TMNT 2003 S1: Four Turtles More

by Fanficteller

Fifteen years have passed since the accident. Now, eight turtles, six brothers and two sisters, born as mutants in the sewers and trained as ninjas by a rat, are forced to leave their destroyed underground home and take the first step into a surface world where they face many adventures and meet new friends and foes, until they meet their toughest opponent ever, The Shredder.

53. The Girl and the Turtle, Part 1, Part 3

Guest 1: I think that when I was writing the episode, I mixed up Splinter's two names in different languages. In English it is: Master Splinter, and in my language, Finnish, it is: Mestari Tikku "Tiku". Well, it's fixed now. And yes, Raph is older than Dom, who is fourth oldest turtle in the team after Leo, Raph and Mary. It's just Dom speaking of his own to make an excuse to secure the leadership.

Girl Anime Club: No reason to why he wouldn't.

CT311998: Well, that's true, and perhaps it will be so. In the original series, it was Raph who usually took the leadership role whenever Leo was absent or out of commision, yet his impulsiveness and lack of patience clashes greatly with Mary's more collected and patient attitude too - even though so far these two have no rivalry between of each other.

---

= TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2003 =
= THE GIRL AND THE TURTLE P3=

Meanwhile in the surface, Angel and Ellie were returning from their shop trip, with Angel carrying two full shopping bags in her hands, while Ellie was going through both the shopping list and the receipt to see what they had and what they had missed.

"Let's see... we got milk, checked... eggs, checked... bread, checked... butter, checked... sugar, checked... frozed berries, checked... cheese, checked... honey, checked... cooking cream, checked... canned chicken and beans, checked... potatoes, checked... carrots, checked... tomatoes, checked... salad, checked... cucumbers, checked... mushrooms, checked... parsley, checked... celery, checked... cereals, checked... oats flakes, checked..." Ellie listed out loud.

Angel, who grunted slightly while carrying the midly heavy bags in her hands, rolled her eyes at her grandmother in slight annoyance.

"Oh, please, grandmother." Angel said, or more likely pleaded. "This is already the third time you go through both the shopping list and the purchase receipt. I'm telling you, we already have a lot of everything."

"Well honey, I'm just trying to be precise here." Ellie said simply as she put the shopping list and the receipt back into her purse. "Besides, you can never know when you might have forgot something, especially if that's something you were supposed to buy in the first place, till it's too late."

"Well, at least I'm not going to make the same trip there and back again if we really did forget something." Angel said jokingly.

Ellie gave her granddaughter a look with the teasing smile, as if she had something in mind to counter Angel's statement.

"No? How about if I'd reward you with hot waffles with ice cream and strawberry jam, if you would bother to go back to pick up what we missed... for your grandmother's sake." Ellie teasingly offered.

Angel let out an annoyed groan when she heard this!

Of course her grandmother was trying to sway her into doing something by using her weak spot on her favorite dessert: the delicious treat of hot waffles along with ice cream and strawberry jam, as her reward for the work.

And she knew, that she was doing it solely on purpose, as this wasn't actually the first time, for her grandmother had used that same old gimmick many times before in the past to get her to do her bidding, whether she wanted it or not.

Of course, Angel couldn't have say "no" to such an delicious offer back then, when she was still a little girl who would even so naively do anything to get a treat for her work.

And even if she had grown out of such of childish naivety, she unfortunately hadn't done so in the case of her sweet tooth for the hot waffles along with ice cream and strawberry jam. She just couldn't help it if those sweet treats tasted so fresh and juicy in her mouth, especially when covered with melted ice cream and jam.

And yet, her grandmother was still trying the same technique, as if not minding if she wasn't the little girl anymore.

"Grandma! You should already know that trick won't work on me anymore, as I've grown out of it a long time ago." Angel whined. "Besides, how do I know that we already have waffles, ice cream and jam at home. Last time I checked, we were out of them."

"We were, honey." Ellie confirmed, before pointing into one of the bags. Looking in, Angel peeked in and noticed that there was a waffle pack, a vanilla ice cream pack and a jar of strawberry jam.

Angel looked up at her grandmother with an raised eyebrow, because she didn't remember them buying those things, and they weren't even in the shopping list.

"Where did those things came from?" she asked.

"I bought them when you weren't looking, dear, just in case we were missing something and that I needed you to go back to pick it." Ellie said with the chuckle.

Angel frowned, annoyed that her grandmother once again had the leverage against her, and looked away from her as they kept walking.

"I think I hate you, grandma." she added with the low voice, causing Ellie to chuckle heartily even more louder, knocking that Angel didn't really meant that last one.

###

Few hours earlier in the Lair, whilst Leo, Donnie, Mary and Arcee were either sitting on or leaning against the edge of the higher level of the floor near the Dōjō, Louie, Raph, Dom and Mikey were standing in row, with their heads hanging low on their shoulders, before Master Splinter, who paced back and forth in front of his four sons.

And Splinter wasn't even close of being pleased with his four sons' progress in the training.

"My sons. I'm not pleased with your progress in training today." he said with calm yet stern voice, until he stopped right in front of Louie. "And Lorenzo, I'm mostly disappointed on you. Do you know why?"

Louie looked up at his father, before he opened his mouth to say something.

"Is it because I failed to catch Arcee and Leo by surprise while I succeeded in taking out Mary and Dom?" the turtle in black questioned.

"NO!" Splinter said, banging his staff hard against the floor, making Louie jump a little. "I am disappointed, not only because your team failed, but also because you rejected the instructions I gave you! and what exactly was my one particular instruction?"

Louie looked submissively at his father, but didn't say anything. When nothing came from Louie for less than five minutes, Splinter opened his mouth to remind him about them in case Louie had either forgotten or had not paid attention to them earlier.

"My instructions were..." Splinter started as he raised his hand up and held his fore finger up.

"Work as the team, as a unit, not as a indivituals, unless that is part of your teamwork someway." Splinter said, lowering his finger. "And yet, as your brothers told me, you abandoned them and went on the solo mission rather than working with them as a team. And more than that, you used your brothers as the bait to lure the other team out of hiding so that you could take them on yourselves. In other words, you turned your brothers from teammates into "Ashigaru-sha"!"(1)

When that particular word left from Splinter's mouth, both Raph and Dom turned their heads slightly to the right to glare fiery daggers at Louie for taking them as such during of the training, though Mikey was a bit confused of Master Splinter's last word.

Hoping for answers to clear up his confusion, Mikey carefully leaned towards Dom and tapped him in the arm with his fore finger's knuckle, catching his attention.

"Umm... Dom? What's Ashigaru-sha?" the turtle in orange asked.

"Trust me, little bro. You do not want to know." Dom said in warning, but clarified the matter to his little brother nonetheless. "In traditional japanese warfare, the ashigaru-sha were the expendable soldiers who were sent in first to waste the enemy's ammunition and set off traps before the real soldiers arrived. In other words, "cannon-fodder"."(1)

"Ohh! Okay. Thanks, Dom." Mikey thanked calmly, oblivious about the whole meaning in Dom's words, which caused the turtle in white nearly to roll his eyes at his brother's naivety, before he pulled back while letting his brother's words to sink in.

However, after three minutes and thirty-eight seconds, Mikey's relaxed and satisfied look on his face morphed into surprised, even disturbed one when the whole meaning of "Ashigaru-sha" all of the sudden dawned to him, like a sudden cannon blast right at your feet, literally!

"HEY!" Mikey exclaimed as he leaned forward to scowl darkly at Louie's direction. "Do we really mean to you that much, Louie?! An expendable cannon-fodder?! How could you?!" the turtle in orange added, clearly offended.

"Michelangelo!" Splinter said sternly as he turned from Louie to his youngest son. "Silence!"

Mikey's eyes shot wide open at Master Splinter's stern words, before the turtle in orange submissively pulled back into the row... but not before casting another dark scowl at Louie.

Splinter then turned back to Louie, before he continued. "In the real situation up there, our enemies, Foot Clan for example, may rely on this cowardly technique by sending a large number of their expendable henchmen to fight against you, to wear you down, before attacking you either with their full force or with their bests to finish you off when you have no strength to fight them back. But since you are brothers and sisters, family to each other, you cannot afford to sacrifice your own for such a thing."(2)

"And yet this shell-for-brains did so by ditching us on our own and leaving us at the mercy of the other team." Dom snarled as he scowled at Louie.

"Yeah. And it doesn't seem to bother him at all." Raph snarled as well, his narrowed eyes flashing from anger to his brother for his actions during the training.

Louie, however, scowled back at them, partly offended by their accusatory words against him, but also shouting his own accusatory words at them in his mind.

"Do you have something to say to explain your rash actions, my son?" Master Splinter said, offering Louie a chance to explain himself.

"Oh, I do, Sensei." Louie said eagerly, dying to open to his father about his own accusatory against his brothers - at least Dom and Raph - so that he could literally take them down with him at least.

"We COULD'VE worked as the team like you said... if only it wasn't for these two idiots who started arguing with each other about which of us should lead our team during the training. Both of them were immediately at each other's throats, throwing insults, criticizing and underestimating each other's leadership skills. They wouldn't even let me and Mikey express our own opinions, let alone to volunteer ourselves to be a leader to break up the fight. Both of them wanted leadership for themselves." Louie explained.

Both Raph and Dom glared angrily at Louie for bringing up their quarrel over the leadership of their team into this as an excuse to get away from this with his own actions... except Mikey, who couldn't help but reluctantly agree with Louie about his words.

"Yeah, well, that's kinda true." Mikey stuttered in agreement.

However, because of him agreeing with Louie's words against them, both Raph and Dom turned to shot a storm dark scowls at Mikey's direction to intimidate him into silence, which Mikey timidly did in order not to get to his older brothers' bad side.

"Is this true, Raphael and Domenico?" Splinter questioned, turning his frown from Louie - and briefly from Mikey - to his two sons in the middle of the row.

Raph was first to speak. "Well, Dom started it first. I was taking the lead until he began openly to question it... saying that I was too rash, impulsive and too impatient to lead." the turtle in red said, slapping the back of his hand against Dom's stomach.

Dom looked at his brother with greatly flabbergasted look on his face for his words.

"EXCUSE ME?!" Dom exclaimed aloud. "What do you mean with "I was the one who started it"?! It was YOU ALONE who started the whole fight in the first place, Raph, by starting to openly undermine my leadership, remember?!"

"Yeah, that's how it exactly went..." Mikey added, backing Dom up, while making both Raph and Dom to turn from each other back to their little brother.

"Dom was going to take over our team, until you started to openly question and criticize his leadership, even calling him with names such as "overcautious", "boring", "lame", "wussy" and "unable to take the stress". That's, kinda, what you did say him, didn't you?

Raph shot daggers at Mikey through his narrowed eyes, and let a loud irritated snarl escape through of his angrily gritted teeth.

With those words, Dom turned then back to Raph, while pointing wth his thump over his shoulder at Mikey.

"You heard him, bro! Does that ring any bells, if you even have them in that thick skull of yours?" Dom questioned.

Listening from the sidelines with a deep frown on his face and arms folded in front of his chest, Master Splinter turned towards Raph with a left quirked eyebrow, expecting him to say something about it either in his own defense or denial.

Mikey, however, added a little more... literally... fuel to the fire. "So technically it was you who started the whole argument in the first place. Right, Raph?"

That was the last straw, and Raph pushed his way past Dom and began to march towards Mikey like with intention to pummel him for siding with Dom over him!

"Shut your hole, Mikey, before I'll shut it myself!" Raph snarled threateningly, making Mikey to nervously back away quickly.

However, Dom hurriedly jumped in front of his hot-headed brother in his little brother's defense and pushed Raph back by his chest with his both hands.

"Out of my way, Dom!" Raph snarled.

"You leave Mikey out of this, you bullheaded doofus!" Dom demanded strictly.

Dom's timely jump in between of them to shield him from Raph's irritated mood and desire to vent it on something - like him for example - allowed Mikey let out the sigh with relief.

"Besides, Mikey was more than right about you starting the fight just because you yourself wanted to take the charge of things with your own way, and you know that is true, bro! So don't even bother pinning the blame on someone else, least of venting your feelings of the cruel truth on anyone here, while denying your own fault like some childish immature jerk?!" Dom said, pointing an finger at Raph.

"Jerk, am I?!" Raph said irritably, not really liking to be called with such of insults. "Perhaps you're in need of some reminder what I like of being called "jerk"."

"Such of puny threats coming from you work nothing except making me to laugh!" Dom shot back. "So don't tempt me."

"Oh, I ain't going to make you laugh, bro!" Raph snarled, punching his palm with his fist. "I'm gonna make you whine!"

"Don't you dare, bro...!"

Before the quarrel between two brothers could've escalated, Master Splinter took the situation quickly under control by whacking his two sons on top of their heads with his staff.

(WHACK!) "OWW!" Dom gasped as he put his hands over his head.

(WHACK!) "AGH!" Raph whined, putting his own hands over his head too.

"My son, ENOUGH!" Spinter ordered harshly, banging his staff hard to the floor again.

Upon heading Splinter's strict command and the bang of his staff against the floor, Raph and Dom immediately turned to Splinter and stood upright, with their chins up and chests out, though they still grimaced from the stinging pain on top of their heads.

"So, what I understood from what you two told me is that you…" Splinter said, pointing his wand at the turtles in red and white. "...started arguing with each other about the leadership of the team, which you should have decided among yourselves instead of underestimating and criticizing each other's skills... or taking the leadership of the team for yourself without hearing the other team members' opinions. This will result in nothing but bitterness and non-cooperation within the team, which will further result even worse consequences. This cannot be so when you're in the real situation like this. Do you boys understand?! You can't fight evil effectively if you're at each other's throats at the same time."

Realizing that Master Splinter was right with his words, and that how foolish and childish the two of them have been for wasting time in their stupid argument over the leadership, the turtles in red and white lowered their heads deep down in shame.

However, they still shot the daggers at each other with the sideways glares, hinting that still in the back of their minds, both Raph and Dom still believed each other to be uneffective to lead for the benefit of the entire team and still considered themselves better leader than the other one.

Master Splinter then turned from his two sons back to Louie, the disappointment in his son's rash actions still clearly visible in his scowl under his white eyebrows.

"And Lorenzo...simply abandoning the team to go on your own is never the right move, especially if the current situation calls for teamwork." Splinter said, before he took a short break.

"Always remember this, all four of you, that the true strength of a team lies both in numbers and in each other, while a scattered team, no matter how powerful and skilled a warrior is even alone, is both weak and easily picked off. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Sensei." Louie, Raph, Dom and even Mikey said in once voice.

Master Splinter then lifted his hand over his scarred snout and let out the deep sigh, knowing that now he needed to go to the difficult part in here, assigning punishment to his sons both for their failure in training and for neglecting his instructions for their own gain instead of the whole team's.

"Now... because your team failed the lesson when all of you got picked off by the other team, All four of you will train stealth and teamwork-effort with doubled hours for the whole next month." Splinter said, before he turned to Louie, Raph and Dom, while ignoring Mikey completely.

The turtles in black, red and white nervously swallowed the lump from their throats, because they knew that their master's piercing gaze on three of them could only mean that he wasn't done with them yet.

Even Leo, Donnie, Mary and Arcee knew that once they saw the look on their master's face, and crinkled their brows in anticipation of what Master Splinter had for their four unfortunate brothers.

"Ohhhh...! They're definitely going to die!" Arcee said tensely.

Splinter then opened his mouth to voice his final assignments.

"And Lorenzo, Raphael and Domenico... for pursuing your own gains instead of the teamwork, and neglecting his direct instructions, the training period will be prolonged by two months more with the three of you!"

The turtles in black, red and white stared at their father, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, stunned with disbelief that they weren't just going to train with extra hours compared to their normal training routine for a month, but they were going to do so for two or three whole months!

"Oooohhhhhhhh!" Leo, Donnie, Mary and Arcee gasped!

"WHAT?!" Raph and Dom gasped all at the same time. "For next two-three months?!"

"Yes!" Splinter confirmed.

"Oh, brother!" Louie muttered, facepalming himself in his left temple with his fist, knowing that he was screwed because of that little ditching-trick of this.

However, both Raph and Dom began immediately voicing out their protests.

"You can't be serious, Sensei?!" Raph exclaimed. "Training extra hours exceptionally compared to our routine for a couple weeks is one thing, but three whole months?!"

"Have I ever been less than serious with my decisions, my son?" Master Splinter questioned.

"Well... uh..." Raph hesitated to answer, slightly taken aback by Splinter's question, until he finally got some words back into his mouth. "No, you haven't. But what about all the late-night bike races I've been planning with Casey? The prolonged training period with doubled hours will force me to skip most of them!"

"This is almost an outrage, Sensei!" Dom whined. "Lorenzo here should be punished with such of long training period for ditching the rest of the team, not me... and Raph... despite our silly fight for the leadership of the team! Can't you... can't you at least reconsider this?!" he begged desperately.

"I have spoken, my son." Splinter said calmly but still strictly.

Both turtles in red and white remained there to stare at their father and master in crushing defeat and realization that there was no way they could sway Splinter into reconsider.

Splinter then pointed his staff up at his sons on his left. "Three months for all three of you... and one month for Michelangelo." he added more calmly anf softly, as he turned his staff towards Michelangelo.

Mikey was left surprised by this, while Louie, Raph and Dom turned all to stare at Mikey in puzzlement and confusion that the turtle in orange got away with one month while all three of them got three months.

"Why does Mikey get away from this with such of ease and we don't?!" Raph questioned out loud from Master Splinter, not bothering to hide the hint of envy in his voice, while pointing at his little brother with him thump.

"Ease?!" Mikey questioned. "You try to last the extra hours of training for the first month, and you'll come to know that I ain't enjoying about this either."

"I wasn't asking from you, Mikey!" Raph snapped.

"Because, Raphael..." Splinter said, getting Raph's attention back to him. "I don't remember you telling me Michelangelo either ditching you or joining in your argument. But..." Splinter took a brief brake and pointed his finger to his ear. "...I did hear him volunteering himself as your team's leader to break up the fight. And where there was pride and self-centeredness in both your and Domenico's voices, Michelangelo's voice had nothing but confidence."

"Does that mean you would have chosen Mikey to lead our team?" Dom questioned.

"Perhaps, Domenico." Splinter answered simply.

This left Dom taken aback and confused by his answer.

"Wha...?!" Dom gasped with raised eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because, while he may not have the natural leadership qualities like Leonardo has, but at least he has a potentiality and even capability to take the charge if necessary... yet you two rejected him volunteering him as the leader to pursue your own gains. So, that's why Michelangelo gets away from this with ease." Splinter finished.

Reluctantly admitting to themselves that Master Splinter was speaking the truth, both Raph and Dom ceased protesting against Master Splinter's decisions and submissively stepped back and begrudgingly accepted their father's assignments as their punishments... though mumbling and grumbling under their breaths while looking slightly away.

"So, um..." Mikey said meekly, getting both Raph's and Dom's attentions. "No hard feelings, right?"

None of the two said the word to Mikey, only stared at him expressionlessly, though they eventually gave Mikey a slight nods, wordlessly telling him that there was no hard feelings between them and their little brother.

Having nothing more to say to his four sons, Splinter turned his tail and began marching towards his home's doors, leaving his children to the center of the Lair.

"Get some rest, all of you." Splinter told them as his room's paper doors slid open, allowing him to enter. "We'll continue training tommorow." he finished and disappeared from the sight as the doors closed behind him.

Louie, Raph, Dom and Mikey stared at their father's room's door in deep silence for a moment, while Leo, Donnie, Mary and Arcee walked up to ther brothers, eyes on Splinter's room as well.

It was until then when Louie broke the silence.

"Well! I guess that was it. Things are back to normal, everything's forgotten and forgiven, no hard feelings between us bros..." Louie eventually said, sounding and acting like everything was simply fine and that nothing ever even happened.

"So it's the end the story." he finished.

However, once Splinter had gone, Louie's carefree attitude and mere voice caused the burning memory of him ditching their team during the training, which had resulted to their defeat, failure and their punishment, stirred back into Raph's and Dom's heads. Both the turtles in red and white turned to stare at Louie with rather storm-dark scowls in their eyes.

"What?" Louie said with the shrug.

"This may be it, Louie, and the things may be back to normal." Raph growled angrily under his breath. "But nothing's definitely forgotten or forgiven, especially after you ditched us in the tunnels and let us to be picked off one by one for your own gain! So, there definitely will be hard feelings between of us, "bro"!"

With that, still fumming, Raph began to walk towards the common area, but not before rudely and deliberately shoving Louie out of his way with his right shoulder and arm, and not bothering to even apologize from it.

Louie looked after his brother wide-eyed, taken aback by his behavior against him.

"And don't act like three months of training with doubled hours doesn't bother you, Louie." Dom snarled, as he began to follow Raph towards the common area. "And don't even bother to hide from us the fact that you're enjoying our misery even though you're equaly sharing it yourself."

With that, Dom pushed past the turtle in black with his left shoulder and arm, before moving on, not bothering to apologize to him just like Raph did.

"And this won't be so easily forgotten, so don't even bother coming to us whenever you want to ask us something or need us in anything, because you never do that anyway. Not unless you learn to value us a little more than what you did today." he finished without even looking at Louie.

However, he did slightly peek over his left shoulder, though not at all at Louie. Rather past the turtle in black and into Mikey, who hadn't moved from his spot.

"Come on, Mikey." Dom said.

Mikey felt a little torn between the two options as he looked at both Dom and Louie, though the former hadn't stayed there for long to wait for him to follow him, but instead continuing forward towards the common area.

Although he was given with one month to train for doubled hours compared to his older brothers, who had received three, he was left with disbelief that they were still willing to allow him to hang out with them - or at least Dom did. He wasn't sure about what Raph felt about it.

But at the same time, Mikey also felt sorry for Louie, despite him being indirectly to blame for their team's failure, that the others decided to so rudely - and maybe little selfishly too - push him away and leave him out like this. Mikey even wasn't sure if Dom had invited him to follow him good-naturely or just out of spite against Louie.

However, he quickly decided to remain on his two brothers' good side, so he timidly followed after Dom towards the common area, walking past no so surprised Louie, to whom the turtle in orange gave an apologetic look.

"Sorry, bro." Mikey said quickly and regretfully, before he turned around and left.

Being left alone in the center of the Lair, Louie stared at his brothers, who sat on the common area's couch together to watch TV, with their shells rudely turned on him, with the hardened frown. The turtle in black was offended of being pushed away like this by both Raph and Dom, who, in his view, shared the blame of their team's failure.

Rather annoyed Louie eventually decided to get them back... by playing their own little game.

"Fine! You guys can be angry at me if you want, while I'll do exactly what you suggested, Dom! I know when I'm not needed here!" Louie called. "You can sit there in peace and wail in your self-pity while thinking about nothing else save for your own shells!"

Louie then turned around and marched angrily towards the front door of the Lair. Mikey looked over his shoulder at his departing brother with pity, while Dom and Raph were purposefully indifferent about it, even if they did hear him ranting back at them.

From the other four turtles who had witnessed this from aside, only Arcee stepped forward and towards departing Louie, worry and pity wrapped over her face.

"Hey, Louie! Where are you going?" the turtle in pink called innocently.

Almost at the door, Louie didn't stop his pace, but was honest enough to bother to answer his sister's question.

"Up to the surface." the turtle in black said. "To be on my own for a while... and far away from those three!" he added with the raised voice, pointing a finger towards Raph, Dom and Mikey, before he disappeared into the tunnels.

Arcee was about to follow him, but both Mary and Leo stopped their little sister from going by gently grabbing her by her shoulders, Leo on her right and Mary on her left.

"Let him go, Arcee. I think Louie indeed needs some time for himself right now." Leo reassured, before looking up at the door himself.

"And let's hope he doesn't end up into any trouble up there." Leo said.

###

A few hours later, after coming out of the manhole to the dark alleyway, Louie was on the move on the surface. But instead of moving along the roofs of buildings and out of sight as usual, the turtle in black was walking on the street level of New York tonight.

However, though he was still irritated with Raph and Dom for their rude and selfish treatment on him, Louie couldn't let that affect his own sense of safety and the secrecy of his appearance while on the surface, according to Master Splinter's most important rule of not being seen by the surface dwellers.

However, that's why he had utilized the ninjas' ancient mastery of disguises, before jumping to the streets

The turtle in black had put on a long grayish-brown trenchcoat, while wearing a bluish-gray hat on his head and the black scarf, which he had wrapped around his head to cover his face from all passers-by and other bystanders.

And after dressing up, Louie walked slowly and silently on the street.

As he walked aimlessly across the city, the turtle in black passed many citizens of New York, who had no idea that there was 5′2 foot tall mutant ninja turtle walking among them in disguise.

Unlike on the rooftops, where there was freedom to move without the need to hide or conceal oneself as much as the darkness already took care of it, the rules were different on the street level and the risk of being exposed even higher, even if you were wearing the disguise.

Because of that, Louie remained highly alert, glancing from side to side tfor any sign of danger or trouble, while keeping his three-fingered hands hidden all of time in the pockets of his jacket, only taking them out for a moment if he had to occasionally adjust his coat's long collars and wrap his scarf around his face properly to hide his face.

So far, everything went smoothly and without trouble, because even though he was surrounded by the number of people who both came and went, none of them actually paid him any attention, mostly minding their own business. In their eyes, he was just an ordinary citizen of New York City, one among others.

However, Louie noticed that he DID receive a few curious glances from some onlookers.

They probably found his slightly more rounded and bulky shape - which was his natural round and bulkier turtle shape compared to the humans' more thinnier shapes - as well as his need to cover his faces with the black scarf either funny, curious or even suspicious.

However, as long as they didn't bother him in any way, Louie paid them no attention.

But despite the constant watch of his surroundings, keeping his secrecy up and avoiding the troubles, Louie was still irritated and frustrated from earlier today... to the point of wanting so badly to vent it on something.

So that's what he started to look for... the criminal activity committed by some good-for-nothing street thugs trying their luck, such as muggings and armed robberies or even simple pickpocketing or shoplifting to let out some steam of his foul mood.

However, after walking through a few blocks, there was no any illegal activity anywhere on sight, which only increased Louie's ill mood.

"Ugh! Come on, punks. I'm getting bored out here!" Louie mumbled irritably, only a moment later realizing something. "Great. Now I'm starting to sound like Raph."

But luck seemed to be on Louie's side when he arrived to the fifth block.

Not far ahead of him, an old woman was walking towards him. Her hair was gray and upturned, and she was dressed in a black (or at least dark-colored) canvas jacket and dress, and she wore glasses. The woman also appeared to be using a walking stick to facilitate her rather arduous walk, while carrying a leather pursue over her shoulder.

But after passing the next alleyway entrance, two up-to-no-good-looking crooks emerged from the alley and sneaked right behind of the woman. One of them was thinner and taller African-American, who was dressed up into black pants and white shirt and wore over it a red vest. He was also wielding the black shades and had golden ring in his nose and the purple-dyed mohawk-styled haircut. The other one was shorter but bulkier, who had small bushy hair on top of his head, while he was dressed up into military boots, camouflage pants and light-brown shirt, over which he had the warm brown vest.(3)

The pair quickly glanced around to see if there was anyone around to see this, before the taller Mohawk-headed guy proceeded to catch the woman by surprise by putting the bag over her head and wrapped his long arms around the lady to keep her still, while his bulkier partner grabbed to the woman's purse and tried to pull it from her hands.

The woman, surprised and horrified upon realizing that she was about to get mugged, let out the muffled screams for help under the bag, but no one couldn't hear her, not even from the distance where Louie was standing.

Seeing these two honorless crooks attacking the old defenseless lady like that made Louie disgusted, but glad he didn't have to wait too long for something to happen.

"About time." the turtle in black said.

Anyway, knowing that the old woman's well-being, and maybe even her life, was at stake, Louie picked up the pace, but not too fast in order not to alarm the crooks about his presence. The last thing he wanted was them getting away with this without him pummeling them really good for attacking an old lady.

Though blinded by the bag on her head, the woman tried to hold on from her purse while swinging her walking stick wildly around, whacking three times the bulky crook in the face with it. However, as soon as the bulky crook tore the purse off the woman's hands, the tall crook threw the woman roghly over to the ground like the man-sized rag doll, like not caring at all if he end up hurting her.

Leaving recently mugged lady to lie there, the crooks took up on the run... unknowingly right towards Louie's direction, all the while the woman pulled the bag off her head and screamed helplessly after the two runaway crooks.

"Help! Help! Somebody, help! Police! I've been mugged! Help! Somebody stop them!" she screamed desperately.

"Well, for an old hag, she put up a good fight! I like that. Plucky bit a spirit of the woman, don't you agree, Rocky?" the Mohawk-headed guy told his partner, whose name was Rocky.(3)

Rocky, however, appeared to be not so impressed as his partner. He had quite nasty bruise on his right cheek and forehead, one eye was black and swollen and his Aquiline nose was bleeding from one of the hits.

"That's easy for you to say, Bobs. You didn't even get whacked all over your face." Rocky told his buddy, Bobs by name.(3)

"Whatever!" Bob's shrugged indifferently. "Now let's get out of here before the cops get here! The boss wouldn't like us to blow up the job again!"

However, before they could've gone far, Louie, who had positioned behind of the corner at the alleyway entrance, caught them by surprise by lifting his leg up in front of the feet of the fleeing criminals, causing first Bobs and then Rocky to trip over it... and also causing Rocky to accidentally throw the purse off his hand.

"AGHHHH!" the criminals cried in surprise, as Bobs fell face-first into the asphalt and Rocky collapsed onto him, pinning him underside!

"Oh, sorry, buddy!" Rocky hastily apologized.

"I can't believe it! You just keep tripping over my feet all of time, you clumsy idiot!" Bobs cried irritably. "Now get off me!"

"It wasn't me, Bobs, I swear it! Someone tripped us both over!" Rocky defended, as Bobs pushed him away from him.

"Oh, yeah! Right! Excuses, excuses! And can you see anyone around here aside us?!" Bobs questioned irritably, waving his hand to the almost empty streets where they were on to prove his point.

Rocky looked obediently around to see it himself but he saw nobody around them aside of them and their mugged woman in the far distance.

"Uh... no one." he said, turning back to Bobs.

"That's right! There's no one!" Bobs snapped, before he pointed at their stolen purse that was lying on the ground behind their backs. "Now get that purse and let's scram before you mess up something else, you cabbage-brained dwarf!"

"Sheesh! No need to call with names! I already said I'm sorry." Rocky defended as he knelt to pick the purse up.

However, before he could, Louie stepped out of the shadows again and put his right two-toed leg on top of Rocky's hand, pinning it down and preventing the crook from retrieving the ill-gotten purse.

"AHHH!" Rocky screamed in surprise and pain when he felt Louie's weight pressing on the back of his hand.

Bobs looked on in wide-eyed surprise, especially when he saw Louie's leg that wasn't like human at all, before he lifted his head slowly up and looked at Louie, who pulled his scarf down to reveal the crooks his face, as well as giving them a wide smug smirk.

"Evening, boys." Louie smugly greeted. "Having some late night fun, eh, even if it isn't even that late yet?"

Bobs' mouth hung open upon seeing Louie's face. The shock caused by this revelation was so great that he couldn't utter a single word out of his mouth no matter how he tried.

A similar shock has taken over Rocky as well when he looked up at Louie and saw his none-human face, although he was able to get a few words out of his mouth.

"Wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-what-what-what-what-what, what are you?" Rocky asked, shaking from shock and fear.

"The guy who's gonna teach you no-good punks a lesson about preying on helpless and defenseless old women, unless you get the hell out of here and never show your ugly mugs on these corners ever again... or I'm gonna kick your sorry tails!" Louie threatened.

As these words left Louie's mouth, Bobs snapped out of his shock, jumped quickly to his feet and pulled out a knife from his belt's sheath, pointing it at Louie in self-defense.

"Don't come any step closer... MONSTER! Or I will make you bleed before I do." Bobs snarled through of his gritted teeth, which he bared as his face hardened into a grim grimace, while glaring at the turtle in black with his still wide eyes.

Louie, however, wasn't impressed at all, as he could see Bobs' hand around his knife's handle shaking nearly uncontrollably. Even the look on his eyes told him that the criminal was trying but failing miserably to put up the brave facade one.

But how could Louie say no to play with the punk's own game.

"Put the knife away, kid." Louie cautioned with the smirk, before pulling open the left hem of his coat to reveal his Butterfly swords before pulling slowly one out to his left hand, revealing its blade, that was two and a half times longer and noticeably broader than Bobs' knife's. "Or we'll end up playing your game... though with uneven odds."

Utterly dumbfounded by this revelation, Bobs looked wide-eyed down at Louie's Butterfly sword and its overwhelmingly larger blade, unable to belief as the small-time crook (mugger and pickpocket) that the people, or even freaks, would be allowed to carry such of steel weapons.

"Be a good little boy and turn around and leave with your chubby little friend here, or things would get ugly... to you." Louie cautioned, pointing his sword at the crook.

Although Bobs was still afraid of Louie's face and wasn't sure at first how this would turn out for him and Rocky, the criminal eventually gave it a shot and pulled his hand back before throwing his knife towards Louie with the scream, hoping to cause some sort of damage on the turtle.

However, Louie reacted to this far quickly before the knife was even thrown and pulled his other sword into his right hand and swung it at the knife as it flew towards him, deflecting it from its initial course and sending it flying upwards with the sharp KLANG-shound.

Bobs once again went in wide-eyed and dumbfounded mode upon seeing how easily Louie deflected his thrown knife.

Louie then put his other leg onto Rocky's back and jumped into the air after the knife, making the front flip in the air before kicking the knife with his right leg downwards and towards Bobs - causing Bobs to gasp from fright and shield himself with his arms from the upcoming knife - only for it to masterfully and impossibly to slip back into its sheath in Bobs' belt like it had never been drawn out there.

Feeling the small yank in his waist instead of his knife cutting his arm like he'd expected, Bobs looked down and was left shocked again upon noticing his knife back in its sheath... even clean as an ever, without even the slightest stain of blood in it.

Then he looked back up at Louie, who landed onto Rocky's back, pinning him on his stomach to the ground, into crouched down pose and held Bobs at knife-point.

"That was a warning, Bobs." Louie cautioned with the smirk. "The next round will be played for real."

To further point out that he meant business, Louie began to spin his swords around in his hands for a brief moment, before he swiftly spun around to his right and swung his swords one at the time at Bobs from below, then he spun around again and then swiftly slashed Bobs horizontally in the chest... twice or thrice.

Bobs gasped in shocked alarm when Louie actually slashed his swords at him, though he couldn't feel the cold steel cutting through his flesh.

When he looked down to his chest to see the damage himself, he was further surprised that Louie had only cut through of his shirt, leaving there a big L-letter in Zorro-style, which vertical line was in 70 degree angle and the two horizontal lines on top and beneath the vertical line were both wavy and curly at the ends.

Realizing that this was way too much for him, and that the odds were highly against him if he'd started the fight with Louie who "fought like demon", Bobs backed away from the turtle in black, whimbering in fright. And then, screaming like the girl, he turned his tail and fled down the streets.

"Hey, Bobs! Wait for me!" Rocky screamed as he quickly get up from the ground - after Louie had stepped off his back to let him go - and ran after his partner.

Louie watched after the two fleeing crooks with satisfaction, though he was a bit disappointed that there was no fight after all, and that this felt more likely warming up.

"Pity. A two-on-one fight would have been nice." the turtle in black lamented, before he quickly put his Butterfly swords inside his coat, re-wrapped his scarf around his face and adjusted his coat's collars higher to hide his face. "Oh, well. It's still just a young night. Maybe next time."

With that, Louie knelt down and picked the stolen purse from the ground, before he began to casually walk to where Bobs and Rockey had left the old woman they'd mugged.

But when he got there, the old woman was no longer alone. She was surrounded by a few local residents, who must have heard his cries for help and came to the street to help, because the light was on in the windows of the apartments in the apartment building next to them, unlike a moment ago. Two of them - an adult man with wavy hair, a blue shirt and a gray jacket, and a black-haired woman with a brown-gray and multi-colored striped sweater - held the woman's hands and comforted her as she appeared to be shaken by her recent experience, while a young woman with auburn hair and pink tank top shirt had a cell phone to her ear and appeared to be talking to someone, probably the police.

But when they saw Louie walking towards them, they all turned towards him, staring at the disguised turtle in black in confusion, but also warily when they noticed the old woman's stolen purse in his hand and his face covered with a scarf - which from their point of view seemed an obvious way for a thief to hide his identity.

The man on the old lady's side stepped forward and towards Louie, apparently to confront him for the possession of the mugged old lady's stolen purse. But before he could say a word out of his mouth...

"Hey, dude! Think fast!" Louie called and unexpectedly tossed the purse at the man, who caught it in his hands with the surprised grunt.

"Make sure that purse gets back to that old lady." Louie told to the man while gesturing at the old woman with his hand.

The turtle in black then turned his shell to the people and continued walking through of the scene, leaving people staring after him, still confused as to what this was all about.

###

A little further away but not far, Angel and Ellie were still walking down their routine way towards their home, which seemed mostly/almost empty.

Suddenly, Angel spotted something ahead and narrowed her eyes to look closer.

Their way was blocked by the group of Twelve tough-looking people.

One member of the group was tall and he had upwards pointy hair like the devil's horns, with purple streak and small tuft falling over his forehead. He was wearing dark-blue shirt, bluish gray pants, black shoes and the black trenchcoat with wide-brimmed collar and the shades over his noses.(4)

Second member was quite muscular one, who was wore no shirt, but crossed belts over his topless torso, black pants and ash-gray boots. He also had the knee pads, as well as the shades and blonde mohawk on top of his head.(4)

Third member was thin and noticeably tallest member of the group. He had dressed into a gray jacket, blue pants and black boots. He also wore large gray sailor cap in his head, which nearly covered his eyes from sight.(4)

Fourth member was muscular but noticeably shorter than the rest of the group - possibly out of Dwarfism - and walked in quite hunched pose. He had a broad shoulders and bald top of the head and wore gray shirt, dark blue pants and black vests.(4)

The fifth member was a very aggressive and tough-looking woman. She appeared to be mostly muscular but extremely obese and heavy woman with big breasts and flame-red parting hair, and she wore blue jean shorts, red shoes and gang outfit, with silver earrings in both of her ears.(4)

The sixth guy seemed to be the complete opposite of the dwarf, a gaunt broad-shouldered, muscular and bald-headed and quite giant-like. He had the hooked nose and he was dressed up into gray pants, light gray tank top shirt and he wore the chain necklace with padlock hanging in it.(4)

Seventh and slender guy had the narrow egg-shaped head, hooked nose, earrings and brown mohawk. He was dressed in black trousers, a torn and very dirty white shirt and a worn blue leather jacket.(4)

Eight member of the group was the woman as well, though more slender and taller than the first one. She had a long brown hair, shades and she was dressed into a black trousers, reddish-brown cowboy shoes and pink bra.(4)

Ninth member was a slender, muscular and tough-looking African-American man, who had a short black hair and small mustache, who had dressed into grayish-blue jeans and white shirt with wrapped sleeves. He also had the red street gang bandana wrapped around of his head and he was tossing a white baseball ball in his hands.(4)

And tenth man was another African-American member with the black curly hair and a curly chin beard. He wore the shades and was dressed into blue shoes, brown trousers and the gray checkered blouse.(4)

The last two guys seemed to be the youngest members of the group. The other one was slim, had a reddish hair and was dressed into a blue jeans and brown leather jacket, while the other one was chubby and had a messy blonde hair, and was dressed into a jeans, white tank top shirt and black jacket. (4)

The gang were watching them from afar like some predator on the hunt looking for suitable prey, causing Angel to suspect that these guys were up to no good.

Thanks to the "training" given to her by the Purple Dragons, according to which he had to carefully observe passing bystanders and the surroundings while looking for a suitable target and choose the right moment to strike without the risk of being caught.

And now, this almost empty street with nobody around to witness anything suspicious looks exactly perfect spot for them to strike.

Seeing that she was outnumbered one to five - not that she wasn't afraid to confront these punks herself despite the odds weighting against her, but her grandmother was here with her and that she did not wanted to risk her grandmother's life with this - Angel started to quickly usher her grandmother to the next alleyway.

"Grandmother! This way, quickly!" Angel said in alarmed whisper. "Let's take the shortcut here."

Ellie was both surprised and confused of this sudden chance of mood and behavior in her granddaughter, but she wasn't allowed to ask "What was going on?" when Angel hurriedly and half-rudely pushed her into the dark alley, which Ellie did reluctantly.

Before entering in the alley herself, Angel turned to the group one more time to make sure they weren't following them. And they weren't, though they hadn't averted their gazes away from her either.

The alley they had entered was quite long, dark and quite messy and dirty, for there were several overflowing or empty trash bins and metal trash cans leaning against the graffiti-filled walls on either side of the alley, while above of them were couple fire escapes as well as several clotheslines with several laundry hanging on them.

Not minding about the trash or anything, except escorting her grandmother back to their house through of the safer way, Angel led Ellie down the alley and towards the other end, while peeking over her shoulders to make sure those people weren't following them.

"Angel, what's going on?!" Ellie asked frantically. "What's got into you, honey? Why are we taking this route?"

"No time to explain, grandma, trust me!" Angel said with alarmed voice, while glancing suspiciously from one side of the alley to the other for possible lurkers lurking in the shadows, in case they were intended to be lured into a trap by those other people.

"Angel Bridge! I demand the explanation!" Ellie demand frantically.

"I'll explain later, grandma, once we're back in our home. I promise" Angel said, turning to look her grandmother assuringly in the eyes for a moment. "Now I just have to get out of here and... AHHH!"

Angel screamed in surprise when she turned around and noticed that she was staring at the barrels of sawed-off double barrel shotgun, that had came out of nowhere and was aimed at her faces. When Ellie noticed the weapon aimed at her granddaughter's head too, she let out a terrified scream.

"Shut your trap, old hag!" the deep and raspy voice of the shotgun's wielder snapped before turning his guns barrel from Angel right at Ellie, making the old woman breath at frantic pace and stare in wide-eyed horror at the weapons' barrels.

"Granny!" Angel gasped, but was prevented from doing anything else when the second sawed-off double barrel shotgun emerged from the darkness and was aimed at her head.

The holder of the guns then stepped out of the shadows and revealing himself to be thuggish crook with shaven chin, who was dressed in the amber-colored pants, blue shirt, black coat and greenish golf cap.

"Stay where you are and don't move, or I'll blow your pretty brains out!" he threatened, glaving warily at both of them.

"Control yourself, dear brother Marcus." came the more calmer and smoother voice from the darkness in the other side of the alley, making the thug named Marcus, Angel and Ellie to turn towards it.

The speaker then came out of the darkness and revealed himself as a tall man with the bald topside and small mustache, and who was dressed in the white shirt, red cravat and in a fine silver gray suit with a beautiful red rose attached to the right shoulder, and finished with the shiny black bowler hat. He appeared to have much more calmer, patient and noticeably sophisticated and charismatic attitude compared to this trigger-happy lunatic thug.

"I don't think that's a very polite way to treat the ladies." the man added with sleek sarcasm.

"Don't worry, brother! I know how to treat the obedient and cooperative ladies, alright!" Marcus snarled.

The man only rolled his eyes in annoyance at Marcus, his apparent brother's rough attitude. "Oh, save that for the uncooperative people, wouldn't you? Remember, were here in businesses, so be a good lad and put your guns down before you hurt yourself with them or anyone else."

Grumbling irritably under his breath, Marcus lowered both of his guns down reluctantly.

The man then walked next to Marcus and turned to Angel and Ellie, but not before adjusting his suit and cravat.

"Good evening, fine ladies." he greeted them with the polite smile. "Allow me to introduce myself so that we won't be strangers here. My name is Sir Johannes Victor, and this is my brother and partner, Marcus Victor.(5)

The man, Sir Johannes Victor, stretched out his hand towards Angel and Ellie in greeting, but instead of a handshake, he received a narrowed, grim and suspicious glare from Angel. Ellie neither didn't reach out to grab Johannes' hand to shake it, instead looking at the men before them worriedly.

"Ah, yes, yes, yes, I understand." Johannes muttered, getting the picture. "I must humbly apologize for my brother giving you a bleak impression of us. But I assure that there's no need to be alarmed."

"Well, I don't think so, with that trigger-happy flea-bitten mutt of yours running on the loose and waving guns like they're some sort of toys." Angel spat back rudely.

Angered for this insult, Marcus was quick to put one of his guns against Angel's forehead. "Watch that sharp tongie of yours, brat! My trigger finger is very sensitive about the insults!"

Johannes was quick to put his hand over Marcus' guns' barrel and lower it half-forcibly down, before such of calm-toned and sophisticated man abruptly gave the reprimentive slap across Marcus' left cheek, making the thug yelp in pain and glare daggers at his brother afterwards, while rubbing his cheek with his hand.

Johannes then turned back to Bridges. "My apologies for you having to see that, and you have to frogive Marcus his attitude. But I'm afraid my little brother failed in a a course in good manners when we were still toddlers."

"Enough with the sad details of that mutt's past miserable failures in life!" Angel snapped, disinterested and impatient. "What do you guys even want from me and my grandmother, mister Victor. You even said something about the businesses you two wee one, right?"

"Exactly, Mrs. Bridge. Angel Bridge, I presume." Johannes said.

Angel blinked her eyes in surprise and confusion of hearing Johannes mentioning her name as if it was familiar to her, before looking at this man from head to the toes - or to his polished shiny shoes - with the raised eyebrow.

"You know me?" Angel asked.

"Of course. Angel Bridge, the recent recruit of the Purple Dragons street gang, last time I checked." Johannes explained.

Angel closed her eyes tightly and frowned, fuming in sheer frustration for being reminded of the biggest mistake in life she almost ever made, And to add the insult to injury, that was revealed in the presence of her grandmother, who still lived in the impression that Angel's absence from home for weeks was only because she was hanging out with her street-dwelling friends chasing the Purple Dragons and other criminals on the street.

The effect of this revelation was already beginning to appear in Ellie as she slowly turned to look at Angel with wide eyes and mouth hanging open, she couldn't even imagine in a million years that her own granddaughter would ever even consider joining the worst street gang of eastern side of New York.

And Angel hadn't even told her anything about this!

"Honey?" Ellie said calmly, but sounding clearly disappointed when suspecting that everything Angel had told her, from the reason to her absence to those mysterious friends of hers, were nothing but lies.

"What is this man talking about? And how does he know your name? Do you know him? And most of all, is all of this true?" she asked repeatedly and demandingly while casting a deep frown upon her granddaughter.

Angel, however, ignored her grandmother's questions and opened her eyes to look defiantly at Johannes, determined to enlighten him about one itty bitty detail he had presumably missed/ignored.

"No longer, Mr. Victor. Defected, former, ex-recruit." Angel said. "I quit the Purple Dragons at the very last moment... and I'm proud of my decision."

Johannes was slightly taken aback by this revelation.

"Oh, did you now?" he said.

Marcus, however, didn't look surprised about this revelation at all. The thug merely folded his arms together and let out an unimpressed scoff.

"Well, ain't surprised 'cause such of wench like yourself don't have a guts to be in the "big boys" zone." the thug aid sarcastically.

"Oh, I do!" Angel countered. "I've been in much cooler, bigger, meaner and greener boys' zone."

The Victor brothers glanced at each other, taken aback and confused by Angel's "no sense making" words. Even Ellie looked at her with raised eyebrow.

"Well, what does this have to do with my time as a Purple Dragon recruit? What you actually wanted from me until you learned that I'd defected from the Dragons?" Angel inquired impatiently.

Johannes cleared his throat before he spoke again. "Well, if you really want to know. Since our top employer was not informed of this unfortunate turn of events in your case earlier, my brother and I had been assigned to give this to you if only you were interested."

Näillä sanoilla Johannes otti valkoisen kortin pukunsa taskusta ja näytti sitä Angelille. Angel looked down on the card and saw that there was numbers of someone's or something's phone number.

"(137) 913-1521? What the hell does that mean, anyway?" Angel questioned.(6)

However, Angel took secretly into account that Johannes held the card in a way that his fingers and thumb covered from it everything except the phone number, which seemed suspicious. But before she could write down the whole number in her mind, Johannes quickly pulled the card away and put it back in her suit pocket.

"I'm sorry, miss, but if you were still a member of the Purple Dragons' gang, I would have more than just gladly explained this to you personally and in greater detail, because it would have been something you couldn't have refused, mark my words, Mrs. Bridge." Johannes said in a rather charismatically apologetic voice. "But since we found out that you no longer have any ties to the Dragons as we initially assumed, I unfortunately cannot tell you what my case behind this card, the phone number and mine and my brother's tonight's visit here actually concerns. I'm truly sorry, but I cannot."

At this point, Ellie took an unsteady step towards Johannes, but she never left Angel's side for a moment.

"So, if that was all you wanted to tell my granddaughter, Mr. Victor, even though I still don't know what all of this is about, but I'm sure as hell going to figure it out when we get home, would you two let us go now without any further problems?" Ellie asked, thinking it would be easier to reason with Johannes since he was more civilized with the people than the other guy.

But soon after saying that, Ellie turned sharply towards Angel and grabbed her by the shoulder, turning the girl's attention from the men to her.

"And you, young lady, you own me the biggest explanation of your life for why you were really gone from home for weeks." Ellie said dead seriously, holding a finger at Angel's face.

However, what Johannes said next caught them by surprise.

"I'm sorry, Miss Bridge, but... unfortunately, that isn't in the case. You see, we cannot allow either of you to leave here at all."

Shocked, both Angel and Ellie turned to him and Marcus.

"WHAT?! WHY?!"

"Nothing personal, but... we've been ordered to do so." Johannes clarified. "Now don't get me wrong, ladies, we have no any intentions in hurting you. So all I'm asking is that you come along nice and easy. That won't be too much to ask, isn't it?"

"But just for the caution..." Marcus added, pulling out some ropes and cloths. "... we're gonna have to tie up and blindfold you both, for the safety reasons on our boss' orders. And perhaps we have to even gag you up if you even make a sound."

Angel narrowed her eyes, realizing that this was about to be a kidnapping, while Ellie backed away from Marcus in fear as the thug came closer.

"Now, princess." Marcus said as he turned to Angel. "Hold out your pretty wrists over here, will ya?"

He only earned a scowl from Angel, who defiantly refused to cooperate.

"Careful there! Because there's one little problem in your plan, pal." Angel cautioned.

"I ain't some damsel-in-distress waiting for the rescue."

Then, Angel caught Marcus by surprise by kicking him right into his unprotected groins with such of fast kick that Marcus couldn't even blink his eye before it made the impact.

"ARGHHHH! OHHHH!" Marcus cried aloud from the massive wave of pain in his groins when they took the hit, causing him to drop the ropes and cloths from his hands, lean over and pull them over his groins to ease the pain.

However, Angel wasn't done with him yet and did a backflip that resulted in the girl kicking Marcus in the face with her left foot, causing the crook to fly over and land with the thud onto his back to the ground. Marcus was afterwards left lying there, curled up into a ball and moaning in pain, with his nose bleeding from Angel's kick.

Both Johannes and Ellie looked on flabbergasted, not expecting this to happen, while Angel prepared herself for another round as she took the fighting pose and turned to Johannes.

"Better hope you didn't pay too big a bill for your suit to Dandelions' Laundries company, Johannes." Angel snidely remarked. "'Cause it won't protect you from my punches, or from getting dirt all over again in here."

However, instead of taking the stand, Johannes just calmly adjusted his tie again. "As to old saying goes, Mrs. Bridge: Why to fight when you can leave the fighting for others. You see, I had already prepared for this in advance by hiring some backup."

Johannes then looked over Ellie and Angel's to the other side of the alley, before raising his voice.

"My friends? Scrag, Grunt, Dopey, Dumbo, Jersey Red, Lugnut, High Five, Shauna, Larry, Carl, John and Thomas? Will you do me the honor to seize these fine ladies... as gently as possible, of course."(4)

Angel quirked her eyebrow in confusion of Johannes' words and the names she had never heard of, until...

"AHH! HEY! AGH! WHAT ARE YOU... DOING! UGH LET ME GO! NGH! LET GO OF ME!"

Suddenly hearing her grandmother's struggling voice behind her, and with the dreadful feeling and fear for her grandmother, Angel turned around to see what was happening.

Angel let out the horrified gasp when she saw that those ten people from the other side of the alley: Pointy-haired thug(Scrag), Topless muscle man(Grunt), Cap-headed thug(Dopey), the Dwarf(Dumbo), red-headed Big-boob lady(Jersey Red), Bald giant(Lugnut), Mohawk-guy in blue leather jacket(High Five), Brown-haired lady(Shauna), Bandana-headed black guy(Larry), checkered shirted black guy(Carl), Red-head teen(John) and Chubby blonde(Thomas) had appeared behind her and her grandmother without them even noticing then, and had them cornered in this alley, while Johannes blocked their way out from the other side. Lugnut had even surprised Ellie by roughly grabbing her arms to hold her in place.

"Grandma!" Angel gasped frantically, but she was blocked from reaching to her when Scrag, Grunt, Dopey, Dumbo, Jersey, High Five, Shauna, Larry and Carl stepped forward and moved towards her menacingly to grab her.

"Run, honey! Run!" Ellie urged frantically,

"No! I won't leave you here with these slugs!" Angel said determinedly, unable and unwilling to leave her grandmother at the mercy of these cowards.

Angel looked at all nine menacing thugs one by one as they surrounded her from all sides, boxing her, and remained alert all of time in case she tried to escape.

"Grab on her!" Scrag snapped as he moved in first and tried to grab on Angel, but Angel countered it by kicking his outstretched leg from under, causing the man to fall on one knee. The thug snarled through of his gritted teeth as he looked up at Angel, only to get punched in the face by her, falling onto his back.

Grunt tried next, but he didn't bother to ge gently at all. He threw a bunch at Angel, but she dodged under it. Angel then sprung her left leg upwards and kicked the thug in the face, knocking his head back.

Dopey then sneaked behind Angel and took out the chain, which quickly wrapped around the girl's neck and pulled it back on both ends, trapping Angel into a choke hold. Caught off guard, Angel's went wide upon feeling the chain being wrapped tightly over her neck, which caused the hoarse gasps and pained groans to escape from her mouth. The girl quickly grabbed from the chain and tried to pull it back, but this only caused Dopey to pull harder.

Dopey held fiercely struggling Angel in the choke hold in less than five-six minutes.

"Come here, you!" Dumbo said as he moved towards Angel in an attempt to use her current helplessness as his advantage, but Angel, seeing the dwarf coming, resourcefuly jumped up, leaned against Dopey and kicked Dumbo in the face with both feet, knocking him back.

When she landed onto her feet, though still captive in Dopey's chocke hold, Angel thought quickly something before she raised her right leg up and stamped it onto th thug's leg with her full weight and force.

"AGH!" Dopey groaned when Angel's foot flattened his toes and was forced to let go of her, before starting to hop on one foot while holding from his sore foot.

Finally free from the thug's choke hold, Angel stumbled away from him while holding her hand over her sore throat and coughed violently in between of heavy breaths for needed air.

Angel still needed time to recover from the choking hold, but it was unfortunately and unfairly denied when High Five, Larry, and Carl approached Angel from her right side to grab her. Gritting her teeth in pain, andger and frustration, Angel simply swung her right fist at the thus to keep them at bay, even if her fist didn't make any contact with any of them.

Shauna then came upon her from behind and wrapped her arms around of Angel's head, covering her mouth with her left one. However, out of instincts, Angel reacted this by unexpectedly opening her mouth, baring her teeth and biting Shauna in her arm. Shauna eyes went wide and she cried in pain when she felt Angel sinking her teeth into her arm.

"AGH! You little bitch!" Shauna cursed as she unwrapped her arms from around Angel's head. Shauna then tried to throw a punch at Angel, but the teen girl grabbed from her arm before she spun around to her right and pulled the thug's arm down, causing Shauna to fly onto her back to Angel's feet.

"Oh! Enough with this crap" Jersey Red shouted impatiently as she came to Angel from her left side, catching her off guard. Jersey grabbed roughly from Angel's left wrist and squeezed her stone-hard grip around it, causing the pained groan to escape through her gritted teeth, before Jersey yanked the arm painfully upwards.

Angel yelped in pain, and out of her instincts, she drew her right hand back and attempted to punch Jersey in the face, only for the tough and rough woman to catch it easily in her left hand before it could hit her. Jersey then moved Angel's right arm out of the way, before she savagely punched Angel in the guts, forcing most of the air out of the girl's lungs.

"ANGEL!" Ellie cried in horror while being hold still by Lugnut, who forced her to watch as the rest of the gang were vicious manhandling her granddaughter.

With all air out of her lungs after Jersey's brutal punch in the guts, Angel was left in an immense pain that ran throughout of her body, causing her head to go dizzy and giving her an urge to puke. She took in a long, hoarse and labored breaths while slowly leaning over in anguish, wrapping her arms around her sore stomach.

"Get down, Pony-tail!" Jersey demanded as she stood over Angel's bent form and raised her arms over her head, before she then mercilessly brought her fists hard down on Angel's back and the back of her neck, forcing more air out of her while knocking her onto her stomach to the ground.

The teens John and Thomas, who hadn't initially joined the others in seizing Angel, joined in at last and proceeded to start kicking Angel in the stomach, face and back like the cowards they were, even if Angel was already defeated and down.

"Take that, bitch!", "Yeah! You like that?!" the teens mocked as they kept spitefully kicking downed Angel.

"NO! STOP IT! LEAVE HER ALONE!" Ellie pleased desperately and struggled in vain against Lugnut rough grasps.

When the thuggish teens were finally done with it, they backed away and left bruised and bleeding Angel to lie in the ground.

Angel, who had suffered several bruises in her forehead and both cheeks, blackened right eye and some bleeding from the scratch in her forehead, nose and right corner of her mouth, moaned miserably in pain while curling up in the ball in the feet of her victorious assaulters. And to add the insult to the injury, John and Thomas even spat at her.

"Please! Please! Please!" Ellie pleaded with the teary eyes as she turned to Johannes, who was coolly yet indifferently just standing there and watching how his hired goons were torturing her poor baby. "Please, tell them to leave my baby alone! Please! I'm begging you!"

"I'm sorry, ma'am. I did offer her a chance twice to come with us with willingly and without the resistance, yet she chose the hard way." Johannes said in an apologetic and disappointed tone. "She can consider herself to be lucky that we were not assigned to silence you two permanently here and now."

"Ugh!" Marcus groaned as he pulled himself up from the ground with great effort and in pain from Angel's earlier kick in his groins. "Although I wish we had been given such instructions for that scheming scumbag at least."

An annoyed sigh escaped from Johannes' mouth as he turned to his brother. "Ugh! But we're not, brother. At least not here. Our instructions were just to bring them back to headquarters where the boss can then decide what to do with them." Johannes reminded, before he turned to the hired goons.

"Get them both in the car and let's go." Johannes ordered, as he turned around and started to head towards the other end of the alley, Marcus laboriously following him right behind.

Obediently, Lugnut began to shove Ellie forward, while Jersey crouched down over Angel's form and picked her up from the ground with ease, before lifting her over her shoulder and started to walk after Johannes with the gril. The rest of the goons pulled themselves up from the ground and followed their employer down the alley, leaving only Angel's and Ellie's shopping bags behind.

Suddenly, before they thugs could get too far with their prey, the pair of chains flew out of the darkness and wrapped around of Dopey and Dumbo's feet, as they were walking in the back of the gang with Lugnut and Ellie, before yanking them back, causing both goons to let out the surprised screams when their feet were pulled from under and they flew face flat to the ground.

"Hey!" "Whatta?!" "What happened?" the goons muttered in confusion, as they turned around to see what had wrapped around of their legs until suddenly...

"AHHHHHHHH!" the goons let out surprised and terrified screams when someone in the other end of the chains pulled them both back, making them to vanish into the darkness.

Their screams caused all the goons to halt and turn around to see what had just happened... only to notice that Dobey and Dumbo had disappeared.

"What's going on in there?!" Johannes called.

"Yeah, what's the hold up, you miserable street slugs?!" Marcus irritably questioned.

"Dobey and Dumbo, boss! They're missing!" Scrag reported.

"What?!" Johannes exclaimed, before he turned to Lugnut. "What happened?! Where are they?!"

"I don't know." Lugnut said, looking around in the darkness while still holding on Ellie's arms. "The moment they were both here and then in the few seconds they're just gone!"

"How they could be just gone?" Grunt questioned, turning to anyone for answers, but they just shrugged cluelessly.

"Did those two idiots just ditched us?" Jersey suggested irritably.

"No." High Five said as he stepped forward. "I saw something weird before they disappeared. I saw that they both had the weighted chains wrapped around their legs before being dragged into the shadows of this alley. And even a fool knows that the chains couldn't wrap themselves around their legs, let alone pull them away so suddenly."

"So, what be your theory about this, High Five?" Johannes asked as he walked through of the thugs next to High Five, Marcus right behind him.

"Speak up! Time's wasting!" he rudely ordered.

High Five then turned around to look at Johannes directly in the eyes, with grim frown on his hardened face.

"We're not alone, boss. We've being watched." the mohawk-headed thug said dead-seriously.

Johannes only blinked his eyes and raised his eyebrow at his goon henchman, though Marcus only scoffed dismissively at this.

"PFFT! "Watched"? Watched by who, exactly?" he asked rhetorically, before gesturing into the darkness of the alley. "There's only darkness and trash around here, and nobody else beside of us! You fools are just letting your paranoia get way over your heads and..."

However, while Marcus was making fun of the hired goons' supposed paranoia, Johannes looked over his goon's head into the darkness and his eyes went wide when he saw something coming towards them fast!

"LOOK OUT!" he cried out, cutting Marcus' mocking speech short before he ducked down.

From the darkness flew towards the thugs another pair of chains, thrown at them in the manner of the cracked whips.

All the thugs ducked down or moved out of the way, all except High Five, as he turned around right when the chains were flying speedily towards him.

"Whatta...?!" High Five said, but was cut short when the weight of the chains hit him right in the face and chest, sending the thug flying away, until he hit hard to the garbage big and afterwards fell onto his butt, knocked out cold.

Seeing their comrade down, the thugs were now certain that they were not alone... even Ellie was looking around them to see who was this stranger that was assumedly helping her and Angel, but all she could see was darkness.

"Guys, I'm getting creeped out here!" Lugnut almost whined as he looked into the darkness, almost scared. "This alley must be cursed, by some demon, or perhaps some vengeful ghost that was murdered here, which now dwells here? Now it has sensed our presence and has now chosen us as its next prey!"

"BAH!" Marcus scoffed and took out his guns. "There are no such things as demons and ghosts! I don't believe in demons and ghosts! I'm not afraid of demons and ghosts!"

Lugnut hushed at him sharply, as superstition was really taking its toll on him. "Don't provoke it! You just make it angrier and more bloodthirsty!"

"You and your superstition disgusts me, Lugnut!" Jersey spat, openly disgusted such of big and though thug being afraid of made-believe things.

"Hey! I'm in a lot of pressure here!" Lugnut defended.

"Everybody calm down!" Johannes ordered after he had taken a quick survey of the situation. "This guy seems to move in the shadows and doesn't want to be seen while taking us by surprise one at a time. He's cunning and knows he's outnumbered, so he won't attack us directly."

While hanging on Jersey's shoulder, Angel lifted her head up once those exact words hit her ears and looked at Johannes with the raised eyebrow, as if something in his quick description of this guy sounded familiar.

"Great! Just another coward." Jersey spat. "Where's the fun in that if you don't attack directly."

"Who cares?!" Marcus snapped, pointing his guns blindly in the darkness. "I'll blast him the moment he comes out!"

"Well, then I need you here to watch the back." Johannes said, before he turned to the rest of the thugs. "I suggest "Divide and Conquer"! We split into three groups, and each group will remain alert and ready to act if the other team is under attack. Jersey and Lugnut? You two take the ladies to the car. Grunt? You go with them. Shauna, Larry, Carl, John and Thomas? You are the second group and you stay between the two groups. Got it? Scrag? You are with us."

Said and done, Lugnut, who was all too eager to get out of here, and Jersey, who was very reluctant to retreat while sensing the fight coming, which is why she brought out Mini Uzi in her free hand, began to withdraw towards the other side of the alley with Angel and Ellie while being escorted ahead by Grunt, who drew a sword from the scabbard in his back.

Marcus, Scrag and Johannes stayed behind to cover them, with Scrag pulling out the sledgehammer and SIG-Sauer P226 pistol, while Johannes pulled out the Colt Anaconda pistol from under of his suit and took a torch in his other hand, with which he illuminated the alley for him and Scrag to see if the attacker tried to attack them again.

Shauna, Larry, Carl, John and Thomas stationed themselves between these two teams and each one of them pulled out the handgun along with the melee weapon: Shauna had a switchblade knife, Larry a baseball bat, Carl a machete and John a fire axe. Thomas was the only one who carried only the shotgun, Mossberg 590 "Compact Cruiser".

Nothing happened for a few seconds, but the crooks still remained in alarm for any further attacks.

However, before Grunt, Lugnut and Jersey could've gone far, Scrag suddenly felt someone lightly patting him in his shoulder from behind.

"Whatta...?" the thug said in confusion as he turned around to see who it was, only for someone to all of the sudden put a trash can on top of the thug with a loud GONG!, which left into its bottom a head-shaped dent, and leaving only his hands and feet to peek out from inside the can.

Then someone kicked to the side of the trash can with Scrap still inside, causing the thug to bang his head inside the can as he collapsed to the ground.

The commotion caught everyone's attention and they all turned around and were surprised to see Scrap trapped in the trash and lying on the ground knocked out, but still no sign of the attacker anywhere. Seeing their comrade being taken down without them seeing the attacker made Lugnut to whimper even louder in fear.

"Oh, I can't stand this kind of pressure any longer!" he whined.

Jersey was finally having enough with all of this, so she unceremoniously dropped Angel from her shoulder to the ground and began wildly shoot the rounds in the air with her gun (BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA!) to vent his frustration, though her violent shooting made the others around her to jump slightly.

"WHERE ARE YOU?! COME OUT AND FIGHT LIKE THE MAN, YOU COWARD!" Jersey roared angrily.

Then, before anyone could either say or do anything else, the figure in the trenchcoat, hat and scarf around his face landed in Batman-style in the middle of the three thugs, making the surprised thugs, as well as Angel and Ellie to turn to him as he stood up and stared at Jersey from under his hat.

"As lady wishes." the figure said.

Angel blinked her eyes in surprise for few times as she stared up at this stranger, who may have dressed in a trenchcoat and hat and covered his face with a scarf to hide his identity from all of them, but she could swear she'd heard that Scottish accent before. The last time when she was with...(7)

"Louie?" Angel muttered quietly, as the corners of her mouth slowly but certainly curved up into a relieved but also happy smile.

Jersey lifted her gun up to shoot the stranger, who indeed was Louie as Angel had correctly suspected, but the turtle in black quickly somersaulted towards her before the thug could fire a round and landed on her feet in front of her. Louie then grabbed on Jersey and picked her up with both hands, lifting the surprised thug up and over his head, before Louie threw her away and into Shauna, Larry, Carl, John and Thomas, knocking all six of them over to the ground like the bowls.

Grunt moved in with his sword and swung it down at Louie, but Louie turned around and, drawing out his own swords from under his coat, blocked the thug's blade with his own.

"Swordplay, eh? Good!" Louie said happily. "Show me what you got, sword-boy."

Louie pushed Grunt's blade back before withdrawing, allowing the thug to attack him. Grunt began to violently and wildly swing his sword at Louie, mostly aiming his head or chest with the slashes and stabs.

Louie, however, dodged speedily and unceasingly left and right, crouched/bowed down and leaned back and out of the way of every stab and slash from Grunt over and over again, without even bothering to use his swords to block the blows.

However, when Grunt tried to stab Louie, the turtle in black clashed his right blade against his from underneath and moved it in the arc to his right, before he threw with his lwft sword's hilt the punch in Grunt's guts, catching him off guard and forcing the air out of him. Grunt gasped from the impact and leaned over, though it allowed Louie to turn around and kick/knee the thug in the face, knocking his head back and sending him flying onto his back to the ground.

"KILL THAT FREAK!" Jersey ordered the thugs around her, as she, Shauna, Larry, Carl, John and Thomas lifted their guns up at Louie and opened fire.

Seeing them, Louie quickly took run to the his left, and the thugs' right, and stayed a step or two ahead of the thugs gunfire - during of which Lugnut, who was nearly caught in the crossfire along with Ellie, threw the old woman away and threw himself to the ground, covering his head as the rounds of gunfire flew over him.

"Grandmother! Stay down!" Angel cried as she partially got up from the ground and rushed to Ellie to keep her in the ground level and out of the gunfire.

As Jersey and the other thugs kept firing at Louie, the turtle in black hopped onto the trash can, then onto the garbage bin, then he hopped onto the wall, ran along it for a moment before jumping off of it and flew over the thugs' heads with the barrel roll.

Louie then landed in middle of the them, though not before he split-kicked Shauna and Carl in the heads, knocking the thugs away and out cold. Afterwards Louie spun himself around while slashing his swords at each thug all at the same time.

Though none of the thugs were harmed by Louie's swords, they did notice, much to their surprise, that the turtle in black's blades had sliced their handguns' barrels off the handles, as well as Larry's baseball bat and John's fireaxe and even Jersey's Mini Uzi, leaving all but Thomas disarmed.

Larry became Louie's first target, as the thug tried to throw a punch, but Louie ducked under it before he captured his wrist between of his swords' hilts, then he spun around and pulled Larry over his shoulder and slammed him against the nearby wall, knocking him out.

But when the turtle in black turned to John and Thomas, he was very least gentle with the two of them, obviously for assaulting Angel when she was down.

Louie turned first to John and punched him in the face, knocking it back. Then Louie proceeded to give him two hard punches and two palm-strikes in the face, knocking the thug back at each strike and causing him a nosebleed. Louie then grabbed from John's jacket and lifted him off the ground, spun around and the punk with him before throwing him face-first into the open garbage bin.

Thomas quickly loaded his shotgun, lifted it up at Louie's shell-back and fired the shot, but his round hit the wall when Louie back flipped over it and landed onto Thomas' gun, pinning its barrel to the ground and causing it to dent under his weight. Louie then turned around and kneed Thomas in the face, knocking his head back and making him to let go of the gun.

Louie then threw a three rather brutal punches in Thomas' faces, with each strike making something to crack, before he grabbed with both hands from Thomas' right arm and spun around, twisting it... very painfully... behind the chubby thug's back, causing the anguished groan to escape from his mouth, just before Louie lifted Thomas up and over his head, and then tossed him into the bin after his friend.

"You're dead meat!" Jersey spat and charged at Louie and began to throw punched at the turtle in black.

Louie blocked the first six-seven blows: the first four lowercuts he blocked with his right and then his left, then again with his right and then again with his left wrist. He then parried the blow from above with his left and then an uppercut with his right wrist. Then Louie parried Jersey's from his right coming kick with his left leg, before he threw a palm-strike to Jersey's chest, knocking her back, and then Louie spun around in a crouched pose with his right leg out and swept with it the villain's feet from under, causing Jersey to fall onto her back.

"You fight good... for a grandma." Louie taunted as he circled downed Jersey, moving between of her and the garbage bin, where he had already thrown John and Thomas, before he teasingly dared the thug to come for another round.

"And I'll make you limp... like a lame cripple!" Jersey snarled as she jumped up from the ground and tried to ram head-first into Louie, but Louie somersaulted backward right when she reaches him and put his legs up and against Jersey's stomach, causing her to be lifted off the ground and then to fall onto her back again while Louie lands crouched down onto her, before flipping off and landing again crouched down behind Jersey.

As now very angry and cursing Jersey tried to get up from the ground to attack Louie again, she only managed to get up on her feet when Louie turned around and uppercutted Jersey in the face with all of his force, causing her head to fly back and herself to fly slightly in the air from the force of the punch.

Louie then jumped in the air himself, spun around and hook-kicked the thug in the chest, causing her to fly against the inside of the open lid of the garbage bin before falling knocked out into the bin herself, just before the lid slammed shut, sealing her and the other thugs inside.

Lugnut, having witnessed Louie taking out his guys one by one and realizing that he was the only thug still standing, let out the whimper as he jumped up and attempted to make for the car to escape from the scene.

"Not so fast, Shaky!" Louie called after him as he took out his Manriki-Gusari and threw them towards Lugnut.

The chains wrapped themselves around of Lugnut's legs, tying them up together and caused him to trip and fall over to the ground. And with the thug down, Louie began to pull his chains, and Lugnut with them, back to him.

"NOOOOOOOO! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE, LET ME GO! LET ME GO! I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING! ANYTHING!" Lugnut pleaded pathetically, while trying to crawl away for his life.

"Sorry, pal!" Louie said with barely half-hearted apologetic voice as he kept pulling Lugnut to him. "But unfortunately for you, every foul has consequences."

As Lugnut was close enough, Louie cracked his chains with one powerful pull, which both lifted the gigantic man with surprisingly ease off the ground, unwrapping the chains from his feet and sent him flying in the air and towards Louie.

"NO!" Lugnut screamed as Louie prepared himself by drawing his clenched right fist back before throwing it up at him, punching Lugnut in the face and knocking the lights out of him. With Lugnut down and out, Louie smugly put his leg over the thug's chest and let out the triumphant cry, raising his fists up.

"YEEAAAAHHHHHH! VICTORY FOR A MEAN IN GREEN, HALLELLUJAH!" the turtle in black cried, while confused Ellie and proudly smiling Angel were looking at his victorious cheering from nearby.

However...

"Not quite yet, freak!" Marcus' voice rudely reminded as there was heard the click of his shotguns. "You did forget us!"

Louie lowered his hands down slowly, though he didn't look alarmed, even though Marcus was holding him at gun-point with his sawed-off double barrel shotguns, with even Johannes holding his Colt Anaconda pistol aimed at the turtle in black's shell-back. Ellie and Angel followed this closely, worried how the things might turn out.

"Brothers Marcus Victor and Johannes Victor." Louie announced without turning around to face them. "Maybe I made a small miscalculation in your numbers, or else I was just saving you two for the dessert... which I was going to enjoy right now."

Both thugs eyed Louie's disguised form warily... but only Johannes showed in his eyes a small curiosity towards the turtle in black, unlike Marcus, who was waiting for the slightest excuse to let his guns sing.

"Who are you? What are you?!" Johannes demanded, no longer was his voice softer and calmer as it was moment ago.

"I know who you are, but what am I?" Louie simply said, as he finally turned around to face them.

Marcus instantly reacted to this.

"Hold it right there!" Marcus snapped, taking aim at Louie's head with his shotguns. "One more step forward and I'll blast your head off!"

"Now, come on, my friends. Let's not get too hasty. Can't we talk like civilized gentlemen?" Louie said casually, holding his hands up in sign of peace, or just to buy more time. "How about this? If you two lay down your guns nice and easy, leave those two ladies alone and walk away, I won't hurt you in return... not much at least." the turtle in black suggested.

"No deal, freak!" Marcus snapped in refusal of the offer.

"Marcus! Wait!" Johannes tried to say, as if in order to consider the offer though only for their own end, but Marcus wasn't listening.

"Because this is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me!" Marcus added and pulled first the trigger of his right shotgun and then his left one's.

BLAM! BLAM!

The fired rounds hit both Louie in the head!

The shells of Marcus' shotguns tore brutally through of both Louie's black scarf and his hat, throwing them away in the disfigured shreds and leaving the turtle in black himself just standing there without the head like headless chicken!(8)

The time itself seemed to stop in the alley after Marcus had taken the shot with his shotguns, with the gunshots echoing in the alley's narrow space like the thunder before slowly fading away.

Everybody in the presence, Johannes, Marcus, and recovering Scrag, Grunt, Dopey and Dumbo who walked out from the shadows covered in bruises, Lugnut, High Five, Shauna, Larry, Carl and Jersey, John and Thomas, who climbed out of the garbage bin, stared in silence at Louie's headless body

Nearby, Angel's eyes went wide in shock-filled horror upon seeing right before her tear-filled eyes Louie's head getting all of the sudden blown off by the fired shells from Marcus' shotguns, while Ellie covered her mouth in horror at the sight of this! Angel held her breath for a moment, before she broke the silence by letting out the high-pitched scream.

"AHHHHHHHH! LOUIE! NO!" Angel screamed from the top of her lungs in horror.

TO BE CONTINUED...

---

1) = "Ashigaru-sha"!", meaning cannon fodder, is the reference from the episode of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 series, The Pulverizer Returns.

2) = This is foreshadowing the events in the "The Shredder Strikes Back 1 & 2", where Leo is put up against the hordes and hordes of Foot Soldiers time after time, and by the time he is worn out, he is put up against the Foot Clan's best warriors, the Elite Guard. And when the Foot attacks April's, the turtles are worn down by the sheer numbers before they face both the Elite and the Shredder himself.

3) = The appearances of those who thugs who mugged the old lady are based on Bebop and Rocksteady from 1987 series, but their personalitirs are rather based on Jasper and Horace Badun, as Bebop (renamed Bobs) acts as the short-tempered and loud-mouthed brains and the de facto leader of the two, while Rocksteady (renamed Rocky) acts as the gluttonous and slightly dim-witted muscle.
Also: Louie stopping Bobs and Rocky from escaping with old woman's purse is based on the scene, where Raph stops two crooks from stealing the old lady's purse in 1990 film.

4) = All the appearances of the crooks here are based on the member of Bebop and Rocksteady's gang, as well as Lugnut's gang from 1987 TV-series, but only Scrag, Grunt, Dopey, Dumbo, Jersey Red, Lugnut and High Five are official names, while Shauna, Larry, Carl, John and Thomas are OC names for the nameless gang members seen in the show.

5) = My newest bro-characters, Sir Johannes Victor and Marcus Victor are based on two antagonistic characters from Disney's The Legend of Tarzan's series, Johannes Niels and Mercus. Like Niels, Johannes Victor is more calmer, sophisticated and calculating one who uses smooth-talk and persuasion, and like Mercus, Marcus is more short-tempered, impatient and violent one of the two.

6) = The phone number in the card presented to Angel by Johannes isn't real... it's just the list of lucky numbers put together (1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 21,)

7) = Because I chose Simon Pegg (who has a Scottish Accent) to voice act Lorenzo, Louie has a Scottish Accent.

8) = Reference to Mike the Headless Chicken.