Seeing Red | By : Shawnie Category: +S through Z > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Views: 3623 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, nor do I make any money from the writing of this story. The original characters and plot, however, are mine. |
Claire peeled the orange blanket off her body and slowly sat up moving one hand to her injured side, feeling at the bandage. Wincing, she swung her bare legs over the edge of the bed, feeling the cold air cling to her body. Wrapping her arms around herself, she shivered. Why is it so cold? She looked down and realized she was still wearing her tiny black dress. Rubbing her arms to get them warm, she looked around the room in the dim light, noting superhero and movie posters on the wall and tons of action figures on the shelves. Her eyes fell upon her clutch sitting on the bedside table. Grabbing it, she pulled out her compact mirror to take a closer look at the gash on her side. She nodded her head approvingly; whoever had bandaged her up had done a pretty good job. Digging for her cell phone, she checked the time. Four thirty. She frowned when she realized her taser wasn’t in the bag. She could’ve sworn she put it back in there after she used it on the first Dragon. Dragon – she thought. Details of the past few hours came flooding back, but she fixated on the memory of the giant turtle creature that fought with her. She was so caught up in the moment of the fight she hadn’t had the time to truly be freaked out. How weird was that? It even talked! “Well, that’s New York City for you, I guess,” she said to herself quietly. She slid her bare feet down to the cold floor and slowly stood up, eyeing the curtain towards the front of the room. She froze when she heard voices coming from another room nearby.
“What the shell were you thinking, Leo?! Master Splinter is going to have a fit when he finds out! Not to mention that with this type of attack pattern, the Purple Dragons are clearly planning something. What if she’s a spy? What if this is part of their plan – to find out where we live?”
“She was lying there unconscious, Donnie. What was I supposed to do? Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing. Besides, I don’t think I need to remind you that I’m the leader; it was MY call.”
“Oh right, how could we forget. Mistah Leader can do whateva he wants.”
“No way she’s a spy, bro. No black trench coat, no shady eye patch, no menacing black gloves.”
“Uh, Mikey, sounds like you are describing Nick Fury.”
“Yea, and? Dude, Nick Fury is like a super-spy. She looks nothing like Nick Fury, therefore, she is not a spy.”
She recognized the first voice belonging to the turtle that saved her and she immediately felt relieved. At least she was in friendly territory. I think, Claire thought, frowning. Taking a deep breath, Claire reached for the tattered, orange curtain and slowly moved it aside. She found herself on the second floor of a giant, open space. She looked to her left and saw three other rooms each with a different colored curtain. The first floor of the space appeared to be the living area complete with rugs, furniture and a large entertainment system. Claire identified the source of the voices coming from a dark corner downstairs near the couch – four giant turtles. She tiptoed away from the bedroom and made her way down the stairs towards the creatures. Unaware of her presence, the turtles continued arguing, getting louder.
“HUN was there, Donnie. Who knows what he would’ve done to her!” As she got a little closer, she recognized the turtle with the blue bandana. There were three others that looked similar to him, but they were varying heights and shades of green.
She gently cleared her throat and the four turtles whipped around to face her. Suddenly feeling very self-conscious in her short dress, she tugged at the hem a little, looking down at her plum-colored toes. The one in the red bandana stared at her in disbelief, arms crossed. “W-wait a second, is that the girl we saved like a month ago? It is! I can’t believe this. Were you stalkin’ her or somethin’, Fearless?” He turned back to the turtle in the blue bandana, eyes narrowed.
“We are not going to hurt you,” the one in purple quickly added, his arms up in the air.
“I-I know”, Claire simply replied. She nodded her head in the blue turtle’s direction. “He and I were fighting together against those Purple Dragon guys”.
“You were fighting WITH her?! Oh man, this is just TOO good.” The red turtle smirked, eyes still on the turtle in blue.
“No, no, he came to help.” Claire made her way towards the group in an attempt to diffuse the situation. “I was walking home alone and was jumped.”
The turtle in the orange bandana bounded up to her with his hand outstretched. “Sorry about my brothers – they are super rude and think you are a spy. But I know better, my name’s Mikey.” She hesitated for a moment, wondering how to shake his hand. She settled on placing hers in between two of his fingers. He squeezed it gently and she gave him a small smile. “I’m Claire” she responded, looking up at the smiling turtle. “And definitely NOT a spy,” she added quickly.
“This is Donatello, Leonardo and that weird-looking guy over there is Raphael,” Mikey continued. Raphael scowled at Mikey.
“Uh, it’s a little cold in here. Do you have a jacket or something I could borrow?” Claire said, rubbing her arms, looking around the room.
Donnie grabbed something off the couch nearby and walked it over to her. He draped the jacket around her arms and she smiled up at him. “Thanks”.
“I hope the bandage feels OK. I tried to close up the wound as tightly as I could.” Donnie’s eyes shifted to Claire’s side.
“Oh, no, thank you. It feels just fine.” Claire responded, snuggling into the jacket.
“Hey, that’s my –“ started Raphael, arm outstretched as if to stop her.
“Motorcycle jacket”, Claire finished, looking down at the leather jacket that was ten times too big. She looked up at Raphael. “You have a bike?”
“Uh, yea”, he responded, crossing his arms, looking directly into her eyes. “She’s my baby.”
“A motorcycle-riding turtle. Huh. Well, that’s pretty cool. I’m really into bikes – used to ride all the time in high school. If it bothers you, I could put something else on.” Claire began to shrug herself out of the jacket.
“What? Oh, no – no it’s alright.” Raphael slowly walked towards her, helping her back into the jacket. “It, uh, looks good on ya.” He suddenly became very interested in something on his arm.
“Yea!” Mikey exclaimed. “You look like one of those hot hair metal chicks in the 80’s music videos! You know- tight dress, leather, ROWWWWW!” Mikey played air guitar, emphasizing his point.
Claire giggled, looking up at Donnie. “He always like this?”
“You have no idea. He is relentless,” Donnie replied, rolling his eyes.
Claire glanced over at Leonardo. He had not said a word; just stood there, silently observing everyone. “Leonardo, right? I really owe you; you’ve helped me out twice now.” She chuckled. “I promise I’m not usually the damsel in distress. In fact, I’m usually the one taking down the crimin-“ she stopped mid-sentence and flickered her eyes up at Leonardo – she didn’t really want to divulge that information to complete strangers. He stared at her curiously.
“But enough about me, what I would love to know is where you guys came from.”
“Well, THAT’S a long story that requires popcorn,” Mikey said cheerfully, leading Claire over to the couch.
For the next hour, the turtles explained how they came to be, Claire soaking in every detail and asking many questions. In return, Claire talked about her parent’s accident and how she was brought up by her grandmother. She left out her recent vigilante stints, but briefly touched on her temper issues to which Mikey had said, “Oh man, you and Raph would seriously get along!” Claire laughed, stifling a yawn.
“Well, I should really get going. It’s nearly morning. And I promise, I will keep your secret”, Claire said, stretching.
Mikey stood up from the couch, “I’ll walk you home. Just one thing you should probably know before we leave. We kinda live in the sewers.”
Claire blinked at Mikey. “Wha-?”
The walk home with Mikey was extremely enjoyable. He was so easy-going and comfortable to be with, they got to talking about everything. After finding out that they were both cinema nerds, they quizzed each other with movie trivia the rest of the way home. Laughing, Claire put the key into her apartment door. She opened it and turned to him. “Well, this is me. I really appreciate you guys taking me in tonight after what happened. I really don’t know what would’ve happened if…” her voice trailed off as she thought back to the large man.
“No worries, babe. We got you covered. Oh and here, this is my number. If you ever need us for anything – sparring partner, pizza partner, movie partner, you know. Just give us a buzz.”
Claire closed the door and pressed her back up against it, closing her eyes. What a weird night, she thought. She peeled off her dress, paying extra care to the bandage and fell onto the bed in her bra and panties, pulling the blanket over her head.
Knock, knock.
Claire dropped the gold, brassy knocker and pulled back from the door to check her cell phone. She had a good hour before work. She rubbed her hands together, trying to ward off the bitter cold. The door of the brownstone apartment opened and Claire was met with the smell of homemade tomato sauce.
“Grams!” Claire rushed forward and threw her arms around her grandmother, smiling when she felt her grandmother’s hands run through her golden hair. Claire pulled back to look at her warm face. “How are you feeling?”
“Doing great! Come on in Claire, you’ll get a cold standing out there.” Claire followed her inside, taking off her coat and hanging it on the rack near the front door. “Mmmm Grams, is that your world famous sauce? It smells so good in here!”
“Of course! I wanted to make some for you since I knew you were stopping by today. You can take some home and bring it in to work for lunch.”
Claire kissed her grandmother on the cheek. “You’re the best, Grams.” Claire put the plastic bag she was carrying down on the kitchen counter. “Here’s your Halloween candy! I got some good ones – those lucky kids”, Claire winked at her.
“Oh, thank you, sweetie. You know how much I love Halloween; I’ve got my witch costume all ready for when I answer the door.” Claire chuckled at the thought of her grandmother in costume.
“So tell me about work, dear. How is the gym doing?” She handed Claire a mug of coffee.
“Great! We’ve been getting so many new members! I might’ve been a little too hard on some of them, though. You know how I can get.” Claire took the mug from her grandmother and blew on it, taking a sip.
“And what about a boyfriend?” Claire choked a little on her coffee.
“Grams, you know I have trouble being….tied down.” Claire tried searching for the right words.
“Claire, hunny, you might have a tough girl exterior, but I know that underneath all of that, you are a sweet, caring girl.”
Claire smiled lovingly at her grandmother.
Claire arrived at the office a little early, eager to get started on her Monday morning work. She sat at her desk and caught sight of the stack of papers. She groaned, giving the pile an evil-eye. Taking a sip of her coffee, she started sifting through it. Wow, so many new members. By the time noon hit, Claire had already met with four new clients to discuss their nutrition regimens.
Taking a bite of her Grams’ pasta, she began typing away, creating plans for the members in the paper stack. She was so lost in her work, by the time she looked at the clock, it was four. Glancing up at the pile that was now substantially smaller, she realized she only had a few left. Working through the rest of the member profiles, Claire watched the gym offices get dark and grow quiet as the trainers slowly made their way home. Finally finishing the last plan, she clicked ‘Save’ and leaned back in her chair, looking around. The back office area was nearly dark, save for the light on her desk. Feeling satisfied that she completed all her work she began packing up her bag to go home, taking a few of the profiles with her to review. Her head snapped up when she heard a noise coming from a room down the hall. Is that Brad’s office? She immediately thought back to what Jill had told her on Friday, ”he’s been having these late-night meetings in his office with these strange looking men.”
Claire’s curiosity got the better of her and she slowly crept up the hall toward Brad’s door. The light from his office gave the hall an eerie glow as Claire realized the door was half-open. Holding her breath, she flattened herself against the wall and listened in.
“And that’s all I need to provide?”
“That’s all, Mr. Brad.”
Claire let out a small gasp and quickly covered her mouth. She identified the new voice immediately. It was the voice of the large man from Friday night – the one who threw her into a brick wall! Her shock quickly turned to anger, her hand automatically grabbing at her side. NO, no anger. I need to be in detective mode right now. What the hell is Brad doing with this guy? What did the turtles call him – Hun?
“Well, then – you have yourself a deal.”
A chair scuffed along the bottom of the floor, indicating someone was getting up to leave. Claire grabbed her bag off the floor and quietly ran down the hall and out the gym’s front door. Once outside, she put the hood from her jacket up on her head so that it covered most of her face and grabbed her newspaper from her bag. Leaning against the side of the building next door, away from the light, she buried her face in the newspaper and waited. She needed to make sure that it really was Hun in there. A few minutes had passed and the gym door finally opened. Claire peeked up from her paper. Her suspicions were confirmed – the man was indeed Hun and Brad was smiling and shaking his hand. What the hell was Brad doing with this guy?
“Dude, they were on a power play, Lundqvist didn’t stand a chance.” Casey Jones swung his bat at the Dragon, challenging him to step up.
“Are you kiddin’ me? He was totally outta position.” Raphael landed a mean punch on the jaw of another Dragon. “He shoulda had that one!” As the Dragon stumbled back, Raphael spun and kicked him in the stomach.
“Uh, guys, we are down one tonight; can we have less with the hockey talk and more of the fighting?” Leo hissed as he cut through a metal pipe with his katana. The Dragon now holding the half-sized pipe looked up at him in terror.
Raphael rolled his eyes. “You were the one who told Donnie to stay home and do his police hackin’ thing. And dude, you seriously need to get laid or somethin’.” Raph then shifted his eyes over to Mikey who was fiercely spinning his nunchaku. Mikey caught his look and the two nodded at one another. Mikey cleared his throat.
“By the way, just so everyone’s on the same page,” Mikey started as he struck his Dragon five swift times with the weapon, incapacitating him, “I have dibs on Claire.”
Raph smirked. “Dibs? Mikey, what do ya mean?” he asked, playing along.
“Dude, I mean DIBS. Like, I have first go at her. You know, in case the dudette digs mutants or something.” Mikey stood over his defeated Dragon and turned his head towards Leo, trying to gauge his reaction. “I mean, did you not see her in that dress? Her body was bangin’!”
“Well, you know what they say, Mikey,” Raph chimed in, “once you go mutant, you never go back.”
Leo said nothing, slid his katanas into their sheaths and unleashed a flash of hard-hitting attacks at his Dragon, ending with a thrusting kick that he landed so fiercely, the Dragon went flying into a fence nearly ten feet away.
Mikey and Raph shared a mischievous smile. “I mean, it’s not like you’re crushing on her or anything, right, ghostrider? I just want to check before I buzz the tower.” Mikey caught Leo’s glare with an innocent look, baby blue eyes gleaming.
“Crush? Mikey, I do not crush. Ninjas do not crush. Not only do we not have time for women, but she is a human and probably not attracted to us in the least.” Leo nearly muttered the last part under his breath. Their conversation was interrupted by the ringing of a shell cell.
“Not attracted?! Bro, I am SO loveable.” Mikey grinned, reaching into his pocket for the device. “It’s probably Donnie. ‘Michaelangelo, I am calling you on your communication device to inform you that I’ve found an intricate pattern in the Purple Dragon’s activities’”, Mikey imitated Donnie using the nerdiest voice he could manage.
Raph and Casey burst into laughter, leaving Leo frowning and shaking his head.
Mikey looked down at his shell cell, checking the number. “Well, well, speak of the devil,” Mikey grinned, pretending to lick his fingers and slick imaginary hair back on his bald head, “Hey Claire, long time no speaky.”
Leo and Raph’s heads snapped up.
“Wait, wait, slow down, babe. This guy met with who?” Mikey’s eyes widened as he listened. “She caught her boss in a meeting with Hun. They were making some kind of deal,” he whispered away from the phone at his brothers. “Yea, definitely, no problem. Meet you there in twenty.”
Mikey hung up the phone and looked up at Leo. “She wants us to meet up at her place so we can help her figure out her next move.”
Leo considered this for a moment. They really were the only ones that she could talk to about this. Besides, it might lead them to valuable information about what the Purple Dragons were planning. “Alright,” he finally said warily. “Let’s head out.”
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