Dude, you need to lighten up." She said and pushed him towards him.
"W-Wha! Marlowe! How dare you touch me! I am your commanding officer!" Kai said, Moth rolled her eyes again.
"You wanna know your problem? You're too afraid f being human. And you wanna know what humans do? When we don't work, we play; play as in raise some hell and fuck around." Moth reached under her belt and pulled out a flask and handed it to him.
Kai looked at her shocked "I-I am not old enough to drink!" He said.
Moth rolled her eyes again "Come on Kai, I've been drinking since I was thirteen years old. I know you're a turtle, but act just a bit human and let go. Wouldn't you want to relax, and finally be free of all of your stress and worries?" She coaxed.
Kai looked up at her; being the impressionable fifteen-year-old Kai was, he was starting to consider her words; that was right…. He had been forced to be an adult since he was six, it only makes sense he drinks like one….. Kai unscrewed the top and downed the entire flask.
Thirty minutes later.
"Look everyone! The stars are dancing across the sky! Hoshino miku…" Kai sang.
"Marlowe, you are the amazing." Keene said as they watched Kai ballroom0dance across the rooftop, looking like the happiest kid on Earth "I can't believe you convinced that the Foot clan icecube to drink! Woman, I could marry you…." He purred.
Moth shrugged and grinned; Keene was funny "Sorry, marriage is not on the agenda, but hey, I'll think about it." She joked back, confused by the glint she saw in her 'comrades' eyes.
"Did you really drink ever since you were thirteen?" Quinn asked, tempted to go up and dance with Kai just to say she did.
Moth nodded "My dad would sometimes bring liquor home. When I was thirteen, I decided to take a sip and I liked it, so I had a shot or a can of booze every time he came home, he figured it helped my stress." Moth shrugged. Then felt homesick, and she missed her father. She was not allowed to see him, by his orders, and they talked only through shellcell. It was sad to be only a few miles apart, but be so far at the same time.
"You okay, Mar?" Keene asked, sounding concerned.
Moth shook the sadness away "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay…. Just grab Kai and let's head back to Headquarters. Me and Quinn have to get ready for our promotion at dawn….."
Character development~