A/N: We've got twenty-some chapters left to go, people. Let's see if we can get them out by New Years, eh? Let the chapters and reviews fly! XD

D - Remember the chapter "Retrieval" from "Hollow Hearts"? Noah and Donna couldn't get EVERYTHING out of the duffle bag, including Splinter's DNA. Bishop's had it for months. Meanwhile, Gavin. Gavin is extreme. And a slow onion to peel. It WILL happen, just not fast, so I'm glad you appriciated the little tid bits he did throw out there. :P

Chapter 31: Hounded

Sophia's black mask felt heavy between her fingers. Why? She wished to hell that she knew. Ever since it had been removed for Turtle Titan—Michelangelo—its weight seemed to have increased, and placing it over her eyes left her feeling cemented to her bedroom.

'I haven't been this hesitant about it since…since Marco. Man, why'd he have to get all serious? It's not like I'm looking to be an item or want anything long term.'

"Right, Cuddles?" Sophia swiveled in her computer chair until she faced a glass tank filled with dirt and moss below a heat lamp.

The white tarantula inside turned on her seven hairy legs, her many black eyes staring blankly in return.

"Don't give me that look," the blonde chided with a pout. "And I never really said the kiss made my heart race."

Slowly, Cuddles wiggled the stub that remained of her eighth leg.

"I didn't; don't get sassy! Now go eat before I decide against your treat tonight."

Cuddles complied, although Sophia swore she shrugged with disappointment before leaving. "Who does she think she is?" the blonde asked herself while returning to her desk. "Just because she was a present from my last boyfriend means she knows when I want another?"

Wait. Sophia slammed her mask down.

"N—not that I've been considering such a thing. I mean, that'd be silly. So, so…silly…"

Because he was a mutant? No. Being a mutant mattered to Sophia about as much as a pierced ear or missing toe. So why was she so against it?

"I don't think I can go through all the trouble again," muttered the blonde, gripping her eye mask. "I'd rather keep things casual, but…"

She also couldn't deny the attraction. It made her stupid and jumbled her senses. Just consider what happened when she first met Michelangelo's eyes. They'd drawn her like a moth to the flame. She'd never seen such brilliant eyes before and was thankful he seemed to have mistaken their closeness as his fault.

'I wanted to kiss him,' Sophia thought as she let gravity slam her forehead against her desk. 'God, this would be so much easier if he wasn't so damn honest. Had he agreed with me, my mind could've pushed these feelings away, so they no longer wondered if his kindness could be…more.'

With a grim groan, the young woman lifted her head and her mask. "I almost wish I could ignore him. But he'd probably track me down, like a hound. Idiot."

So she had little choice when she situated the eye piece over her face. If anything, at least it would hide her expressive eyes as she talked with Turtle Titan.

Michelangelo fiddled with the Stealth Watch that'd helped smuggle him inside a dormant construction site near Madison. It was all he could do to keep from nodding off in the late afternoon hour. Though Starberry Girl had met him as asked, she remained so silent that the hero could count the swings of her Star Staff without watching her walk the I-beam frame they loitered on.

"Really, Hoshi?" he started, tossing an arm sideways. "We agree on friendship and suddenly you're mute?"

"Nothing's happened since we last met, Figo," the heroine muttered. She swung her staff for the thirtieth time then balanced it on her shoulder. "What do we have to talk about?"

"Plenty."

"Like?"

"How about"—Mikey pretended to think—"your involvement with the EPF? Or why you don't like making friends? How'd you go from Italy to New York? Or—"

"Va bene, zitto," Hoshi interjected with a growl.

"You could also be a little clearer with your Italian. I'm sure you just cursed me. Or named some food I don't know."

"Actually, I was being nice."

"You interrupted nicely?"

"No; I told you to shut up."

"See?" Mikey wagged finger at the heroine's swaying ponytail. "We have a lot to learn about one another."

"You sure you want that? I have a lot of problems…"

Hoshi fell into silence after a sigh—a drear action that matched the overcast weather. But Michelangelo wouldn't let his smile die and instead kept his tone light.

"We can always start easy," he said. "Like your hair. Is it naturally blonde or green?"

The heroine twisted at the waist to meet his smirk with a puckered look. "Blonde, genius. It's a temporary dye I wash out at night."

"Aw, you get prettied up just for lil' ole me?"

"You wish." Although she mirrored his smirk, it didn't quite hold her usually impishness as the mutant stood.

"Another thing I've been wondering is where'd your name come from? Starberry is pretty…unique."

"Oh, that." The heroine glanced away, a hand covering her cheek to keep it hidden from the hero beside her. "It's—well."

Mikey raised an eye ridge beneath his cowl and stifled a laugh when Hoshi groaned, adding,

"I read a lot of romance comics when I was little. Mainly, manga."

"Japanese comics."

"Si. There was a story called Sailor Universe, and it focused on star systems and magical girls. I loved them. They, along with Mill, inspired me to be a hero. So, I'm a mix of the two. I have my punk vibe and my feminine pink. And my name…was made up when I was six."

"R—really?"

"Don't laugh! It means a lot to me."

"Sorry, sorry." Mikey collected his composure by clearing his throat, yet sobered quickly when the young woman clenched her free right hand. "What's so special about it?" he questioned, gentle.

Unfortunately, she stayed quiet. Maybe she was seeking to be more cooperative by not changing the subject. Then again, she wasn't complying either. Figures.

With a heave, the mutant looked off into the distance and asked, "See that building in the works, a little ways over there?"

Slowly, Hoshi faced it.

"That was my sister's home. Until Bishop came along. And that's just one of the not-so-worse things he's done to my Clan."

"Figo…" The young woman sighed.

"I can piece puzzles together fairly well"—Mikey paused to send his companion a sidelong glance—"Sophia. Before we teamed up, the first thing you made sure of is if I was against Bishop. Since then, you've hinted towards a bad history in Italy and seemed surprised when I mentioned…Christina.

"Then there's Nom de Guerre's comments. They obviously had something to do with you going by the name Sonya Fisher here in the States. That's not a trail of coincidences. Am I wrong?"

"No," Hoshi muttered towards the obscured sky.

"So wouldn't it be nice not having to carry around that burden alone?"

"You don't give up, do you?"

"Nope!"

"Fine." The heroine shifted so her chin rested on her extended Star Staff's head. "You win. But it's not a happy story."

"Bishop's involved," Mikey noted while she frowned, "I'm not surprised."

"Si…it's not something that happened overnight. It took years, and at its apex I lost everything: my identity, my country, my friends, my…my boyfriend."

"Oh…you had a—?"

Hoshi cut off the mutant by speaking louder. "Mum lost everything too. And it's my fault. My heroism has always caused her pain."

"My father could probably sympathize with her on that," Mikey said in an undertone. "Yet you haven't given up."

"If someone said you had to stop, could you?"

"Evidently not. So what happened?"

"Palermo, mainly. It's a city in Sicily, on the north-east coast. You were wondering why I wasn't surprised about you being a mutant? That's because you aren't the first one I've met."

"Really?"

Hoshi gave a shallow nod. "They called themselves The Sect from Moher."

"What's a sect?"

"A family. I think. They came over from Ireland or something. Not too sure about their history, not even how they came to be. They didn't say much about it, only that they've been running from an organization that's wheedling itself into several countries."

"EPF," Mikey hissed.

"There were fifteen refuges in total. After Palermo…there were only two. Maestra warned me against getting close to them. But we spent two years together; I couldn't help it."

"Two years and they never told you their past?"

"They didn't pry into mine, so I didn't pry into theirs. We were bonded by our mission instead: to bring down the EPF."

"Hoshi, Dudette"—Mikey paused, unsure of his next words—"you'd need an army to take down Bishop."

"That's what we had," the heroine spat, clenching her staff's head. "We were fighters, a—a team. And we failed miserably.

"We made a plan to infiltrate the main base Bishop had stationed off the coast. He'd taken almost half our members by that point and we were going to get them back."

"I take it things didn't go well."

"No…Despite inside knowledge from my boyfriend—"

"Why would your boyfriend have inside knowledge?"

"Because"—Hoshi hesitated before sighing—"he was an EPF member. Somehow, though, a trip to South America changed his mind. He decided to turn."

"Why South America?"

"I don't know. Something about an ancient alien wreck or some shit. He wouldn't say. He just gave me a necklace, making me promise to keep it away from Bishop."

"Why a necklace?"

"I don't know that shit either. It didn't seem special—at least not until I met Sarah."

"Sarah…?"

"Brown."

"Oh, right; my sister."

Hoshi quirked a light eyebrow when Mikey chuckled nervously. "Really, Figo?"

"Sorry, slip of the mind. So, when'd he give you this necklace?"

"Just before the base collapsed on top of us…"

"Oh." The mutant breathed slowly, to keep his companion calm. "Were you…?"

"Everyone was in there," Starberry Girl all but grumbled. "Marco, my boyfriend, smuggled us inside, but didn't have full clearance at that point because he'd already betrayed Bishop. He wound up caught, so I had to go ahead and find the younger ones while Chrome and the others held off security. I found them in a lower level, but…it was too late."

"Sophia," Mikey reached for the young woman's tense shoulder, yet paused as she growled.

"The bastard butchered them," she croaked. "Anya, Kit, Morgan, Spot, Zero, Lettie—every one of them. And a little lab apprentice thought she could stop me from returning them to their sect."

"Don't tell me that apprentice was—"

"Christina Silliman."

Can you say mind blown? It was hard enough imagining Christina outside the Wid-West Lab where Mikey's brothers had saved him from, let alone imagining her willingly keeping mutants hostage.

"She thought she was protecting the world," Hoshi continued, snapping the hero out of his memories. "Like every other EPF member. Even so, her attempts at stopping me were half-hearted. I could tell what had been done to the others weighed on her conscience. It's why I could convince her to help me in the end."

"She released them, right?" Mikey sounded hopeful, which probably seemed strange to Hoshi considering their history.

"She opened an escape route, though left soon after. Good for her; apparently she made it out alive, if you know her."

"More like 'knew'," said the mutant, stiff. This time, he was the one who avoided eye contact and he failed at keeping his tone even. "She died years ago. Took a bullet so I could survive…"

"I see," Hoshi said under her breath. "She came a long way then."

"I guess. But to me, it seemed like she was always helping. She was just too scared to stand up against Bishop until…until the end."

"That bastardo's a thief, Figo. He stole my team and boyfriend by self-destructing his Lab. He found out who I was and what Marco gave me, so I was forced to deal with Nom de Guerre. He picked New York because of its population and because English is my next best language."

"And when was this?"

"Almost four years, not long before my twentieth birthday. Now do you see now why watching Hubs means so much to me? Why I need him out of this city?"

"I understand, Hoshi, I do. But making that your ultimate goal will prevent you from living. Isn't it lonely being mission-oriented?"

"It's how Madam Vermillion trained me."

"That's not an answer."

Michelangelo had to hand it to the heroine; she wore a stony expression even Leonardo wouldn't be able to decipher. She maintained it, too, regardless of how hard the mutant stared. 'Guess I should be thankful I got this far,' he thought while rubbing his neck. 'She's really—'

"Merda!" The heroine jolted as if struck by an invisible bullet.

She backpedaled on the I-beam frame then reached below her pink sailor collar. Before Mikey spoke up, she revealed a smooth stone wrapped in twine, bound around her neck. It resembled Jade with its brilliant greens and teals, except with one major difference. It had a heartbeat. At least that's what it seemed like whenever the white light inside it pulsed.

"Is that the necklace you were talking about?" Michelangelo asked, pointing towards it.

"Si," Hoshi answered while rubbing her bow against her chest. "It's been acting weird lately, and I have no idea why."

"You mean glowing?"

"And growing super hot. It usually only does this when Sarah's around, though."

"Really? Why?"

"How the hell am I supposed to—"

"Monster!"

Both hero and heroine paused at a shrill cry, meeting one another's gaze.

"Hey, it's not me; I'm wearing a cowl," Mikey noted with his hands raised. So he followed Starberry Girl's lead by leaning over the three-story frame until he spotted the commotion brewing below them.

Quite frankly, it was a frenzy—like a terrorist had just placed an active bomb in the middle of the street. Pedestrians scrambled across the intersection ahead towards the construction site's wire fences, despite the steep concrete cliff on its other side. Their jumbled voices joined the squeals of tires when cars veered off the road to avoid what Mikey considered a ravenous wolverine-werewolf-thing. He had no idea what to call it, only that it was a deep brown, as a big as a Subaru, and had friends.

"Is it just me, or are those things heading our way?" Mikey asked.

"Come on, Figo; this is our calling."

Why fight her lead? Steeling himself, Mikey took one last look at the raised intersection then descended the I-beam frame in a ninja fashion rather than using his grappling gun. His boots met the sandy ground, stirring it before he took off behind the heroine.

"Should we really be running towards them, Hoshi? I think they've already got—ah!"

The hero skidded to a halt to cover his ears when thunderous roars sounded. They were unlike any he'd heard from the Discovery Channel—a demonic sound—and they led his attention above, where three dark beasts mauled those who sought refuge by the fence. The creatures showed little interest in the downed humans, however, as if guided by a higher goal. So their massive paws used their victims as steps, carrying their solid bodies over the top rail.

They remained perched there with the balance of a cat, which seemed odd given their sheer size. They were thick at every joint and their hunched head almost matched a hound dog's. But in place of the wide, lethargic eyes, were pure black slits. And instead of a cute sagging mouth, its sloped snout salivated with snarls that revealed shark-like teeth.

"Well, uh, they've definitely seen us," Michelangelo said as the three descended the concrete cliff. "Any suggestions, Hoshi? Hoshi?"

Mikey glanced at his companion, but the moment he did, his stomach sank. She didn't flash a smirk or even prepare herself for the oncoming danger. Instead, she stared ahead, mouth agape as her Star Staff laid by her combat boots.

"Starberry Girl!" he cried. All to no avail.

"Cani?" she croaked. "Dogs?"

They were her last words before she fell backwards and the creatures roared again.

A/N: At times, Sophia can REALLY remind me of Meg from Hercules. LOL Anyways CLIFF. Prepare for much more of those...

"Pit" takes us to where Blaine is. The plan to use the EPF soldier is put into action until they get a disturbing call. Then, Piece and Hun have a talk...