Chapter 2: The New "Normal"
Part 3

Lincoln, his baby sister, and his best friend had all resigned themselves to a life on the run. A life in the shadows. Staying ahead of the Kraang, as they had come to learn that their enemy was called, wasn't easy. Avoiding the regular humans long enough to get a decent amount of rest and a bite of food was even harder. They traveled for two months, never able to stay in one place for long. To meet their basic needs, they dove into Dumpsters, raided donation bins, and picked pockets.

Towards the middle of October, they found themselves in New York City, a menagerie of sights, sounds, and smells assaulting them from all sides. Lincoln hated big cities and generally avoided them like the plague. However, he reasoned that they would finally be safe from the Kraang if they disappeared into the labyrinth of skyscrapers.

The first few places they tried to settle down didn't really work out. The old warehouse they stayed in when they first arrived got caught in the crossfire of a vicious turf war. The run-down, abandoned apartment building they found next, they stayed in for three days before finding out it was about to be demolished. And the old houseboat on the docks was almost immediately snatched up by a repossession company.

To further complicate the matter, Lily got sick. Really sick. The boys couldn't figure out whether it was food poisoning, one of the seasonal illnesses the Loud family was prone to, or something worse.

Then, while traversing the sewers to avoid the throngs of people that were present at all hours of the day, they stumbled across Shangri La.

The refuge they found was a bricked-off subway turnaround, forgotten by time with three ancient subway cars still inside. The boys immediately went to work, clearing away assorted debris, sweeping up dust as best as they could, and using whatever was available to turn the sanctuary into their new home. All the while trying to keep Lily comfortable, fed, and hydrated.

The boys had come to an agreement: one of them (usually Clyde) would stay behind and take care of Lily, while the other (usually Lincoln) would venture up to the surface and forage for necessities. It was on one of those trips that Lincoln had a chance encounter with another group of teenagers in a similar situation...

...

Lincoln slithered silently through the alleyways of New York City, most of his snow-white fur hidden beneath a tattered black poncho. Only the end of his snout and his shining red eyes could be seen beneath the poncho's deep hood. His quarry tonight was food for all three of them and medicine for Lily. Aided by his superb night vision, he hunted for anything that could prove useful. It wasn't long before he came to the rear entrance of a convenience store, a solid steel door secured with a simple padlock.

Despite his sharpened senses, he was unaware of the four figures that had been following him from the rooftops. All of them were Mutants like Lincoln; Turtle Mutants, to be exact. They were humanoid, with hairless heads, green skin, and tough shells covering their backs and torsos. Their hands and feet each had three digits and were wrapped sports gauze, they wore protective wooden pads on their knees and elbows, and they wore masks across their eyes. Each individual wore a different color of mask: blue, orange, purple, and red. They also carried Japanese melee weapons, and each had their own preference.

"Do you really think this bozo is the same 'living shadow' you claim robbed that pizza truck, Mikey?" one of the turtles asked in exasperation. He wore a red mask, and a pair of sais was thrust into the leather strap around his waist.

"Trust me, Raph, I know what I saw!" defended the turtle with the orange mask. He carried a pair of nunchaku, one of which could be converted into a kusarigama.

"Well, considering that his level of stealth is comparable to our own, combine that with the fact that he's dressed all in black, and he matches Mikey's description perfectly," the turtle with the purple mask reasoned analytically. A simple wooden bo staff with a concealed blade at one end was strapped to the back of his shell, and he was the tallest of the quartet.

"Guys, quiet! He's making a move!" whispered the turtle with the blue mask, whose eyes never left the figure below them for even a second. He was the leader of the group, and had a pair of katana swords strapped to his own back.

...

Lincoln looked to either side to make sure he was alone in the alley, then looked back at the door. He drew a machete from under his poncho, raised the blade above his head, and brought it down hard. The padlock fell to the ground in two pieces, and he pulled open the door and slipped inside.

Once he was sure there were no alarms or cameras, he went right to work. He unzipped the opening of an old backpack that he'd fashioned into a sort of haversack. Into the sack went a multitude of small but filling food items: protein bars, crackers, jerky, cans of soup and tuna. He also stole bottled water, chicken broth, and some lemon-lime soda to soothe Lily's stomach.

Moving on to a different aisle, he snagged a few bottles of pills that would hopefully reduce his sister's sky-high fever. The last thing he took before making his way out was two canisters of propane to fuel the camp stove he'd stolen the previous week.

He'd closed the door behind him and was halfway to the nearest manhole cover when a voice rang out behind and slightly above him, making him freeze.

"It's not nice to steal, you know."

He whirled around. What he saw was four anthropomorphic turtles peering down at him. There was one standing on the roof, two resting on a fire escape, and one crouched on the closed lid of a Dumpster. All of them were masked and had ninja weapons strapped to their bodies within easy reach of their three-fingered hands.

"Okay, now I've seen everything!" Lincoln declared, then turned back around and bolted.

"Hey! Don't let him get away!" yelled Raph, the turtle with the red mask. They followed as best as they could, but it was difficult, seeing as how the poncho he was wearing reduced him to little more than a shadowy blur as he raced along the ground.

Lincoln occasionally glanced behind himself as he ran deeper into the concrete jungle. These strange turtle-men were definitely ninjas, judging by the way they jumped and somersaulted across the rooftops with the dexterity of squirrels. So focused was he on his pursuers that he wasn't paying attention and slammed into a brick wall at full speed. The turtles collectively winced at the collision, but nonetheless moved to block the only way out of the dead-end alley.

"Now's your last chance," said the turtle in the blue mask as he drew both of his swords. "Return the stolen goods, and we won't give you any more trouble." His brothers moved into position beside him and readied their own weapons.

"You don't understand," Lincoln replied, standing up from where he'd fallen and turning toward the turtles. "I don't like stealing any more than you do. But I have to if I want to survive." He pulled off his hood, and the turtles gasped.

"Another Mutant?" exclaimed the one with the purple mask, lowering his staff slightly.

"Who cares, Donnie? He's still a criminal!" Raph yelled and charged toward Lincoln. However, a series of lightning-fast blows on Lincoln's part sent him sprawling. At a signal from their leader, the others rushed forward to protect their fallen brother and were likewise repelled.

Despite having dedicated their whole lives to martial arts and the ways of ninjutsu, Lincoln was far stronger and faster than they had anticipated, not to mention the fact that he was nearly twice their size. While they were able to land a few blows on him, he returned the favor tenfold.

"LEO, LOOK OUT!" Donnie cried, and the blue-masked turtle raised his katanas. He just barely intercepted a heavy-handed swing from Lincoln's machete, and the force of the collision rattled his whole body. A moment later, one of Lincoln's hind paws connected with his chest, sending him flying into a wall. Leo slid to the ground and tried to recover his breath while his brothers tried to extricate themselves from the pile of tangled limbs nearby.

As the turtles picked themselves up, Lincoln towered over them with a scowl.

"I'll let you off with a warning," he told them. "Waste my time like this again, and you won't be so lucky." He put his hood back up, turned around, and vanished into the darkness.

...

Lincoln arrived back at his hideout to find Clyde pacing around outside the middle subway car, wearing a black wife-beater undershirt and exercise shorts with bare feet and his tail swishing around behind him. He spotted Lincoln and gave a sigh of relief.

"That took longer than usual. Everything alright?" he asked. Lincoln gave a sigh of his own as he lowered his hood and unslung the makeshift haversack from around his body.

"Just a minor setback, that's all. I nabbed enough to last us a while at least," he replied. "How's she doing?"

"Not terrible, but not good, either. You remembered the medicine, right?"

"I wouldn't have come back if I didn't." Lincoln walked into the middle subway car, which had been converted into a living center/sick bay. There, curled up in a nest of blankets on one of the benches, was Lily, trembling slightly and so weak she could barely move. Lincoln knelt down and pressed a kiss to his sister's temple, smoothing down her surprisingly soft quills.

After standing up, Lincoln removed the chicken broth from the haversack, lit up the camp stove, and heated up the broth in an old, dented saucepan. He then took two of the Acetaminophen pills he'd stolen, ground them up using a mortar and pestle, and mixed the powder into the hot broth. After pouring the mixture into a chipped coffee mug and leaving it to cool, He picked Lily up and cradled her in his arms, shushing her when she let out a small whimper. When the broth was at a drinkable temperature, Lincoln sat down on the bench, supported Lily with one arm, and held the mug to her lips with the other.

After she'd drunk it all, the warm brew lulled Lily back to sleep, and Lincoln laid her back down in her little nest, draping one of the lighter blankets over her. He wished, not for the first time, that they had brought Lucy with them; with her skills in herbalism, she would have been able to concoct a far more effective remedy. As it was, though, they had to make do with what was available to them. Clyde stepped back inside the subway car just as Lincoln sat down on the side opposite Lily, and they looked at each other.

"Go ahead and get some rest, Clyde. I'll keep watch," Lincoln said. Clyde nodded and went to one of the other subway cars, where his own makeshift bed was located.

...

The four turtles limped their way back to their own lair deep within the network of sewage tunnels under the city. Watching TV in their spacious living room was their singular human friend, April O'Neil: a teenage girl with red hair tied back in a ponytail and a freckled face, wearing a yellow headband, a yellow sweater over a white T-shirt, denim jeans, and red Converse sneakers. When she heard her friends come in and saw the state they were in, she jumped up in alarm and ran over to them.

"Whoa! What happened to you guys?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing to worry about, April. Just a bad encounter with another Mutant, that's all," Donnie dismissed the concerns of his secret crush.

"A 'bad encounter'? We just got our butts handed to us! On silver platters!" Raph protested angrily.

"Whoa, whoa, back up. You met another Mutant?" April asked incredulously.

"Yeah, dawg!" Mikey answered. "He could, like, walk and talk and stuff just like we can. But, like, instead of a turtle, he was a wolf! A white wolf!"

"Turns out this guy was Mikey's mysterious pizza thief," Leo continued. "We caught him red-handed robbing a convenience store tonight; we could've peacefully negotiated the return of whatever he stole, if Raph hadn't decided to bash heads first and ask questions later, as usual." Leo looked pointedly at his red-masked brother, who threw up his hands in frustration.

"How is this my fault?!" Raph demanded.

"Enough!" called out a deeper masculine voice with traces of a Japanese accent. The turtles and April fell silent as a tall anthropomorphic rat strode into the room. He had brown fur with black markings and was clad in deep maroon robes emblazoned with the flower-shaped symbol of the Hamato ninja clan. One hand with gnarled, bony fingers stroked his long white whiskers while the other clasped the head of a cane made from jagged green crystal. "Leonardo, my son, please tell me everything you remember of this encounter. Start from the beginning, and leave nothing unsaid."

"Yes, Master Splinter," Leo replied with a respectful bow. He then recounted everything from the turtles' point of view, including the fight with the Wolf Mutant and his last words to them before vanishing. Master Splinter was silent for several moments as he digested the information.

"It seems to me," he finally spoke, "that the wisest course of action would be to find him and apologize."

"WHAT?!" Raph cried indignantly. "But Sensei, he's a thief! A criminal! We had to stop him!"

"Enough, Raphael!" Splinter raised his voice, thumping his cane against the floor loudly. "You felt that you had to stop him, because you only saw the story from one angle! He said himself that he was only stealing to survive, and retaliated against you in self-defense. All four of you were in the wrong, but you are more to blame than your brothers! Your actions prevented you from learning more about his situation!"

As a thoroughly humbled Raphael shrank back, Leo stepped forward once more.

"With all due respect, Sensei, I should talk to him alone," he said. "He already doesn't trust us, so he might react poorly if all four of us confronted him again."

"And you have to admit, between all of us, Leo is the best option for this kind of job," Donnie chimed in. Splinter once again stroked his whiskers as he considered Leo's proposal.

"Very well," he conceded. "The next time he ventures from hiding, you may approach him."

Here's the moment you've all been demanding: Lincoln's first encounter with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Before anyone asks where the timelines line up, April has already met the turtles, but the Kraang are still holding her father captive. Yes, Lincoln will help the turtles rescue Kirby.