The next day, the sunshine had returned and Randall gathered up his supplies and, sticking to the rooftops, began to move deeper into the city. He would look down below to make sure there weren't humans looking up. He was mostly jumping over the buildings over the alleys, so there might be less chances of being seen.
Soon, he came to the Chinatown area and there were all sorts of sights and smells.
Using his forked tongue, Randall could get a taste of the delicious smelling food. It was near lunchtime right at this time and the smell, combined with having had no breakfast made Randall's stomach growl.
He put his pack down on the roof and looked over the side to see if there was any food worth taking. He had no money on him. If he was back in his world, he would gladly pay for his food, but with his current lifestyle, he had to steal to eat.
He saw a hot dog vender on the corner. At least what he could make out. Turning invisible, he climbed down the building ever so slowly to make sure that humans weren't around. He watched the vender serve some customers, then they moved on. He was on the lowest floor outside the building.
Now that the customers were gone, the sidewalk was a little quieter so he got on the ground and made his way on all eights, to the stand. The vender walked away for a moment. This was a good chance.
Randall stood up on all four feet, opened up the lid to the stand and he found warm hot dogs in there. He looked around and quickly grabbed two length cords of hot dogs then turned and aimed to go back to the rooftop. He got to the alley and wrapped them around his neck. They felt good on his skin. He held the end of one in his mouth and he climbed back up, lucky not to have been spotted.
When he got to the top, he unblended himself and he went over to a wall next to his pack and ate the juicy morsels. He found the hot dogs to be good. They reminded him a little bit like some back in his world. He was so hungry that he ate both cords of them. They would have to keep him full for a while. Once he was done, he moved on.
As he continued to make his way across the rooftops, he was moved a bit by the festivities and how many people he was seeing down below on the streets. But there was no way he was going to go down there and even try to move among them. He knew how dangerous they were.
Randall preferred city life compared to the country. He had always been a city dweller and this place was fascinating to him. All the lights and color and tall buildings. He had seen several humans on the streets of New Orleans, but not as many as there were in New York.
If he stayed close to the food places, he could easily sneak in and out with his invisibility. That way he wouldn't have to worry as much about starvation. But, he had to be careful too that he wasn't seen or his items weren't just seen floating in the air.
But he wasn't going to stay in one place too long. Chinatown was beautiful, but he just wanted a place that might not be so crowded with humans. But, it was like that all over this big city.
Randall traveled over ten more buildings before his full stomach said it was time for a little nap. It was overwhelming in this city. He found another of those wooden hideouts and made it into a temporary lair. He got comfortable and tried to fall asleep. Fatigue won out over the noise around him.
He slept until well close to nightfall. He was so worn out, both from the truck travel and all the exploring and jumping. And now it was time for dinner. He had slept off his lunch.
He walked outside and some of the chaos from the day was winding down a bit more, but was still busy enough that he had to be careful. He would wait until after dark before he snuck down and tried to find some dinner. First, he wanted to find a place that looked like a promising site to get it from.
He soon found a pizza place. The smells were so strong it was like Heaven. Just a little longer and he would eat. He was fortunate that there was no shortage of food places in this city.
He waited until after dark and snuck down. Randall went in the back way in the alley. He eyed some finished pizzas that had been ordered and just finished from the oven. One was put into a fresh box.
The chef heard the oven go off and he put the box down. This must have been take out. Randall was watching. Now it was his take out.
Randall moved fast to the table, grabbing the box and ran out the door.
The chef heard the door open. "Hello?" He asked but didn't hear anything more. He went back to work, but moments later found the box was gone.
Randall got back to the rooftop and opened the box. Inside was a meat lover's pizza. Just his kind of food, being mainly a meat eater. He gulped it down in almost no time and threw the box away in the dumpster below. Now to move on again.
He soon came to a newspaper vendor stand. When it was a quiet time there, he snuck down again and got a paper to read. His eyes widened when he saw it was the New York Times. So, he was in New York City. Great place so far, if a little overwhelming.
He put the paper in his pack and moved on some more. By nine o'clock, he had made it to the lower east side, down by the docks. Maybe there was a place around here where he could find a place to call his own. But warehouses were too risky.
Randall began looking for another one of those water tower houses for another night of sleep, but he heard some sounds that he had never heard before. It sounded like yelling and metal clashing nearby. Wanting to make sure that he wasn't in immediate danger, he went to investigate the sounds.
He soon found the source of the sounds and he saw a major battle taking place on the rooftops. He got to a roof two tops over. He decided that he was going keep his distance, but moved in close enough to try to make out what was going on.
He heard yelling and some screaming. And more so, metal clashing.
At one point, a bright light glinted at him from the moonlight. It was a full moon. Randall could somewhat make out some weird shapes on that rooftop. And humans dressed in black. Ninjas.
The weird shapes soon had the ninjas beat. They did a victory high five or so he thought.
"Come on guys. Let's get out of here while they're down." Randall heard. This had been a soft, but firm leader like voice.
Randall saw the shapes take off in the other direction. They weren't like any humans he had ever seen before. They had struck his curiosity. He had to find out about them. He jumped the rooftops and followed them.
As he did chase them, he found that they were fast for ones who ran on two legs. But he still kept his distance. Humans he thought weren't this athletic. But under the moonlight, he did soon make out that their backs looked bigger too. When he did see them stop for a time, he got closer and saw that they weren't human at all.
They were some kind of shelled creatures. Was it possible they were monsters too? He had just never heard of them before.
"That was a snap to take those Foot geeks down." One of them said in a kind of scratchy voice.
Randall had noticed different color bands around their eyes now. Blue, purple, red, and orange. It had been the orange one who had spoken.
"Don't get cocky, Mikey. They've been getting tougher these days." The one in blue said.
When Randall heard that name, it instantly made him think of his old ex college roommate. Back when he called him by his first name instead of his last name.
"We should head home guys. That fight took it out of me." Purple said in a soft voice.
"I'd be up for more Foot bashin'," Red said.
"You're always are ready to pound them, Raph." Orange, or Mikey, said.
To Randall, he wondered what kind of a name was Raph. So that was Raph and Mikey.
"It's a movie marathon when we get home!" Mikey shouted.
Mikey had the energy of a little kid. Too excitable.
"Keep it down, Mikey, or you're going to draw in more Foot." Purple said.
"Sorry, Don. I've just been looking forward to it all week." Mikey said.
Purple was called Don then, as Randall listened. That just left the blue one. He saw they also had weapons on them. Don had a staff on his back and the blue one had swords. Raph had what looked like three prong knives. And Mikey had sticks on a chain. Randall didn't know the names of those weapons.
"Or we all could have some training practice when we get home." Blue said.
"Ah, come on, Leo. We just had a major battle with the Foot. We need time for ourselves at home." Mikey said.
And Blue was Leo. Leo, Don, Raph, and Mikey. At least they didn't have names based on the color of their masks. Randall decided to follow them. They jumped over more rooftops and eventually headed down to an alley. He watched from above as he saw them lift a sewer lid and they went underground.
Randall remembered what it was like to work in the basement of the Monsters, Inc factory and it was like living and working in a sewer. But he really didn't want to follow them down to the stinky sewers. He would wait up here for them.
He found a water tower nearby and went to it and got comfortable for the night. This was something to look forward to. He was tired of being alone. But he would observe before making any moves to join them.
….
Over the next few days, when the turtles did happen to come out of that sewer section, he followed them. Sometimes it was just two of them.
He saw there were junkyard trips, stops at a human's apartment and he could see them in the window, interacting with a redhead human woman. He couldn't believe they were able to interact with a human and not get attacked. And he thought all humans were dangerous.
Randall saw that indeed, these beings looked reptilian to him. But so different too. He got a better look at them in the light. He saw their skin was all green, but different shades. Good ways to tell them apart aside from weapons and masks.
Randall had settled down near one of the sewer lids near the human's home. He saw the store was called the 2nd Time Around. It had some nice things in it, but it wasn't a food store. He had to go further downtown to find something. But he made his way back to the human's home.
Whenever the turtles came up above and went to the home, Randall would end up following them. One of these days, he would have to follow them down in the sewers. He could see why they would live down there. It was the only safe place from humans, usually.
As for the turtles, Leo had begun to get suspicions that someone was following them. He had felt a presence from a short distance away for days now. He would look and see nothing though. He had become more uptight and his brothers had noticed.
"Come on, Leo, there's nothin' there." Raph said.
"I don't know, Raph. I have this feeling like there's something out there, following us." Leo said.
Randall was either hiding or he was invisible when following them. He might have been getting a little too close now.
Tonight, it was Leo and Raph on patrol. Randall knew he needed to back off a bit. Soon, he saw that they were also joined by a male human, wearing a weird almost skull like mask.
Casey Jones was ready for action.
Randall saw the three of them go to the middle of the city and they found a Purple Dragon break in at a jewelry store.
Hun was not with them, but he had ordered it or they were doing this for the pure pleasure of it.
Leo, Raph, and Casey started breaking it up. They all got split up. There were some big tough ones in the group tonight.
Randall had managed to get down to the building and he was observing the battle. He got on the ceiling and snuck inside, but still kept a distance invisibly.
At one time, Leo was tossed into a wall and the wind was knocked out of him. His swords were still in his hands. The Dragon that had thrown him was coming at him with a sledge hammer in his hands.
Randall growled and knew this wasn't good. He dropped down from the ceiling and using his own stealth, and with his tail, he tripped up the human, making him cry out as he fell over.
Leo looked up just in time to see the man fall over backwards and the hammer went flying. The man was unconscious, and Raph nor Casey had caused it to happen.
Randall ran further from the incident after he had stopped Leo from getting killed.
Leo still had a feeling like something or someone was watching, but that someone had just saved his shell. They must have because these creeps didn't go down without a fight and not so easily.
Leo told Raph and Casey on the way home after cops had shown up to arrest the Dragons in the store after they had all been taken down. Raph and Casey knew how Leo seemed to have a sixth sense at times, like Master Splinter.
"Just keep on a lookout then." Raph said.
"Could a Foot ninja be watching ya?" Casey asked.
"I hope not." Leo said.
Randall knew he would have to make his presence known soon. Especially if one of them was sensing he was around close by.