Chapter 3

This is crazy.

April was rifling through the closet in her bedroom trying to find something. I was still reeling and racking my brain for where I had heard those names before. April was muttering to herself before she found what she was looking for. Pulling out a brown and white box, she ripped off the top of the box, emptying the contents onto the floor. Bending down, I began to look through all the papers, folders and notebooks. They were all on Project Renaissance, the very project where we became friends.

April's father and my own father both started working on Project Renaissance and we were the only kids around. We hung out a lot and, even after the fire, we still stayed in contact. We would get together every once in a while, and we even became roommates in collage. I didn't know that she kept all this stuff of her fathers.

"You really kept all of this stuff?" I asked in slight curiosity. She only nodded at me as she found something in one of the notebooks. Handing me the notebook, I looked at the page in shock. On it was the Japanese symbol for family, the same one that was on the canister at the docks and my tattoo. I always wondered why I had gotten the tattoo, never really having a family that I could rely on for a lot.

April then started going through all her old video camera tapes. On them were about the lab and what it was doing. She teared up when the video showed her dad in it, but I started to look through the names on the video. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo where on there. "The turtles!" I exclaimed. "They are those little box turtles!"

After watching a few more videos, I decided I needed a shower. In the shower, I thought over everything. The turtles that helped to save us and were fighting back against the Foot clan, were the same turtles that April and I had helped to feed when we were just kids. And what happened to the rat, Splinter. When Project Renaissance was happening, I was going through a really hard time. I would spend a lot of time around the lab and talking to Splinter about it. It would help me a lot just to know that I could talk about it to someone, even if they couldn't talk back to me. As I got out of the shower, I wondered if he was mutated like the turtles, and if he was, was he still around?

Walking back down the hallway, I saw that April was still up and on her computer. I shook my head, knowing that there was no way that I could talk her out of what she was doing. Her job won't believe her, but she won't listen to me. When I got to my room, I wasn't as calm as I wanted to be after my shower, so I decided that a little training was in order. I decided that I would do some of my katas. Katas were not only about the movement and placement of your strikes but also about concentration and energy.

I had gone through quite a few of them before I felt tired enough to go to bed. When I got up the next morning, April was gone as well as the box of her dad's lab stuff. I sighed again knowing that her meeting wasn't going to end the way that she thinks it will. After changing into some tight workout clothes, I put some music on before going through some training moves.

I had been trained from a young age the art of ninjutsu. Even though I had never enjoyed the torment that I endured from making a mistake, I had actually enjoyed my lessons. April knew about the training, but I mainly did it whenever she wasn't around. Since I had the next three weeks off, I decided to do my training while April was at work. I had just finished one of my more advanced forms with my sword, when I got a call on my phone.

Pausing my music, I picked up my phone and I didn't recognize the number. "Hello?"

"Is this Rosalba Hartford?" a familiar voice asked from the other line. I recognized the voice as the turtle in purple, Donatello.

"Yes?" I asked in confusion. Why would they be calling me? I wasn't stupid enough to tell anyone about them, no one would believe me.

"Meet us on the roof top tonight," he demanded trying to be tough, which didn't suit him. "And bring your friend April O'Neil. No one else."

I was silent at first. If they wanted to meet, then I wouldn't deny that I was curious about them. "The roof top near the subway?"

"Yes! 4th Avenue and 12th street," he confirmed. "Don't bring anyone else or you shall be punished and stuff." He trailed off at the end being unsure of what he was saying.

I heard laughter in the background and raised an eyebrow at his attempt to be tough. "I'll be there don't worry," I told him. "And Donatello?"

There were hushed voices in the background before Donatello answered with an unsure voice. "Yes?"

I smiled into the phone. "Don't keep doing the tough guy act, it really doesn't suit you. I get the point, so I'll meet you guys there."

I heard three voices bust out laughing before I hung up. This was going to be interesting.

I continued to do my training until April go home before sunset. She was carrying a box full of stuff and I guessed that she got fired. The look she gave me confirmed it and said that she didn't want to talk about it. As she went to put her stuff down in her room, I followed her. I leaned against the door frame of her room as she put the box down on her bed. "So, how'd the training go?" she asked casually, wanting to distract from the obvious.

She had seen my sword on the moved coffee table. I shrugged my shoulders. "It was okay, definitely got a workout done," I replied to her. Now or never. "So, I got a call from the turtles today."

April dropped her laptop on the floor when she heard that. "What?!" she practically screamed.

I winced at how loud she was being and made a motion for her to lower her voice. "Yeah, I did, and they want to meet with us tonight by the train station. I'm gonna get ready."

I got into a tight black outfit in order to improve mobility, put my tantos in my military grade combat boots, along with my short sword on my back. I put my hair in a tight French braid and a scarf around my neck that would double as a mask if need be. I had a feeling something was going to go wrong.

When we were about to leave, April eyes my short sword on my back. "What's with the sword?"

"I have a bad feeling that something is gonna happen," I told her. "I just wanna be prepared for anything."

April took the streets, while I ran across the roof tops. It felt good to be able to run and jump out in the open again. Since I didn't really have a lot of room to be able to train, it felt nice to have room again. Once I got to the roof top, I waited for April to reach there. While I waited, I did some stretches, but I could feel someone's eyes on me.

April finally arrived and we stood there waiting. "Hello?" April called out. When she didn't get a response, April started to breathe a little heavier. "You told us to come here. It's just the two of us. We didn't bring anyone with us. We did exactly—"

The sound of a thud made both April and I spin around to face the turtle in orange, Michelangelo. He put his hands up in surrender. "Okay! Are you April O'Neil and Rosalba Hartford?"

He should have already known our names since it's only been one day. Suddenly, a bright light was behind us, and we turned around to see the turtle in purple, Donatello walking towards us. "Initiating retinal scan," he called out. "Scanning, scanning, scanning, scanning…"

While he was scanning our eyes, the light was blinding me, and I turned away from it. "Quit with the bright lights would ya."

"Scan complete," Donatello announced. "It's them. It's them. Guys, it's them!"

Again, out of nowhere, an arm came and wrapped itself around my shoulders as well as April's. I hated to be touched without permission, however I couldn't do anything because they had April too. The voice belonging to the turtle in blue, Leonardo was the next one to speak. "Of course, it's them, Donnie. Hey, really glad you girls could make it." He walked us a few steps before turning us around to look at him. "Hey, there's someone really important that we want to introduce you too, but first…"

Suddenly, someone put a hood over April's head, and tried to do the same to me. I grabbed the hand of whoever it was, kicked backwards and knocking their leg out from under them, and the used the momentum to swing them over my shoulder. On instinct, I summersaulted in the air and landed on their chest with my sword drawn and at their throats. I immediately recognized the turtle in red, Raphael was the one that I flipped over. "I don't like being touched," I ground out. "I'll follow you but no hoods."

I got off on Raphael and put my sword away. I looked up to see the other three turtles starring at me with wide eyes and shocked expressions. "What?" I asked casually. "Never seen a girl do that before?"

They all shook their heads and held their hands up. "No," they all said at once. "But that's no a bad thing," Leonardo quickly backtracked as Raphael got up off the roof.

"Told you I could kick your ass," I said playfully with a smile to Raphael, trying to make a tense situation lighter. It seemed to work a little, because Raphael gave a small smirk to me. The turtles took April and I into the sewers, walking slowly so that I could keep up. Mikey, as Michelangelo liked to be called, was carrying April bridal style and looked as happy as can be.

It was quiet for the most part, until Donatello couldn't keep his curiosity to himself. "Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Donnie! You don't just ask question like that!" Leonardo reprimanded him, he then turned to me. "I'm sorry about my brother."

I laughed a little bit at him. "It's no problem. I learned when I was younger and had training up until I went to college, which by the way was really young."

"How young?" Raphael asked.

I had to think a little bit. "I think that I was sixteen when I graduated high school."

"Why are you so relaxed around us?" Leonardo asked suddenly.

I looked at his curious yet guarded expression. He was curious as to why I could tell them so much about myself, yet he was expecting the worst-case scenario that I could say. I completely understood where he was coming from; often wondering how April could be so relaxed around me knowing what I could do. "I just feel as though I can trust you guys," I answered honestly. "Who am I to judge when I have a secret myself?"

Leo seemed to accept the answer and nodded.

We reached a door and when it opened, I looked around in awe at the amount of open space and weapons along one wall. I ran my hands over some of the weapons and marveled at the katana that were on display. They had Sais, nun chucks, bo staffs, and katana all perfectly aligned along the wall. I heard chuckling and turned around to see Leonardo and Raphael starring at me with smiles on their faces. I blushed as I realized what I was doing and rubbed the back of my neck. "It's been a while since I've seen a weapon layout like this," I revealed.

That got them to chuckle again before leading April and I to another room. "Where are we?" April asked from under the red hood. I just noticed that the hood had a smiling face on it.

Both Donatello and Mickey started to give names for the place that we're in until April asked if we were in the sewer. Raphael took off the hood and I finally looked forward into the room before me. Standing on the table in the middle of the room, was a giant rat with graying fur.

'Splinter.'

AN: I'm sorry for the late update. I've been really busy. But here it is. Please leave a review, I love hearing from everyone, but just no flames please. Until next time.