The four of them sat on the floor of the back of the van, an array of takeout containers and empty soda bottles arranged to mirror the neighborhood a block over. An improvised war room, made entirely from old Burger King takeout.
"We're clear on the plan?" Leo looked at Mikey specifically.
"Why do you always have to stare at me when you ask that?"
"To make sure."
"Yeah, I'm clear on the plan." Mikey frumped into his beard.
Leo gently rolled his hand, gesturing for him to continue. "The plan is…?"
Mikey held up a finger with each point. "Get eyes on April, cause a distraction, grab her, make it back to the van, and go."
"Without…?" His brother prompted.
Mikey sighed, holding up his last finger. "Without being seen."
Raph grunted. Leo's eyes shot him a silent dart. But, he ignored him and said, "I think we can handle that part."
"This time." Leo muttered. Raph felt the simmer in his chest leap up to a boil for a minute. When Donnie opened his bag to dispense gear, Raph snatched his smoke bomb, threw on his ski mask and shrugged on his coat, and stormed out of the van before everyone else was ready to leave. Mikey scampered after him, the pair fading into silence and shadow as soon as they strayed from the headlights of the van.
Leonardo and Donatello were left alone.
"Am I too hard on him, Don?" Leo asked, trying to hide the plaintive note behind a frustrated veneer.
Don zipped up his coat, hiding his shell from view. "Yes. You are." He said, slowly and carefully. "We're hard on each other. We have to be, all things considered."
"Could I have said anything differently?"
"You could've." Don nodded. "But do you think that, given his emotional state, he would have listened?"
"...No."
"And given yours, do you think you listened as well as you should've?"
Leo sighed. Donnie was right. Again. "Why aren't you the leader?"
"I crack under pressure, and I hate confrontation. Neither of those things have ever scared you. That, and you know I overthink things until I spiral myself into a panic attack. That's why Splinter put you in charge."
Don was logical and impartial, as always. Leo didn't want to admit that those were his faults too. He was just better at hiding them. He turned off the lights to the van, and reluctantly removed the hard brace, the cold air making the miniscule scales on his leg prickle. It used to feel like an encumbrance. Now, he felt nervous walking without it, even for a little while. He rolled down his pant leg, picked up his smoke bomb, and secured his katana under his coat.
Soon, both he and Don had vanished into the night.
"So, why'd you lie to Leo?" Michelangelo whispered.
Raph whirled on him. The two of them crouched in the shadow of a rusty water tower, scanning the street. "How did you know that?"
"Bro." Mikey looked at him. "Because I know you."
Fair point. Raph exhaled. "Okay, yeah, I lied about the fight with the monster."
"You're going to go off to fight him again, aren't you?"
Raphael didn't answer. "Just keep watch for April."
"Aren't you?"
Raph would have, at any other point, snapped at him. He would have growled a threat that he would never follow through on, intimidated his baby brother into shutting up. But after tonight? He was tired. Too tired to even be angry anymore.
He just wanted this night to be over.
"Yeah. I am."
"Are you going alone?"
"Yeah."
"That's stupid."
"I know that."
"Then don't."
Raph didn't want to waste any more breath arguing with him. He flipped open his phone to check the time. 1:08 AM. Leo and Donnie would signal to move to the next search area at 1:10. He made three hand signs to Mikey. Quiet. Watch. Ready.
Michelangelo knew he was brushing him off. Again. God, he hated it when Raph did that. How could he ever explain to Raph how much he loved him? How much he wanted to help? How he wished he could wave a magic wand like a little sewer pixie and just magically erase every single problem that had ever crossed their path?
If Michelangelo could control time, he would have gone back to some point before dinnertime and just asked Raph if he wanted to play Mortal Kombat with him. Maybe it would have staved off his loneliness, his craving for people, for belonging.
It was weird. The lonelier Raph felt, the more he pushed people away. The lonelier he got, the angrier he got. The angrier he got, the pricklier he got. It was like he hated being reminded that he existed. Mikey knew that.
So why didn't anybody else see it?
April kicked her backpack underneath the counter, tugging the stolen blue polo shirt down awkwardly over her black hoodie. It was about a size too small, especially around the chest, and it kept riding up over her stomach. She picked up a magazine–something about teen fashion–and propped it up perhaps a little too high as she pretended to read.
That psycho had tried to take the door off its hinges. The sound of his metal-sheathed fingers knocking on the steel door still rattled around in her head, like a loose marble that pinged off the walls that kept her anxiety locked away.
Why hadn't he followed her? What was that roar she'd heard? And who the hell was he? Where did his female accomplice go?
Her cell phone rested in the fold of the magazine, between two articles about weight loss, and her eyes hovered over the 'x' in the corner. As soon as that icon showed even a single bar, she would immediately call the guys.
There was another question. Where was her cell signal?
The door dinged, and April swung around in the office chair to face the door, worried that the real store clerk would be back. But no. It was a greasy man wearing a wifebeater and a holey jacket, shuffling on flip-flops that had probably been baby blue back in the 90s. He looked up at her, grunted, and went over to the Action Movies section.
Flimsy disguise for the win.
She kept the magazine up, and took a few more breaths. Finally, she was safe.
And then the wall exploded.
Leonardo's head snapped in the direction of the distant boom. "Don, did you–"
"Yep, let's go!" Donatello shook out the length of his collapsible bō, taking a long and graceful pole-leap over the gap between the buildings. Leo swung his grappling hook, connecting it to the clothesline that spanned it, and slid down to the alley.
Sprinting as fast as they could towards the explosion, Leonardo checked over his shoulder at the shadowy roofs across the street. Sure enough, he could make out the leaping and sprinting forms of Michelangelo and Raphael keeping pace.
Leonardo could feel his left knee starting to complain. Each jostling movement made the screws drilled into the lower-left quarter of his carapace report their presence with a small jolt of distant pain. He was definitely not up for a fight tonight. Stick to the plan. Get in, get April, get out.
He remembered Michelangelo's bet back in the van. It was past midnight. He took a small amount of consolation in the idea that now, Mikey owed them a pizza supreme.
Goliath's ears perked up, brow ridges high on his forehead. The massive gargoyle beast at his heels lifted its head and barked. "An explosion!"
"Dammit!" Maza swore. "I knew that kid was trouble!"
There was a heavy whoosh over their heads. Goliath looked up, lifting an arm in signal as the elder slowly circled. His wings folded, and he hit the ground with a thud that Elisa could feel in her ribs.
The old one dusted off his ancient tunic. "It seems tonight is a cursed night."
"You're telling me." Elisa replied. "Who are you?"
The elder looked at her. His deep brown lip twitched, baring a single fang. "A gargoyle. Ye need know nothing more, human." He looked up at Goliath. "Why do you bring one of them with us?"
"She has pledged to aid us in locating the Trio, if we help her find her ward." Goliath answered. "A young girl, dark with a yellow coat."
"I didnae see her," The elder shook his head. "But I heard her. A human with golden claws pursued her."
"Where is she?" Elisa's eyes steeled, her fist clenched. If that kid were hurt while she was responsible for her…
The old one shook his head. "She escaped, as did her pursuer."
It was then that Elisa saw the trickle of blood coming down the old one's arm. Her glance flicked down to it, and the old one tucked his arm aside to hide his injury. The beast padded forward, snout promptly buried in the elder's side. The old one brushed the beast off with a wave of his hand. "The explosion is his."
"Let us not dally. Lead us to her." Goliath unceremoniously picked up Elisa by the collar. She yelped in surprise, clinging to his shoulders by instinct, knees hugging the small of his back. She hardly had any warning before the old one and Goliath leapt a clear ten feet straight into the air and began to scale the nearest building. She found her elbows locked around his neck in a terrified death grip as the ground shrank below her.
"You must not choke me, human." Goliath growled. Elisa muttered an apology, easing her grip around his neck as he reached the peaked roof of the office building. He took four steps forward. She felt her stomach flutter as he leaned over the edge of the tall building, the ground below as small as a doll's street. His wings spread wide, and his tail raised. She could feel the powerful muscles in his back bunch as he prepared to do the one thing she hoped he wouldn't do.
"Oh god, please don't juUUMP!"
The wind stole her breath. The ground zoomed closer, and then it shrank away.
They were flying.
April didn't remember dropping to the ground, or covering her head with her arms. But with her shoulder pressed against the service desk's wood paneling, and rubble pinging off the linoleum countertop over her head, she didn't have time to appreciate her swift reaction.
"Huff and puff," a familiar voice sang. "And we'll blow your house down!"
April muttered the nastiest cuss she knew. She grabbed her backpack, and bolted from cover, making her way to the upended case of rom-com movies. Over her head, she heard the too-familiar p-p-p-pew! of laser fire. The spray burned round scorch marks into the floor and the wall beside her, one errant blast ripping a hole through her backpack.
"Quit your clowning, Jackal." An unfamiliar voice growled. Low, deep, but somehow familiar to her ears. Where had she heard that voice before? "Get the girl, and let's get out of here. We have minutes before the cops show up."
"We have other errands to run in this neighborhood, boys. Don't forget." A man. Australian, by his accent. April dug through her bag, desperate to find something useful. Her hands closed around a familiar box. Her heart sank. Aw, man. Really? This was her last option?
Reluctantly, she let her finger hover over the button and she braced up what little was left of her courage. She just had to outlast them for a minute. She squeezed her eyes shut, pulled her black hood down over her cinnamon hair, and kicked the shelf of movies over.
The shapes of the three men shielded their faces from the shower of VHS tapes. She was immediately met by blaster fire as she sprinted her way towards the back rooms. She heard the fearful cry of a man–probably the guy in the coat browsing movies–and silently pleaded with whatever god happened to be watching that they were just taking him as a hostage and weren't about to kill him.
She heard footsteps closing behind her. But she had exactly one advantage left in her arsenal; she knew where the circuit breaker was. She veered around the corner, sneakers screeching on the dirty linoleum, and she practically tore the thin metal door open, reaching for the rows of switches.
The lights went out.
"Damn little brat!" The Aussie man spat.
The man with the deeper voice chuckled. "I love it when they fight back."
"Told you this one was worth it." The one called Jackal drawled with his thin, cruel voice. "A real hunt."
Animal names, hunts, claws… who were these freaks? Rejects from a furry forum?
She pressed the button on the device in her hand, and threw it across the room as far as she could. She heard it clatter somewhere in the middle of the store, and she held her breath.
Stay still. Be like Leo.
"What was that?" "Dingo, go check it out. Jackal, cover the sides." "Go to hell, Wolf. She's mine, I saw her first."
There was the sound of a fist burying itself in someone else's gut, and Jackal's sneer turned into a wheezing gasp. There was no further argument as three separate sets of footsteps moved around the store. Flashlights clicked on.
"Where'd she go?" A beam swept dangerously close to April's hiding place, and she willed herself into becoming a statue.
"Here piggy, piggy, piggy." Jackal crooned. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
A tinny voice began to sing. "Somebody once told me the wo-o-orld was gonna roll me, I ain't the sharpest tool in the she-ed–"
"What the fuck?!" There was a rip of blaster fire, red flashes of light illuminating the documentaries section.
"She was lookin' kind of dumb with her fi-inger and her thumb, in the shape! of an L, on her fore-hea-ad…"
There was the scamper of feet across the store. "There, I see her!" There was the rapid p-p-pew of laserfire again. The store window shattered, and a cardboard standee of Farrah Fawcett grinned ear-to-ear as eight perfectly round, flaming holes burned through her torso.
Jackal cackled. The Australian man, Dingo, spat and growled. "Shaddup, you fool."
"Well, the years start comin', and they don't stop comin', fed to the rules an' I–" The tape was clicked off. That low chuckle came back. It was the deep-voiced man. Wolf. "You're a smart girl. A little too smart for your own good, I think."
"Wolf, what are you–" "Shh!" Dingo cut Jackal off mid-sentence.
Wolf continued. "You know what? I think you should know something. You've just outrun not one, not two, but four world-class assassins and bounty hunters. I think this is the best run we've had in… what, about six months? Last guy who gave us a workout this good was ex-KGB."
Well, Splinter would be proud. They were trying to draw her out. Trying to toy with her. April refused to move.
Wolf chuckled again. "I know a pro when I see one. You're not just some random high school kid, are you? Kind of a pity. I'd have loved to know who your trainer is. I'd like to meet 'em. Compare notes, as professionals. You know? Congratulate them on picking up such talent, and so young too."
Why is his voice so familiar? She felt her arms beginning to shake. She couldn't hold onto this hiding spot for much longer. Her grip on the chilly water pipe was starting to slip.
"So… which is it? CIA? Mossad? Black Hand? Or is this something… else?"
April felt a bead of sweat building down her forehead.
"I'm thinking… a ninja."
Her sneaker squeaked. In the shadows, she saw the silhouette of the man's head look straight up. Behind the beam of his flashlight, she saw the glint of his teeth. She didn't have to see his eyes to know that he'd seen the crooked panel in the subceiling where she had been hiding.
It was the smile of a predator on top of his prey. April shouted and kicked when she heard a hand break through the fragile foam and felt it close around her ankle. It dragged her out of the subceiling and slammed her down to the floor.
She rolled over onto her elbows, and scrambled to her feet to put up her fists. She panted, glaring the man in the eye. She couldn't see anything of his features behind the flashlight, and he stood right between her and the exit.
"You're a brave kid." The man tsked. "Man. What a waste."
