Chapter 4

"Home, sweet home," Ashton said sarcastically as she flung her suitcase on the floor. The past week had been nothing but packing and constant questioning. None of them knew why Master Seong decided to send them to New York of all places.

"Come on Ashton." Sommer chimed in. "Don't be so angry. It could be worse."

"What could be worse than leaving everything that you know and love?"

"Well we could be homeless." Amanda told her. "I know you guys are still upset about moving, but you know sensei always has his reasons."

"And you better believe I'm going to figure it out." Bri added in and tried to walk pass them, only to be stopped by a hand grabbing at her shirt.

"Why don't we unpack first? Then you can do all the research you want." Amanda said, knowing exactly where Bri was going.

Despite being bitter about the move, the girls were still amazed at the size of the dojo. The front room was painted bright red and was covered in blue carpet and padding. It was equipped for the most advanced training.

In the back, there was a small hallway that led to two fairly large rooms. One had been set up like a bedroom with two bunk beds on opposite ends of each other. The other was set up like a small kitchen and dining room. Master Seong had siad the dojo had been out of use for years, so it was obvious that he hired people to make the dojo more suitable for living.

After they were done unpacking, the four took advantage of the afternoon they had off from training. Their new sensei was scheduled to start with them tomorrow. Bri was finally able to do the research she wanted to do.

She sat on one of the bottom bunks with her computer with Sommer on the other side, moving around restlessly. Unfortunately, Bri was having trouble finding anything that could be a good reason on why they've been sent to New York, but she stumbled across something she knew Sommer would find interesting.

"Hey Sommer," She got her attention. "Did you know New York has vigilantes of their own?"

Sommer popped up just as Bri had expected. "Really? What are they like?"

"Well there's not very much about them, and they're more theories than facts."

"Like what?"

"One thing I find ridiculous is that this one reporter claims them to be giant turtles trained in ninjistu."

Bri had expected Sommer to find this claim just as humorous as she did, but instead, Sommer's eyes grew with amazement. "You mean there's not only more vigilantes out there and they may not even be human?" she asked.

"Wait, you don't actually believe this, do you?" Bri asked her with a puzzled look on her face. Sure Sommer was clueless, but was she really willing to believe this?

Sommer sat next to Bri and grabbed the laptop from her. She pointed at the screen and said, "Someone got a picture, that's got to mean something."

"It means someone's bored and is great with photo shop. There are hundreds of "pictures" of Bigfoot online and they're all fake." Bri argued with her. "There is no way that four human like turtles can possibly exist."

"How do you know? You don't know everything." Sommer said in defense.

"Oh, yeah?" Bri got up and went into the dojo where Amanda and Ashton were sitting in the middle of the room playing a card game. "Amanda, what would you do if I told you that there were four giant turtles that not only knew ninjistu, but were vigilantes of New York?"

"I'd probably think you finally lost it." She responded without looking up from the game.

"But what if I said the same thing about giant turtles in New York?" Sommer asked.

"I'd probably ignore it cause I know you already lost it years ago." She looked up from the game. "What's this about?" The two girls had her full attention now.

"Bri found some stuff in the news about possible vigilantes in New York. It says they're giant turtles!" Sommer answered excitedly without skipping a beat.

"And it's not true." Bri tried to explain calmly. She was clearly annoyed at this point. "I only shared that with you because I thought it was so ridiculous it was funny."

"I bet you fifty dollars I can prove that they exist."

"The only way you can prove it if we run into them during patrol. And Sensei said no more night missions."

"He said no more night missions." Ashton, who had been quietly listening to the two argue, chimed in. "He said nothing about patrol."

"No," Amanda said sternly to the smart mouthed teen. "Sensei put me in charge and it my responsibility to make sure you obey him. Besides, Sommer's still recovering from her injury."

"Yeah, but I'm totally fine now." Sommer protested, waving her previously injured arm around. Her shoulder had healed quite nicely over the past week and only caused her minimal pain. She had a sling that she was supposed to wear at all times except when she was showering, but she never did. Amanda could doubt that she even knew where the sling was.

"And Sensei will only know if you tell him. I know you won't tell him." Ashton argued.

"And why wouldn't I?"

"Because you're the leader. Regardless of whether we go out on our own or you come with us, you're gonna be held responsible somehow."

Amanda thought for a few minutes before sighing in defeat. "Fine, let's go help Sommer find her ninja turtles."