Everybody froze.
"What was that?" Mikey whispered, slightly frantic.
"It's a camera flash..." Donnie whispered back slowly.
"We know it's a camera flash." Leo hissed.
"Who's behind the camera flash?" Raph growled.
"By my calculations, it's a girl." Donnie replied.
"How do you know it's a girl?" Ming added, in a hushed and very frantic tone.
"Are we gonna kill her?" Mikey fed off Ming's franticness.
"What?!"
"With kindness!" Mikey defended. "Get her some flowers, earn her trust..."
Raph growled, finally fed up with the conversation. "I got this." He grabbed the kusari-fundo that he had brought with him.
"Raph, no, no! No! Don't!" Leo protested, but Raph swung the chain towards the fire escape ladder anyway.
When he pulled back the chain, a dark red-haired woman in a bright yellow coat was thrown onto the roof. The others scattered to hide in the shadows. The woman gasped, grabbing her shoulder. Ming immediately recognized her as the woman that had followed her into the subway station, but she also felt like she had seen her before somewhere else, too. It hadn't dawned on her until that moment how familiar the woman looked.
Raph wrapped up his kusari-fundo quickly, and as the confused and scared woman slowly tried to sit up, he leapt from the shadows menacingly, holding his sai in his hand. "Gimme the camera." He demanded in a deep growl. The woman slowly looked up at him, visibly shaking.
"Oooh look." Mikey snickered from his and Ming's hiding spot. "He's doing his Batman voice." Mikey deepened his voice to taunt Raph.
Ming giggled along. "Grrrr. Gimme the camera! Or I'll call Robin."
"Man, that girl is hot though..." Mikey muttered.
"We can hear you!" Raph snapped at his two younger siblings, who were giggling away at him, before he turned back to the woman, who was scrambling to her feet, her eyes wide in fear and curiosity. "If you don't give me the camera... I'm gonna-"
"ENOUGH!" Leo yelled, flipping off the water tower he had been crouched atop of, landing squarely on the raised wall that was the edge of the roof. Ming knew for a fact he had done that on purpose to appear taller than Raph. "Back off Raph."
Raph raised his hands in mock-defeat, but backed off, turning to growl at Mikey and Ming. "I only saw Batman once!" He insisted.
Leo leapt down, advancing towards the woman, flourishing his swords. "Ma'am, hello. I apologize. My colleague here forgot to say 'please.'" Ming noticed Raph bristle slightly. "So... would you please hand over the camera?" Leo's mannerisms were no less threatening than Raph's, whether he meant them to be or not. The woman backed away, probably considering running, and definitely scared.
With a look from Leo, Mikey jumped down to cut off the woman's escape. She bumped into him, and turned around to stare at him, gasping and trying again to get away, clearly on the verge of panic.
"Oh no, no no, woah. Woah. Chill." Mikey chuckled, trying to calm her down a little. "It's just a mask. See? Don't freak out." He reached up and removed his bright orange mask. "Right?"
Ming facepalmed. The woman fainted.
"Oh I think that went well." Donnie sighed sarcastically.
Ming knelt by the woman and rummaged into her jacket pocket. "Here's her phone, Donnie. Think you can erase it before she wakes up?" She handed the phone to her brother.
"Oh, definitely. There's only one passcode protecting it and no firewalls or encryption to pass. Should take two minutes, tops. In the meantime, you guys get her something soft to lay on and make sure her head is elevated." Donatello responded, focusing on the phone.
As he was working on wiping the phone, Ming and Mikey grabbed some heavy blankets from a nearby clothesline, Leo grabbed an old mattress, and Raph found some more old junk to prop it all up with. Gently, Leo moved the woman onto the pile of stuff, taking extra care with her head and neck.
As soon as they were done that, Donnie had finished wiping the phone, and turned to focus on the unconscious woman, pulling his goggles on over his eyes. Leo knelt next to them to help, looking worried for the woman.
"Her breathing's steady, blood pressure stabilizing..." He muttered, as the woman stirred.
"Why are we still here playing doctor?" Raph demanded impatiently.
"She might have a head injury." Leo replied pointedly.
Mikey piped up. "Uh, correction, she's a hot chick who might have a head injury, which makes it our civic duty to-"
Ming grabbed his mask tails and pulled him out of Leo's face, as Raph rolled his eyes, and Donnie started snapping his fingers at the woman. "Ma'am? Ma'am? Can you hear me? Do you know what city you're in? Do you know where you are?"
"Have you seen that video where the cat plays chopsticks with chopsticks?" Mikey cut in. Leo pushed him away.
"Can we focus here?!" He growled, turning back to look at the woman with genuine concern on his face.
"Guys, please! Come on. Give her some air." Donnie insisted, convincing his siblings to back away and give the woman some space.
The woman was now fully conscious, and slowly sat up, looking honestly no less panicked than she had been when she fainted. "What are you?"
"Kind of a rude question." Ming responded pointedly. Leo shoved her and turned back to the woman.
"Well, Miss, uh... we're ninjas." He awkwardly bowed a little.
"We're mutants." Raph cut in gruffly.
"Well, technically we're turtles." Donnie corrected.
"Oh! And, we're teenagers! But we can still have 'adult conversations.'" Mikey added, waving his hand jokingly.
"Except her." Raph lightly shoved Ming.
"Hey, I'm a preteen! I'm close!" Ming whined.
"Never be a turtle though." Mikey joked.
"Or a mutant." Leo threw in.
"We're not focusing on me right now!"
"Wait, wait..." The woman muttered, trying to get a grasp on what was happening in front of her. "So you're... ninja... mutant... turtle... teenagers?"
"Well when you put it like that it sounds ridiculous." Donnie chortled.
"That's because it is ridiculous." Ming threw back, unable to resist getting some shots in against her brothers.
"See? She's looking at us like we're freaks." Raph snarled, pointing an accusatory finger at the woman. "I bet that's why you took our picture, wasn't it? Show your friends?"
"Bro, that's a good thing." Mikey joked, half-whispering. "Maybe she has hot friends."
Raph ignored Mikey, jumping down from his perch on top of a flat roof vent and held up her phone that he had snagged from Donnie while they were checking the woman for head injuries. "Looking for this?"
"Don't break it." The woman begged weakly as Raph grinned sadistically. "No no no. Please..."
Leo rolled his eyes and grabbed the phone from Raph. "How many times do I have to tell you, we don't break things. We fix them. Donnie already wiped the phone, genius. Problem solved. Moving on." Leo lectured.
"And who put you in charge?" Raph demanded, shoving Leo.
"You know who did," Leo growled back.
"Oooooh tension!" Mikey chuckled. "It's been like, thirty whole minutes since you guys had this argument."
"And it's getting old fast." Ming yawned.
"Leonardo." Donnie cut in, quickly getting between the two oldest brothers. "If we wanna make it home before Master, we have to hustle."
Ming frowned. Was it that late already? How long had they been out here?
"Leonardo?" The woman with the dark red hair and the yellow jacket muttered under her breath, catching Leo's attention. He turned to her, handed her phone to her, and held out the handle of his sword towards her in a threatening matter, leaning down to be eye level with the woman as he spoke.
"Do not say a word about this to anyone. If you do, we will find you. April O'Neil."
Ohhhhh that's where Ming knew the woman from! She was that reporter on Channel 6, the one that did the segments about getting into shape for spring and such other beauty-standard stories.
"We're on the move, Raphael." Leo growled to Raph, who shook his head and got up onto the wall on the edge of the roof.
"Raphael?" The woman gasped again, almost like the names meant something to her. Raph took that moment to twirl his sai and return them to their holders, grunting and obviously trying to come across as menacing.
Mikey grabbed his rocket-powered skateboard that Donnie had built him for his birthday and tried to follow Leo's threatening lead. "Yeah. We'll find you. O'Neil."
Ming rolled her eyes. "That was creepy, dude."
"Yeah sorry, that came across super creepy..." Mikey chuckled awkwardly. "We will find you though."
Ming lightly shoved Mikey before taking off after the others, whooping and cheering alongside them with the exhilaration of their rare freedom.
"I was on fire bruh!" Mikey cheered as he rode his rocket skateboard, which was totally cheating. "Did you see me back there? Dudes I totally talked to a girl!"
"SHUT UP, MIKEY!" The other four groaned, but continued laughing as they ran through the brightly lit full moon night towards the manhole cover that was their ticket home.
One at a time they leapt into the sewers, racing each other through the tunnels and over and around pipes towards the lair. Mikey was still totally cheating with his board, skating around Ming and the others, as all five leapt towards the opening to the smaller tunnel that led to home-
And all of them landed up inside at exactly the same time, stuck at the entrance. Leo and Donnie were on the bottom, Raph was on top of Leo, shoving his older brother's head as he tried to squeeze through, Mikey ended up backwards, and Ming was (luckily) on top of the pile. Otherwise she probably would have been crushed by the weight of her brothers.
As they tried to shove each other and push their way through, there was suddenly a horrible sound followed by an even worse smell.
Ming, Leo, Raph and Donnie groaned in disgust as Mikey chuckled.
"Ugh- Mikey was that you?" Donnie demanded.
"Pepperoni." Mikey giggled.
"Gross, bro." Ming groaned. Every time Raph pushed himself up a little or Donnie rolled to the side, Ming's back scraped against the top of the tunnel. "Okay, okay, everybody stop moving!" She growled. "You're gonna crush me!"
"You want some cheese with that whine?" Leo snapped.
"Just, stay still a second so I can get out." Ming hissed back. "Raph," She dangled her arms down. "Pull."
Raph rolled his eyes but grabbed her arms anyway, and yanked her, practically throwing her forwards but successfully freeing Ming from the turtle-pile. She turned and grabbed Raph's arm, planting her feet and trying to pull him free.
"Come on!" She grunted to herself. "The sooner your fat shell is out of there, the sooner we can get home."
"Hey! Who you callin' fat?" Raph snarled.
"You, fat-ass." Ming shot.
"Hey! Hey come on!" Leo snapped, as Donnie and Mikey both groaned at the arguing. "There's no need for that!"
Ming planted a foot on Leo's shoulder, and pulled hard. Between her pulling and Raph also pushing against Leo with his other arm to get free sooner, Leo was shoved backwards just enough that Raph came free, tumbling forward.
After Raph was out, Mikey and Donnie were able to pick themselves up easily. As soon as everybody was free, Raph shoved Ming hard into the solid cement wall of the tunnel.
"What was that for?!"
"Calling me fat, Pipsqueak." Raph snarled.
"Call me Pipsqueak again. I dare you." Ming hissed, trying to make herself appear at least a little taller, glaring at Raphael.
Raph bent down so he was eye-level with Ming. "Pipsqueak."
Before Ming could respond, Leo shoved between them. "We don't have time for this!" He snapped at them. "We have to go."
Ming snorted, but nodded. Raph turned away, knowing he'd won the argument anyway.
"Let's just get home." Donnie sighed.