Chapter 5

Chapter Song: Greenbacks - Ray Charles

"Drunken Boxing? Michelangelo fought these Wutang soldiers with Drunken Boxing?!" Splinter yelled out frustratingly as he held Michelangelo's head underwater with the other three kneeling to their master. They had returned to their lair to find Splinter waiting for them and once he saw Michelangelo was drunk, he demanded answers. They had not seen their master this angry in a long, long time.

"Master, please, don't blame him. He was knocked back into an abandoned barrel of sour wine and he drank some by accident…but-" Donatello tried to explain before Splinter interrupted.

"It is each and every one of your responsibilities to watch each other's shells in battle, and look what your lack of preparation has brought you." Splinter criticized at his students, obviously hinting to their welts, scratches, scars on both their skins and shells. In this moment, he pulled Michelangelo's head out of the water, he coughed and took several deep breaths.

"M-Master, you don know we're not amphibious right?" Michelangelo half-slurred his lines.

"Yes, Michelangelo, but this is the fastest way to overcome the feeling of intoxication." Splinter said sternly yet fatherly to Michelangelo as he dunked Michelangelo's head back under the water again.

"Master Splinter, regardless of Michelangelo's mistake, his fight moves were impressive-" Donatello tried to explain before Splint cut him off.

"No Donatello. Drunken Boxing is not a respectable martial art. It's a martial art for fools, one that ruins all respect from the martial arts community." Splinter pulled Michelangelo's head out of the water, as Michelangelo spit out a stream of water, "you understand me, Michelangelo?"

"Y-yeah…don't get drunk so I can't fight like a fool, yes master. Can I go lie down now?" Michelangelo managed to cough out.

"Do you still have a headache?" Splinter asked calmly.

"Yeah."

"Then no." Splinter said as he dunked Michelangelo's head back underwater again. He then looked up to Miranda who was standing in the back, complete distain in his eyes and tone. "As for you, I would have expected you of all people to be more prepared for an experienced adversary and drag my boys into it."

"Ya ought t' be proud of them fer standin' their ground like they did, besides, I didn' force them t' come along, I offered an' they all accepted." Miranda replied, trying to keep her calm.

"If you feel so inclined to have my boys be meat shields, mercenaries might be more to your liking." Splinter replied, Miranda was appalled to hear that, she wanted to talk back to him, but she decided against it as she turned around and walked away.

"I gotta go. I have t' get ready fer work in the next few hours, an I don' want th' smell of sewers ruinin' my day." Miranda said to try and get back at Splinter, Splinter just frowned. Raphael looked back as Miranda began to leave, he wanted to talk with her for a brief moment before she would head off to work and he wouldn't see her again until later at night. But he couldn't leave unless Splinter dismissed them.

"Tell me boys, who did you fight that caused you such injury?" Splinter finally said to the turtles.

"They called themselves 'Killer Bees,' master." Donatello said.

"Master…I fought hand-to-hand with one of them…they were using Shaolin Shadowboxing techniques…" Leonardo spoke up, Splinter looked at his student.

"Shaolin? Ridiculous, Shaolin is a craft passed down by peaceful monks who only use the techniques to defend themselves.." Splinter said calmly.

"But I recognized the hand-to-hand when I threw his weapons to the side…" Leonardo said, a hint of worry in his tone.

"These must be hired hands who were taught the Shaolin craft from a defector of the temples." Splinter said.

"I came to the assumption they were practitioners of Tai Chi master…"

"And why do you come to this conclusion Leonardo?"

"Because of their name, The Wutang Clan, master." Leonardo spoke, Splinter's eyes raised in surprise.

"That's…not possible…The Wutang Clan was eradicated over 100 generations ago…" Splinter spoke softly.

"It was who they referred to themselves as…we could barely hold our own against their sword style, Master…" Raphael said, really hoping to get out of here and go talk to Miranda, maybe check on her hand if it was still bleeding or something.

"Sword style?….the Wutang sword style still exists?…" Splinter said with a sense of dread in his tone, he immediately pulled Michelangelo's head out of the water as he coughed out the water he had swallowed, "you boys are dismissed…I must meditate on this…" Raphael wanted to hug Splinter for letting them go, but he instead bowed to his Master before getting up and heading down the direction Miranda went, noticing she had left her jacket behind. Donatello helped Michelangelo to bed but Leonardo stayed behind with Splinter.

"Master…this Wutang Sword Style…"Leonardo asked to Splinter as he took his walking stick and began to make his way to his meditation chambers with Leonardo following.

"A dangerous art that is extinct…or so I had hoped…" Splinter said hauntingly.

"Shaolin Shadowboxing and the Wutang Sword Style, master, what does this mean?" Leonardo asked his master. Splinter stopped just before entering his chambers as he turned to face his student.

"It means that if what you say is true…then the Wutang could be dangerous…" Splinter said with dread in his voice.

"Master?" Leonardo said worried.

"Rest yourself, Leonardo…I will meditate on this…" Splinter finally said before he closed the doors behind him for his meditation chamber.

Miranda was still trying to calm herself from her small fight with Splinter. Why was this guy such a prick to her? What had she done to him? Nothing, he held a grudge against her because of her former master. She was nothing like The Shredder, why did he think she was? She made her way to the sewer ladder and was prepared to climb up when Raphael called out her name behind her.

"Miranda!" She turned and saw him run up to her.

"Raph, I though'-"

"Master Splinter excused us." Raphael said, he looked over Miranda, she was looking a bit thin lately. She had confided in Raphael that she wasn't getting a lot of sleep recently. She didn't say why, but he assumed it was from these nightly prowls he spent with her, she always found ways to make herself look active and awake, it seemed only he could coax her into going to sleep whenever he visited her apartment, but he was certain that once he left her apartment, she would just get up and go back out on the prowl again.

"Well? Somethin' ya wanna tell me Raph?" Miranda spoke, finally breaking his daze.

"Oh, shit, right, Uh, you- er- you forgot your jacket Miranda…" he held it up to her, she gently took it as she hugged it close to her body. This jacket was special to her, Raph knew that well. It used to be her father's, she found it in her parents' old home when she returned to America. She desperately wanted to find her parents, but at the same time, she didn't want to. The fear of what they would think of her, knowing what she had become, haunted her mind.

Perhaps, more than anything, this could account for Miranda's insomnia….

"Thanks Raph…I would've gone ballistic if I thought I lost this…" Miranda said softly.

"Oh, um, anytime Miranda…" Raphael replied, he watched Miranda place her jacket on, trying to push any dirty thoughts out of his head, although restraint was one of his master's many teachings, he was still a male turtle and subjective tot he same yearnings as any human man would yearn for.

"Well, I gotta go, see ya t'night Raph." Miranda finally said as she turned around and began to climb up the ladder, Raphael was about to say something, but his mind caught him, telling him "don't be stupid." So heeled it back and replaced his wording.

"Y-Yeah. See ya…" (he watched her climb up the ladder until the cover closed. "Damn, I should have said something…" Raphael said under his breath, punching the wall next to him in frustration.

He could have told her then and there.

But he just didn't have the guts. He always held firm that out of all the Turtles, he was the gutsiest and more daring. Give him a giant sea cockroach over trying to confess you have a crush on a girl any day of the week, at least he knew he could have the support of his brothers for the cockroach. But he couldn't tell his brothers, cause then they would tell Splinter and he would probably forbid him to speak or see her again.

But it was starting to get harder to avoid thinking about Miranda all the time...

"Kitchen accident?" Herbert replied to Miranda's answer her injury she acquired last night from her hand, she had replaced the wrapping Raphael used to tie her hand from last night and applied proper medical bandages.

"Yeah, I was c-cuttin' a zucchini fer a salad when my neighbor knocked on my d-door, it's jus' a stupid mistake, boss." Miranda said, in her fake nervousness. Herbert did his usual stare at her, hoping that there would be more to hear from her.

"Sigh* all right, just don't try to cut your hand any more, okay?" Herbert said, giving a warm pat on her shoulder.

"Thanks boss." Miranda said giving a sweet innocent smile as Herbert left her office, once he left, she dropped her smile as she downed a small bottle of 5-Hour Energy. She barely had enough time to sleep once she got home, she immediately had to get cleaned up and head to work. She needed more sleep, she knew that, but lately she had been suffering from this awful nightmare where she tried to run up to her parents and instead found their bodies with their blood on her hands. Every time she tried to sleep, it was the same damn nightmare.

It was difficult to fall asleep from a nightmare like that.

Eventually, her work flow was interrupted when Alison poked her head into Miranda's office and knocked on the door frame.

"Um, hey sis, there's someone here to see you."

"That's strange, I didn' make any appointments this early in th' day." Miranda said.

"Well, he didn't have one, he insisted that he had to see you." Alison replied.

"Then send him away, it's too early." Miranda said flatly before downing the rest of the Five-Hour Energy bottle and chucking it into the garbage can and looking over a few case files.

"Now, now, is that any way to talk to someone who would be in need?" A nonchalant voice called out, even before she looked up, she already knew who it was. Charles Hughes. She gave a look of surprise but also confusion as he entered the room.

"I'm sorry Sir, but Miss Meija can't see anyone this early in the day-" Alison began to speak to Charles before Miranda cut her off.

"No, it's okay Alison, I can see him."

"Are you sure?" Alison said, giving a look that says "I can call security if you'd like."

"Yeah, I remember him now." Miranda replied, also looking back with a "I can handle this" look. Alison nodded as she returned to her desk. Charles stood there in Miranda's office, The blue suit was a change than the one he wore the night before they had met, but even in blue, he clearly showed the title of power. His dark coat wrapped around his arm with his hands in his pockets, his hair was still slicked back as usual, though it looked less greasy than it did later in the day.

"You always shoo away anyone who comes to your office to talk to you when they're not on your schedule?" Charles said in his usual nonchalant tone, but she could sense a bit of snark in that comment, she just frowned.

"I help out people who have family needs, you don't have any." Miranda said flatly, Charles just scratched the side of his nose.

"Point taken, but nonetheless, a man of my position should at least be given better treatment than just being told to shoo, for instance, you haven't even offered me a seat yet." Charles replied.

"I don't see why I should, you're rich enough t' buy any of th companies who makes these chairs." Miranda said sarcastically.

"I do have a sense of ownership and being this is your office and this is your chair, it's only the polite thing to ask permission to sit in it, is it not?" Charles said, giving this sort of blank stare that Miranda could best describe as "stern but uninterested." Miranda just raised her hand to indicate for him to sit down, which he did.

"Now, the last time, we agreed that ya weren't supposed t' call me at work. Miranda said, staring down her possible adversary or ally, she hadn't made that decision yet.

"True, but our agreement was not to call, ahem* 'Miranda' at work, for all intents and purposes, I am simply meeting and communicating with 'Miss Meija' on her grounds." Charles replied, running his hand over his hair to flatten it.

"Well good fer you, but ya don't have kids, so I'd kindly ask you t' leave." Miranda said defensively, Charles didn't budge.

"What if I said I wanted to chat with 'Miranda' and couldn't wait until her 'work hours' were available?"

"Then I would say be patient and then call her during her business hours."

"Then I would say I can't because I am being monitored as we speak." Charles said, leaning his head to the window to scratch his chin, Miranda turned her eyes to look out the window at the buildings near the office building and cars passing by. "They can see, but they can't hear me, they can only hear me when I take phone calls."

"I would say that's quite a predicament you're in Mr. Hughes but I'm not sure I or 'Miranda' could help you with that." Miranda said, looking back at him, he looked back at her.

"Which is when a brilliant tactical idea came to mind on my way to work to keep you current on what I know." Charles said looking back.

"And what would that be?"

"I would take you out for brunch." Miranda's eyes widened in surprise, dropping, once again, a paper in her hand.

"Excuse me?!"

"The Wutang know so little about 'Miss Meija' in the day time, for all they know, you could just be a girl I'm talking business with and taking you out to eat is the most average thing a wealthy philanthropist like myself would do and it would give us the perfect opportunity to discuss all the new goings-on with the Wutang Clan right under their nose." Charles said in a straight manner. Miranda couldn't exactly believe this, usually whenever guys asked her out, she would always decline because of her night life, but this was different since he was directly asking her as if she didn't have a choice.

"No tricks now..." Miranda said finally.

"I'm a businessman first, Miss Meija, think of this more as a business meeting than any ridiculous "date" that you might call it." Charles replied. Miranda thought about this for a moment, what was the harm he could do? He was willing to blow himself up for one, but that could have been a bluff for all she knew, but how many opportunities would you have to go to any high-end restaurant with a guy who could pretty much buy the restaurant with his wealth. Not even her friends would believe that.

"All right…yer on. But what do I tell my boss?" Miranda finally said, standing up to gather her things to put into her purse.

"I'll just tell him you gave me such outstanding advice the day before that just 'opened doors for me' and I wanted to reward you with brunch, on me." Charles said, finally cracking some sort of smile over his own cleverness before he stood from the chair and held out his elbow, a gentlemanly gesture of course to have Miranda wrap her arm around his.

Miranda slumped her purse over her arm and thought to herself, "he's quite a shady bastard. Clever bastard, but still, keep your guard up round him…"

Brooklyn Fare Park, one of the most respected restaurants in Manhattan. The price to even pick up a menu was $225 dollars each. This was the kind of place you'd have to save up for months before coming here with your date.

Miranda couldn't stand it.

Most of the people here seemed like the snobbish, stuck-up, self-centered money-waving pricks that could afford to go to places like this to show off to everyone their wealth.

Kinda like Tom Cruise only less good-looking.

Thankfully Miranda wasn't paying for this one, under any normal circumstances, she would never be caught dead with a guy who wasn't her type. She kept expecting him to try to make a move like some guys would try to do, like spike your drink or to inappropriately touch her, she'd broken a lot of hands of guys who had tried that crap on her. Charles never did any of that, he was either gay or he really did put his business before people. If the the latter was the case, she hoped to never know his social life if he even had one. The eggs were cooked to perfection, so was the sausage and the fruits were very fresh.

Most of their conversation stuck to Miranda's workplace and the children she worked with, he'd listen to her prattle on and she'd do the same as he prattled on about his business. Eventually, she decided this was getting really dull and decided to break the ice.

"Look, this is all very nice an' all Mr. Hughes, but let's not be forgettin' why you took me here…"

"Of course, I didn't really expect you to take any actual interest in my business, but I would like to add one thing." Charles said calmly as he wiped the corners of his mouth with his napkin before placing it on the table, "early this morning, I received a very angry phone call from my employers telling me someone had cut off their weapon chains…as well as the hands who were shipping them, you wouldn't happen to have had anything to do about this would you?" Charles said looking over to Miranda, she just gave a grin to this.

"Dirty hands shouldn't be held onto Mr. Hughes." Miranda said in a soft yet dark tone.

"I thought so. Either way, you left them fuming mad, they've had to change their tactics and resorted to sending private messages to their affiliates."

"What do'ya mean?"

"Let me try to explain…" Charles pulled out a pen and a business card, he flipped the card on it's blank side and began to write some words down. "You know how acrostics work, correct?"

"Of course."

"The Wutang have resorted to using it to send out messages to their of their followers or their 'Killer Bees' as they call them. This was the last one I hard them use over the phone." Charles pushed the card over to Miranda as she looked at the single word on the card.

"Cream?" Miranda questioned. Charles then took the card as he added words to the letters before pushing the card back to her, this time, it read 'Confiscated Resources, Exchange At Midnight.'

"But some of their 'soldiers' have misread their orders. Remember the arrest made last night on Baker's street?"

"Yeah, it was a bunch'a teens tryin' t' break into a pawn shop."

"The police report said when the kids were asked their motivation for the break-in, they only said 'Cash Rules Everything Around Me.'" Miranda just shook her head and put a hand to her head.

"sigh* dumb kids…I take it The Rizza did nothin' t' help them out once they were apprehended." Miranda said, Charles just shook his head.

"Sometimes, The Rizza's orders can be heard just from words than the letters themselves. For instance, if I said 126th Station Thinks Busy Accountants Need Killing, you would say?" Charles said, Miranda thought for a moment trying to form what he said into a word.

"126th St. Bank?" Miranda said, Charles nodded. "Couldn't th' police also figure this out when they arrest these 'Killer Bees' off th' streets?"

"An excellent question which I received little information about that myself." Charles said, before he could say more, his phone began to ring, "excuse me. hello? Forgive me, I'm in the middle of a business brunch…sigh* yes, I understand…sigh* I'll be in my office in 20 minutes….yeah, yeah, Wutang Forever…" Charles rolled his eyes having to say that last line before hanging up.

"I take it that was yer employers?" Miranda said.

"Regretfully so. I apologize for not being to personally drive you back to your office, but the Rizza gets furious when he's made to wait." Charles said with a hint of regret through his nonchalance. A waiter came by as Charles paid for everything before he turned back to Miranda with a $100 dollar bill, placing it on the table. "That should pay for the cab ride back."

"I flattered, but I don' exactly accept handouts that high-" Miranda began to say before Charles interrupted.

"Oh no, I insist. It would be very rude of me to have you pay for the cab ride back" he pushed the bill closer, Miranda finally noticed what he was trying to indicate as she noticed the bill was lifted off the table slightly.

"Yeah…I understand ya." Miranda said as she gently took the money along with a solid object that was hiding underneath it as she quickly and quietly pocketed it before standing up. "Well Mr. Hughes, thank ya kindly fer the brunch, th' food was excellent."

"But of course, it was the least I could do. Hopefully we can hope to see more of each other in the future." Charles said in his usual tone as he gently took her hand to shake it.

"Ya just might Mr. Hughes…ya just might…" Miranda said with a slight smirk across her mouth. Charles eventually released her hand and left through the doors entering his limousine that drove away. miranda stood at the street side trying to hail a cab as she noticed someone that was sitting on a motorcycle across the street driving away in the same direction the limo had gone.

"He wasn't kiddin' about being monitored…" she thought to herself as a cab finally pulled over and let her in as she sat down in the back

"Where to?" The cab driver asked.

"250 Broadway, Offices for Family and Children." Miranda replied as she reached back into her pocket and pulled out the $100 dollar bill, she smiled as she found along with the cab fare, she had a small USB drive in her possession.