#so anything Naruto makes me extra emotional since it’s the reason why I got super into art TT TT

[straightfacedstrangeness]

Not that anyone asked (but seriously I’d LOVE for someone to talk to me about PokeSpe (just no spoilers past vol 13)) but since I made an offhand remark about my Top 5 favorite characters, it occurred to me that I actually DO have approximately 5 top favorite characters, and I’m procrastinating on work, so I’m gonna ramble

**just in case, note that a lot of this will revolve around my childhood experience with gender in a “I’m AFAB (and present-day me still identifies as a cis girl) but I don’t fit in with what media is telling me girls are like” way, a brief childhood feeling of homophobia, and probably general TMI about my opinions and emotions throughout my life, haha

1. Yellow

Okay, so, I was a little kid when Pokemon Adventures started coming out in English, back when manga was released as single-issue monthly comic books instead of complete volumes.  So I was rereading the same chapters over and over while anxiously awaiting the rest of the story (and wound up missing a bunch of issues anyway)

I enjoyed the RGB arc, I thought it was fun, but I didn’t LOVE the series until Yellow showed up.  At that age my ideal crush was “a cute boy my age who would be nice to me” and Yellow was presented to the reader as a cute boy my age who was sweet and kind and gentle, but also good in a fight, as all shounen protags must be.  Extra bonus points because they had just a few physically weak Pokémon and tried to fight battles in a way that minimized damage to their own and the opponent’s Pokémon, which meant they fought in a particularly smart and clever way.  And I was considered “smart” for being good at school, so being a SMART cute “boy” my age who would be nice to me, Yellow was PERFECT.  I mean, I loved the arc in general because of the clever battles, and the mystery of what had happened to Red, why these people were after Pikachu, why Yellow was so secretive about themself and their mission, etc was really engaging.  But also I adored Yellow as a character and partly in a “I wonder if ‘he’ would like me??” kind of way X’D  So to my tiny child self who didn’t even know it was possible to like-like someone of the same gender (because I hadn’t read Cardcaptor Sakura yet XD ), the reveal that Yellow was a “girl” was devastating—I had to cross out floating hearts on at least one drawing of us holding hands (scandalous!) and, while kind of stunned and shaken for a while, decided that what I’d felt all along was a deep, intense desire to be friends X’D (which probably wasn’t too far from the truth since I was pre-puberty and later turned out to be asexual)

(Also note that I never got the RGB issue that had the chapter where Red helps a little ‘girl’ capture a Rattata—later proven to be Yellow’s backstory—so the gender reveal really came out of nowhere for me.)

But anyways, I still love Yellow as a character for all the above reasons, without the crush aspects because I’m way older than them now.

Also when I reread the series ten years ago, I finally realized “wait, aside from surprising the reader, there’s no real plot reason for Yellow to pretend to be a ‘boy’ except that Green told ‘her’ to—so why did ‘she’ do it?”...and because at that time I didn’t even know that nonbinary genders existed, I decided it was cus they had low self-esteem and pretending to be a different person gave them courage (the same reading I had for Mulan at the time).  These days I’m more inclined to “yeah, I think Yellow’s nonbinary,” but that other interpretation was deeply relatable to me and only made me love Yellow even more.

2. Bill

Bill’s definitely a character I’ve grown to love more as an adult, since I’ve gone from seeing myself as “a protagonist doing cool things” to “a side character just living their life who hopefully gets to do something once in a while.”  But as a kid and now, I like him mostly for the slapstick and goofy expressions and the (early chapters Viz translations) outrageous accent  X’D  My brain desperately craves endorphins and the best way to get em is through a good laugh.

But also, I liked that he was introduced as a goofy character-of-the-week who got into ridiculous trouble and had to be rescued, but then kept being brought back, was slowly built up to be the “smart sidekick who explains things,” and eventually got to the point where he was participating in big battles (the Yellow finale on Cerise Island).  I rambled about this in the tags of another post, but I liked that he was a character who was “weak” without being “useless.”  As a kid who was good at school, I was obsessed with being good at things and had developed a black-and-white view of the world where either you were “strong/smart” or “weak/stupid” to the point that failing or just being not-so-good at anything was devastating (it still kind of is), because that meant I was actually “weak/stupid” when I was supposed to be “strong/smart.”  So it was kind of awesome that this guy who kept getting into trouble and having to be rescued—and didn’t even want to BE part of the final battle—managed to hold his own and get through it and help out instead of being a burden that dragged everyone down.  Seriously, he used a MAGIKARP effectively—the Pokémon everyone makes fun of for being “useless” and he used its one attack to save his life!

(Bonus points for all this happening in contrast to my devastating childhood experience of stanning The One Girl Character in every popular shounen series, waiting desperately for her to get to do something in battle, and then her one spotlight episode revolved around her struggling because she was so weak...not only was that actually happening to a boy for once, it was actually happening in a more satisfying/empowering way :’D )

3. Gold

I have extremely specific tastes when it comes to “the dumb shounen/action movie protag,” because as a kid I hated it when the main character was “dumb” because I was “smart” (re: good at school) and people who were “dumb” shouldn’t deserve to be the main character and have all the cool powers and save the world and stuff.  As an adult, I hate it when male characters are dumb and/or jerks but it’s treated as fine or even sexy(??) and the other characters fawn over them, and I generally still kind of hate it when characters who are dumb and/or jerks get the big important role when there’s a female character RIGHT THERE who’s more competent (and OF COURSE she has to wind up falling in love with him)

But anyway, I have extremely specific tastes, and Gold is it  X’D  He’s the perfect combination of “unshakably confident in his own stupid/egotistic views” and “treated as annoying and/or comic relief by the rest of the cast” with a bonus dash of actually being really clever in battle (so my inner child goes “Ah yes, technically, he is ’smart,’ and therefore...worthwhile“)  Making me laugh while also impressing me is like the key to my heart.

4. Crystal

I’m too lazy to look it up, but when Viz was publishing Pokemon Adventures as monthly comics, they must have switched to publishing it as trade paperbacks only and/or had a huge gap between the end of Yellow and the start of GSC, because for YEARS I’d thought Yellow was the end of the series and was shocked the first time I saw later volumes.  (My dad was buying us the monthly issues at the local comic store, and either they wouldn’t have ordered the trade paperbacks or he wouldn’t have thought to check those shelves.)

Anyway, that’s a long lead-in to the statement of “Crystal would automatically be my #1 or #2 if I’d read her arc as a kid.”  She’s a girl, she wears pants, she’s EXTREMELY smart (genius-level “book-smarts” about every Pokémon’s behaviors and weaknesses PLUS being clever in a battle), was tough as nails (she KICKED her Pokéballs!!), had no interest in romance or her appearance, AND had a short arc about losing her confidence and training herself back up to full power.  I would have KILLED for a character like that when I was a little girl being told that “girls don’t like action shows like Dragon Ball Z” (but I was a girl and I did???) and that girls were supposed to be pretty and obsessed with fashion and dating, and that girls were never the main character of action series, just side characters who either did nothing or got one chance to do something and were pathetically weak (see above, and/or Sakura’s fight against Ino (Naruto), those couple filler eps where Téa/Anzu played Duel Monsters (Yu-Gi-Oh), Videl getting pummeled by Spopovich (DBZ), etc).

So anyway, she’s awesome, she’s exactly the type of character I would’ve loved as a kid.  The only reason she’s behind Gold here is because at my age, “makes me laugh” > “the kind of main character I used to wish I could be”

5. Green (the girl trainer...I’m just too loyal to the Viz version to call her “Blue”...)

I’m trying not to rehash the same “I’m a girl but none of the girls in my shows/comics are like me!” childhood woes over and over, haha, but as much as I always enjoyed Green for being extremely clever and outsmarting the boys and being funny when she did so, she always lost points with me for being “pretty” and flirting to get her way, because that put her in the box of “girls are supposed to be pretty and desired by boys and obsessed with their appearance and romance” that was so foreign and disheartening to me as a kid.

But her staredown with Ho-oh at the end of the GSC arc TOTALLY got me.  As a sad adult with anxiety, watching characters who are absolutely terrified overcome their fear, watching characters who are completely beaten down struggle back to their feet and keep fighting, is like my ultimate power fantasy.  That sequence genuinely had me in tears.

Also her bond with Silver is super precious, especially since that’s like the first time in the series we’ve seen her be genuinely emotional and vulnerable with someone instead of teasing or manipulating them.

Honorable mention: Sapphire

I haven’t gotten up to R/S in my reread yet, and I only read that arc once over like a weekend ten years ago, but I’m pretty sure she’s gonna be a Top Fave cus again there’s that “I'm not like other girls!” childhood feel  (last time I’m saying it, I promise)

It’s a story arc where one protag wants to fight the gyms and the other protag wants to win the beauty contests, but the one who wants to fight the gyms is the girl!!  And she’s the typical “dumb but extremely good at fighting” shounen protag but she’s the girl!!  She’s feral and illiterate and a total tomboy and wins all her fights and she’s a GIRL!!!!

--

Anyway, those are my kids and my dude and my probably way-too-personal reasons why.  If you wanna reblog, reply, or send an ask about your own faves...please

[nenastrology]

you should rate the arcs. share your wisdom with us. (or rank them by craziness /wtf moments)

ok i think rating them is easier than ranking them i can add craziness as a category alright alright

ok this ended up being nightmarishly long so im just putting it all under the cut for anyone who feels like reading giant blocks of text on my opinions on every single naruto arc

land of waves - classic very good i genuinely wish there could have been more arcs like it to show team 7 really bonding and growing together before sasuke ends up feeling alienated its got a really sweet touching story and naruto and sasukes relationship starts off already at a pretty high level of crazy like oh yeah right out of the gate they are trying to die for each other this can only get crazier from here i would have probably liked it more if id read the manga first because the anime murders the pacing of the fights here but overall i do really like it

chuunin exams - i love lots of chunks of it but it did really feel like a slog to get through parts of the forest of death and a lot of the more minor fights because kishimotos really just not very good at writing fights that he doesnt put his absolute most effort into i really love how the anime added to the part where sasuke gets the curse mark and how naruto is separated from him its really emotional and strong sakura actually feels like shes trying to become a character here i love her fight with ino and cutting off her hair legendary and im not a monster gaara vs rock lee still makes me scream the craziness of this arc is actually finally not riding on sasuke being crazy finally gaaras carrying the craziness hello blood drinking 12 year old i hope you get better soon 

konoha crush since i guess its a different arc - ok i actually really love all the weird political stuff kinda added in here the hints at some actually interesting village conflict i wish thats what the ninja war arc could have built from and orochimarus definitely the most comprehensible villain in the story and i love naruto vs gaara so much like thats really peak and tbh extremely satisfying to watch the shitty old bitch hokage kick the bucket like killing gaaras evil dad and hiruzen really was the best thing orochimarus done finally gaara has more help with craziness cuz narutos losing his mind too and sasukes getting some crazy seeds planted for later craziness harvest

search for tsunade - i feel like i really like this arc but when i actually read it im like hmm theres all these parts i dont like but i really love all the character stuff itachis introduction is iconic and i really do love tsunade and her fighting orochimaru was like highlight of everything its weird i dont have a lot to say but i do actually like this arc a lot in a way im like not sure why craziness is kinda low except for sasuke whos absolutely losing his entire mind which stresses me out so much and this is where i start getting extremely sad about sasuke

sasuke recovery mission - 80% of it is the absolute worst part of part 1 and 20% of it is the absolute best part of part 1 like this is really where all the warning signs of quality dropping and like kishimotos lack of skill writing fights really really starts to show like really all those fights do is kill the emotional thread running from the hospital fight, sasukes goodbye to sakura and sasuke and narutos fight which are like the best things hes ever written the craziness is turned up as high as it can get the emotional stakes and pain and love are also so high this is peak naruto if we just pretend the fights against the sound 4 never happened just skip them

kazekage rescue mission - this is where all the omens from sasuke recovery mission and the quality drop really like finally start meaning something because really this arc SHOULD be good and its like really really good in certain places like any time naruto and gaara are talking thats just love right there and all those moments really make it almost worth it except that kishimoto really took such a nose dive on understanding how to pace fights the parts that dont have gaara and naruto gazing tenderly at each other feel like pulling teeth like sasori vs sakura really should be absolute peak and its got some truly fantastic moments but it just goes on for so long i feel like im gonna die before sasori ever does that fight could have given us womens rights and the craziness is really high like naruto is just losing his mind about gaara and sakura killed a man with her bare fists

tenchi bridge - oh the love its palpable here and so is the craziness like naruto going to 4 tails because orochimaru just says a few things about sasuke like wow and their whole reunion is so good the passion and weird emotional issues all coming to the surface i love yamato here hes a fun guy and i really like the new team 7 dynamics they are fun i like lots of parts of it but i cant think of anything else to say its what it says on the tin emotional sauske and naruto reunion

akatsuki suppression mission - alright full disclosure i fucking love this arc this arc is the reason i sometimes throw my brain right out of my head and start talking about how much i love shikamaru i prefer all the emotional moments in the anime a lot it felt very rushed in the manga and like that whole episode of team ten processing their grief was so good but god im so so mad that only shikamaru got to have a big important fight like ino and choji should have been helping equally and i really really hate the fight with kakuzu its just more badly paced bullshit for kakashi and naruto to get to be super op when this was supposed to be a bonding moment for team ten this is a little crazy but its team 10 crazy not team 7 crazy which means they are still pretty normal well adjusted people with brains in their heads who are just having a moment

itachi pursuit mission - sasuke killing orochimaru really was so incredibly perfect and forming taka? this arc is about gay rights uum its really short so i dont have the most thoughts but yeah sasukes like maybe at his least crazy until the end of the story like hes got a real concrete plan find gay friends and kill his brother but hes really got a big storm coming 

tale of jiraiya the gallant - i really do not like jiraiya all that much hes just boring and weird but i love the chunks of rain trio backstory we get they are really the last bit of complete villain characters we are gonna get very tragic idk the fight is like alright for this stage of naruto but it still lasts too long and pains powers still make no fucking sense and feel just too overpowered you know also zero crazy which is very disappointing all naruto arcs should have crazy

pain fight - ive got lots of conflicted feelings like the fights not very compelling at first because genuinely the pain bodies are just too strong its very weird and narutos got this big power up which is what it is i really love pain as a villain like hes literally right about everything hes saying but it has to be bizarrely undercut by just bonding awkwardly about jiraiya and yeah theres some very cool battle moments theres some good shit in there but long drawn out battles arent exactly my thing but naruto going 8 tails was still pretty fucking cool and god it was such a cop out that everyone came back to life at the end COWARD KISHIMOTO

kage summit - the one the only kage summit absolute peak craziness like sasuke trying to take down the entire world government thats absolutely iconic i love him for it so much narutos having his own melt down about sasuke sakuras decided she doesnt actually need a brain anymore and has also lost her whole fucking mind in the whirlwind of chaos like this arc feels like an anxiety attack at some points but god do i love it naruto and sasukes whole confrontation is absolutely peak ill bear the burden of your hatred and die with you?? the love the tragedy this is truly peak gay drama thats really like hes planning a lovers suicide and we are all just along for this crazy fucking ride love it

war arc - how did we go from kage summit to this like kage summit felt like it was maybe actually going somewhere but the quality drop is just like an elevator was cut and we are now all speeding to crash at rock bottom here what the fuck happened why was this written why is it literally 1/3 of all of naruto why has god abandoned us itachi and sasukes reunion was very good and needed i loved all the parts with hashirama and madara and really for one sweet moment it seemed like madara might just be a dumb sexy villain who just wrecks shit until all that spiraled down into garbage if i think about obito for too long i start to go crazy thats the real craziness of war arc is how fucking stupid it is and that is making everyone whos ever read or seen it go crazy right along with it

wiki is telling me the kaguya bit is its own arc so lets go with that - ok kaguya fight is pretty cool im into it to a certain extent her weird portal powers are fun i like that but thats really not what we are here for now are we no we are here for the conclusion to 15 years worth of crazy we are here for sasukes final massive lose his mind time and naruto to go right along with him the love and the tragedy but the hope it offers as well love was really invented by the second valley of the end fight and the anime said gay rights and made it the prettiest thing you will ever look at and also adding all the extra tender moments between them like this is it this is why you watch naruto you watch it all for this and god do we love it but wow the trying to be serious stuff about hokage really is so fucking stupid lets pretend that never happened 

wow i really just typed that all out shout out to u 2 loyal fans who read all this shit i guess it was only a matter of time before i wrote something this long and stupid see i do actually like naruto i feel like i couldnt really hit the balance of complaining or praising so idk it might sound more positive or more negative than i actually am but there are really some good parts yes i watched the whole war arc no you shouldnt

[thenerdytomboynewb96]

Samantha Allan Park Ch. #9

Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC’s.

Chapter 9

*A couple weeks later*

FINALLY I HAD FINISHED MY LAST AP TEST FOR THAT YEAR!!! I was continuing my goal of scoring high on as many AP tests as possible. This goal was mainly to help eliminate future college credits while also hopefully being a way of helping me get into any college of my choice, even though I already knew where I wanted to go: Blair University. It wasn’t exactly one of the top colleges in the country, but it was still a very well-known university, and EVERYTHING they had to offer was very competitive, including their soccer and dance programs. 

As I was exiting the school building I felt my phone vibrate in the small sling over bag I had on. As I pulled out my phone I saw that the call was from Jay. 

“Hello?” I asked as I was walking out the doors of the school building and about to make a left. “Before you keep walking, look up.” I looked over across the street to see my older brother leaning back on the wall of the building behind him, waving at me. I instantly started to smile, and after I checked, I ran across the street towards where he was standing. “Hey! What are you doing here?!” “Haha, I knew today was your last day of AP testing for this school year, and even though I know you will continue to work hard and complete all your school work, today is basically when you stop and take a break from all the stress that school brings. So, I’ve been putting in some extra hours so that some strings could be pulled and I could take the afternoon off to celebrate with yo-OOMPH!” I hugged the crap out of my brother, excited that the rest of my day would be spent with him and then later that night I would get to hang-out with my new friend once again.

“So dear brother, what did you have in mind for this spontaneous outing together?” I said jokingly. “God you’re so weird haha, but I’ve been super stressed lately, so we’re going to go jump on a bunch of trampolines to take all the stress away.” “*gasp* you…you don’t mean…” “YUP! We’re heading over to Skyzone.” “OH MY GOD YESSSSSSSS!” And that fast I took off and started running down the sidewalk in excitement. It took me a few minutes to realize that Jay wasn’t following me. He stood there and shook his head. “That dork, I wonder how long it will take for her to realize she’s heading in the wrong direction.”

*Later that same day*

It’s funny how long a 16 and 23 year old can spend in Skyzone going crazy and having tons of fun jumping around on trampolines. We ended up staying there longer than we both intended, so after we had finished acting like children we just decided to walk home and order food to be brought to our home. Ironically we ended up ordering some pizza. Jay said that he hadn’t had a chance to have any in a while because at work they were always walking to the same few local restaurants every day, so I decided to go along with it and said “sure, why not?” even though I had eaten plenty within the past couple of weeks, but he didn’t need to know that.

As we were sitting on the couch eating dinner and watching t.v. I noticed that he kept looking over at me with a puzzled face. “Can I help you with something sir?” I asked. “…You’re happy…like, happier than usual happy…why?” “Oh I’m sorry, forgive me for not being extremely depressed and actually enjoying life.” “Tch, you’re such an ass” he said playfully. “Might as well change my first name to Jack” I said with a smile. He chuckled. “Seriously, what’s gotten you to be so cheery?” “I honestly don’t know what you mean, I feel the same as the last time I got to hang out with you.” “I guess its brotherly intuition, but I can just tell that you’re perkier than usual. And when I say that I don’t mean that you’re usually depressed and sulking all the time” he said defensively, “but you’ve been acting the way you used to before everything happened years ago…oh god, is it because of a boy? Are you dating someone?” “Ughhh anytime I display any “new” emotion you ALWAYS assume I’m dating someone. I swear I’m not dating anyone!” I said as I playfully shoved his shoulder. There was no way I was ever going to tell him that a boy actually was the reason for my newfound happiness. Honestly I hadn’t noticed a change in my behavior. Had mine and Mikey’s new friendship really had that much of an impact on me already? Already, heck I wasn’t expecting this new friendship to have any type of impact on me in general. When did these changes start occurring, and how could Jay notice a change in me when I hadn’t even noticed a change within myself?  

 “Okay I’ll admit” he began, “I do jump to conclusions like that pretty quickly, but it’s only because I worry about you! I don’t want you to get hurt. I was a high school boy once and I know that some of them can be real jerks.” I smiled at him. “Don’t worry, you have nothing to worry about. This increase in happiness is just because I’m finally done studying for a while…that and because we can finally watch the new Naruto movie.” “OH YES! Thank you for reminding me!” as he got up and ran over to the t.v. to put the disk into the player. I laughed as I leaned back into the couch. Maybe one day I would be lucky enough to tell him about Mikey, but for now that was going to continue being my little secret.

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It was about 10 at night when Sam heard a knock on her window. “It’s open!” she called, and then she heard the window slide open. “Wassup bruh? How’d the testing go?” “Pretty good, I actually felt more confident about the stat test than I thought I would, but hopefully I’ll get 3’s or higher on each.” “HEY! Mikey only hangs with people who have positive vibes! Have more confidence in yourself, especially after all that studying I helped you with.” “Thanks again for all that, me explaining all my notes to you on each subject was definitely a huge help.” “No problem, that’s what friends are for. So, where to tonight?” “Tonight we’re BOOOOWWWWLINGGGG!” I said as I excitedly threw my hands up in the air.

 For the past couple of weekends Sam had snuck Mikey into a variety of different places. On Friday and Saturday nights she took him to places that were usually really crowded during the day like the mall and the movie theater, this way if they stayed out really late when these places were closed it wouldn’t create any negative effects the next day because they both could just sleep in super late the following morning. On Sunday nights she took him to places that she knew the owner lived further away from the businesses location or that in general had low security. One night they had gone to a local arcade where the owner lived further away towards the outer locations of the city, and another night they went to a park that was locked up during the night. The rest of the week the two would just hang out in Sam’s apartment. Because these past two weeks were when AP tests began, Mikey had been kind enough to help Sam in studying for the multiple various tests that she was signed up to take while also helping her in the projects she had to complete for other clubs as well. They both were excited that from now on, since AP testing was over and since Sam was in standard classes, she would be much more available to go out and spend even more time with her new friend.

Sam packed up her usual belongings that she took with her on their outings and the two headed towards the top of her apartment building. They thought that tonight was going to be another regular night of them hanging out together. However, what Mikey didn’t realize was that he had gotten so caught up in the excitement of getting to go see his friend again that he hadn’t charged up his phone, and that of all nights, the one night his phone couldn’t hold a charge was the night that he would need it to.

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Donnie was tinkering around in his lab when he heard one of the monitors make a beeping sound. He walked through the doors of his lab and turned to face the collage of computer screens. One of them was able to read the feeds from local police scanners and currently it was retrieving information about a robbery downtown and the location the robbers were currently heading towards, a warehouse downtown.

“Guys!” “On it!” Leo said as he walked past Donnie and headed towards the weapons wall on the far left. Raph had been in the workout area which was parallel to the weapons storage, so he was already gearing up by the time Leo got over there. Donnie joined them and also grabbed some gear that he might need. “The warehouse being robbed isn’t too far away from here, so we can travel by foot tonight.” “Alright, while I finish getting ready, one of you go to tell Splinter what we’re doing and the other call Mikey and tell him we’ll need him tonight.” Raph ran to go get their father, while Donnie walked in the direction of the exit and got out his shell cell. He called Mikey’s cell phone number, only to get no response. “That’s not good.” He tried again, just to get the same response. “I told dad where we’re heading, how far away is Mikey?” Raph asked as he walked beside his brother. “Ummm, well, you see-” “He didn’t pick up did he?” That fast Raph began to grow furious. “I knew this was going to happen at some point, you happy Leo?” “What’s wrong?” He looked at Donnie. Donnie pursed his lips together. “Mikey’s not picking up…” Leo sighed. “Leave a voice mail, he should be there by the time we reach our location. He knows to check his phone every so often, so he should be checking again soon.” After Donnie left a voice message, the three ran off. They jumped and flipped over the various pipes and other random debris that popped up throughout the sewers. Within 10 minutes they reached a ladder that lead them up to a manhole cover. Once it was removed the three climbed up to the surface, then climbing up another ladder that lead them to the top of a building right next to where the exit from the sewers was.

Once they reached the top of the building, Donnie checked his phone once again just to find that there was still no word from his younger brother. Leo and Raph looked over and could tell by their brother’s face that Mikey still hadn’t responded. All three were growing both nervous and upset about the current situation. Had their brother received the message and now he had been captured? Or was he being distracted by his new friend and he never got the message to begin with? Each of them shuddered when thinking of the girl. Originally it had only been Raph who just straight up hated her, but now even Leo and Donnie were growing some hateful feelings towards the girl. They were all worried about just how much Mikey hung out with her and what her true intentions of hanging out with him were, and not being able to currently contact him after they knew he had headed out to see her were making them all extremely nervous as to why he wasn’t picking up.

Leo sighed and made a decision. “Alright, whether he’s been here or not, we need to get inside and catch these robbers. Once inside we might find some answers as to where he is.” Donnie walked over towards a glass window that was on the roof. It was dark inside, so he put his goggles on and used them to try and figure out where the robbers were hiding. “They keep walking towards an entry way on the far left side of the room, whatever they’re hiding or trying to protect is probably in there.” Leo spotted a vent on the roof. “That should lead us in. Let’s try to secretly get towards that opening. Raph, you ready to go Hulk on these guys?” “Tch, like you even need to ask” he said with an evil grin as he cracked his knuckles. Leo grinned. “Donnie” he faced the purple bearing turtle, “you try and head towards that opening and see what’s inside. For now, Raph and I will try to lure as many of these guys away from that area as possible.” All three brothers nodded and headed towards the vent. They removed the cover and each crawled through. They traveled throughout the vents until they reached an opening in the vent where once they dropped down, they were standing above a walkway that was raised above the ground. The three dropped down. Donnie used his goggles to see where the robbers were at. “Based on how they’re dressed, these guys are Foot soldiers. They’re spread out all over the place now, but it’s too dark for them to see us up here.” He then pointed towards the far wall. “If you two can lead them over that way, that or right below us, that should create an opening for me to try and sneak into that opening on the left wall.” Raph had a devilish smile on his face. “Let’s do this.”

He then jumped down and landed with a huge *thud.* Multiple heads looked over towards him. Raph closed his eyes, using his auditory senses to guide him in where to run and where to hit, as he rushed towards the few men in front of him and instantly started throwing punches, knocking out the few men who were closest to him. Leo ran around the walkway as he heard bullets being shot behind him, his loud foot-steps guiding the soldiers where to shoot. He then jumped down to the lower level as he used his katanas to knock the guns out of the hands of the few soldiers closest to him. He also relied on his auditory senses to know where and when to attack. Luckily there were only about 20 soldiers total at the moment, so it wasn’t too difficult of a fight, but having Mikey there definitely would have helped. Once the soldiers had clumped themselves together as they tried to attack the two turtles, Donnie then jumped down and ran straight for the opening.

After taking one step into the entry way, he felt a small pain in his right arm. He looked down to see a small cut, and diagonally behind him was a kunai knife. “Oh no.” When he turned back around, Karai was rushing towards him. He turned and ran back through the entry way into the main open area of the warehouse where his brothers had been fighting. “Bail! BAIL NOW!” he screamed. He knew that if Karai was there, then this was no normal robbery. The Foot had known that the brothers would chase them down, they wanted the turtles to find them and attack. That’s why there were so few soldiers inside, because the rest were somewhere else waiting to follow their every move. Donnie saw that there were more soldiers near Raph, so he ran over in his direction. The soldiers turned around and shot at Donnie who blocked their shots by rapidly spinning his bo staff, knocking down each bullet that was fired in his direction. As Donnie was knocking down bullets, Raph was knocking out soldiers. The two then ran over and helped knock out the few soldiers that were still attacking Leo. The three ran over and climbed up a ladder that lead them back up to the walkway above the ground. As they all ran around the walkway towards the vent, they heard Karai call to them from below. “You can only run for so long turtles!” Raph clenched his fists and was about to yell back down to her until he felt Donnie pull on his shoulder. “Come one Raph! We need to go!” Raph nodded and followed his brother back up to the roof of the building.

Once they got to the top of the building they all followed Donnie, who being the thinnest was also the fastest. The three sped off for a good while. Donnie used his goggles as they ran to detect when someone was getting close to them. After they had been running for about ten minutes straight with no bodies being detected, Donnie decided that they could rest for a bit and strategize what their next move should be.

Leo walked over to his brother with a puzzled look displayed on his face. “Okay, so explain to me what’s going on.” “Karai, Shredder’s protégé and right hand man. She was waiting for us in that warehouse, which means somethings up. I’m not sure exactly what they’re planning, but I’m sure it’s not good. There’s a high possibility that they’re trying to locate our new home since they’ve tried that a few times. Sadly they got a small DNA sample tonight.” He then showed Leo the small cut on his arm. “Now that they have this, they’re probably on the move, trying to follow and hunt us down now as we speak.” As he continued to talk, Raph came over and helped put some bandage wraps over the small wound. He shook his head as he did so. “Of course, the night they get an advantage over us is the night that Mikey is nowhere to be seen.” Donnie nodded. “What I’m most worried about is that we don’t know if he got that message and they captured him, or if he never got the message at all and is perfectly fine. They could have him and be heading towards our home while we’re out here running away from what could have been a diversion from the whole thing!” “Alright” Leo cut in. “Then we need to find Mikey, NOW. Are you able to do that from here Donnie?” He nodded as he pulled out one of the devices from his millions of pockets running across his chest. Raph raised an eyebrow as he watched his brother go to work. “So, what are you doing?” “Remember when I took all our blood samples years ago?” “Yeah.” “This device can pin point where each of us is because of those samples. I would use it more often, but sadly it dies out really quickly and takes forever to re-boot, so I try to only use it in extreme measures like this…alright I found him!” Leo walked over and looked at the screen. “Where is he?” “He’s…at a bowling alley, that’s near the outskirts of the city.” “Why would he be there? I thought he was supposed to be with that girl” Raph growled. Leo sighed. “There’s a chance that she took him there.” “Or she TRICKED him into going there! I knew she was bad news, but no! YOU!” as he ran up and shoved his finger at Leo’s chest “YOU had to let him go see her and now look at the situation we’re in!” “Trust me I’m not happy about this either-” “NO LEO you’re not getting out of this one! We never got into this panicked of a situation of giving up the location of our home until Mikey started seeing that girl, and I know you two feel the same way!” “GUYS PLEASE!” Donnie shouted as he pushed the two apart. “Argue about who’s to blame later, but our brother may need us right now, and we definitely need him. So let’s go!” The two older brothers looked at Donnie, and then at each other. They glared each other down, but slowly their faces softened and they nodded towards the other, realizing that if Mikey was in danger that their arguing wasn’t going to save him. The two then stood behind Donnie, waiting for him to lead the way. Donnie looked at his device and found the quickest route to lead them to their destination, and once he had adjusted his goggles, the three ran and leaped over onto the next building.

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Sam walked over to the tables that her and Mikey had been sitting at and brought over a few slices of pizza and some nachos. She walked to the beat of the music which was playing on her phone at the table.

“So, are you catching up to me yet?” “A little bit, but this isn’t fair! You’ve had years of practice, this is my first time doing this and constantly I keep rolling the ball into the gutter!” “Awww, want me to set the bumpers up for you?” she asked in a mocking tone. “NEVER! I will overcome this challenge!...aren’t you a trainee at a professional dance school?” “Yeah, why?” “Then why are you dancing so weird?” he laughed. “Because I’m just moving to the beat, songs like this make you do that! You dance like a dork out of fun, the music just takes control!”

The two had been hanging out for a couple of hours at the bowling alley where there had been a lot of goofing off, learning about each other, and teasing the hell out of Mikey who was struggling to get a hold of how to bowl without letting the ball land in the gutter. At this point in time, Sam had learned everything about the turtles and Splinter’s past and how they became what they were thanks to Sachs experiments. She also knew about the great hogosha April O’Neil, so now she wasn’t as jealous as to why she got to hang out with the guys so much since she literally was the reason the five of them were free to live the way they were now, so Sam understood how different their situations were and why the two were treated differently amongst the turtles. She had also learned about their battles with the Shredder months ago and how he had landed in the middle of the streets of New York and how he had escaped because some of his main soldiers had sprayed gases all throughout that local area of the fall so that the crowd would disperse and they could swoop in and rescue their leader.

In return, Sam told him about how Shredder currently was running two groups. The men that relied solely on guns were from a gang called the Purple Dragons whose leader was called Hun. Hun had decided to work for Shredder when he was offered endless weapons as long as he fulfilled any given order, which Hun was okay with since he would get all the power and credit while his men did all the dirty work. The soldiers who actually fought using their ninjutsu were the true Foot soldiers that trained and then traveled from the main branch in Japan.

She then told him more details of her personal life. She talked a lot about her seven siblings and some of the adventures they had gone on growing up. She mentioned that her older Korean sister Amber who was nine years older than her was her role model in life. Amber didn’t care that people judged her for being a tomboy and she always lived life to the fullest. While Sam’s Korean sister Jamie and her blood sister Haley were both extreme girly girls who were attached at the hip, Sam was always attached to Amber and a lot of her interest in sports and video games actually came from her before she began talking to her brothers about them.

She also talked a lot about her younger brother of two years, Chuck, whom she was ridiculously over protective of. She told Mikey about the millions of inside jokes that her and Chuck knew about, which always confused the heck out of the rest of their siblings.

Mikey was happy to hear about Sam’s family, since beforehand it seemed that she would only bring them up for a quick minute and then would change the subject, so it meant a lot to him that she finally was feeling comfortable enough around him to talk about her family and a little bit about her past.

As the two were talking, Sam heard a beeping sound from her iPad in her bag. She picked it up to see that the small cameras she hid on the top of the building had been set off. She nodded to Mikey and the two got ready to fight and run. When the two had originally arrived at the bowling alley hours ago, Sam re-set and edited the cameras within the building and also set up some of her small dome cameras in case someone were to show up for whatever reason. She now made this part of a regular routine whenever the two left her apartment to go hang out. She had also shown Mikey any and all main and quickest escape routes in case they needed to make a quick getaway.

Sam had thrown everything she had brought into her back pack. She quickly slid her arms through the straps and the two ran for the easiest exits based on their speed, agility, and body size and height. Mikey ran towards the end of the lane where there was a door that lead to an exit in the alley way behind the building, and Sam had run towards the back wall where the lockers were where a vent was right above them. The two had their weapons in hand in case they needed to fight whoever was approaching.

Just as Sam opened the vent, a giant arm pushed her backwards. She stumbled, but was able to maintain her balance. When she looked back up, a furious Raph was standing in front of her. He grabbed her shirt and pulled her forward. “You…” he snarled. “No, not Yu, Park. My last name is Park, I do know a Yu though” she said sarcastically. “I swear I’m gonna-” “No thanks!” Leo cut in as he connected his arm with Raph’s and swung him back, making Raph lose his grip on the girl. By this time Mikey had already run back over to where the others were standing, confused and scared as to what would happen next. Before he could say anything, a pissed and worried Donnie was in his face. “Where is your phone? Do you know how many times I called? Seriously we’ve been so worried about you, you idiot, and you’ve been playing around here?!” “Wait, what? Why didn’t I get any messages?” “Your phones dead dude.” The two deadpanned, and all four sets of eyes were on Sam. She reached into her bag and pulled out the shell cell and tossed it to her friend. “I picked it up earlier to check the time while you were looking up music on my phone, it’s been dead the entire time we’ve been here. I’ve been charging it for a while, but it charges quicker when you leave it off. Sorry, I should have turned it on when I was charging it.” “Oh you should be sorry for a lot more than that! You don’t even know the dangers you’ve put all of us through!” Raph snapped. Sam turned around to look at him. “Don’t worry, I always make sure everything is as safe as possible whenever we go out.” “GO OUT?” Donnie asked. Sam closed her eyes, a disappointed look on her face as she realized she got the terms “go” and “hang” jumbled in that split second. “Oops…” “YOU’VE GONE OUT MORE THAN ONCE?!” Raph was losing his cool, which he never really had to begin with. Leo was also beginning to lose what little self-control he had. “Mikey, this can’t go on anymore.” “Leo wait-” “No you listen! We called you about an hour ago because we needed you for back up against the Foot, and now they have a way of tracing our every move and if we’re not careful they could follow us and find out where our home is. We had no idea if you had gotten our message and had been kidnapped and if the Foot robbery was just a diversion, or if you were somewhere else that was safe. And it turns out that you were just playing around the entire time! This is exactly what I meant when I said that you two could bring danger to you and our family!” Mikey just stood there. He knew his brother was right, his excitement for wanting to hang out with his new friend had distracted him from being prepared to help support and protect his brothers. He wished there was a way he could see Sam while also being able to stay close to his brothers. Before he could say anything, Donnie butt in. “Leonardo, we need to go. NOW. According to my scanners, multiple bodies are closing in on this building.”

Mikey turned towards Sam, concern etched onto his face. “You have to hide.” She gave him a puzzled look. “Why?” “Because Foot soldiers are heading this way. Based on what you told me earlier, Shredder has been using a lot more of his actual soldiers than he has been using the Purple Dragons to fight his battles lately. These guys are bad new Sam, you have to hide.” “Welllll you’ll have to catch me first!”

She then turned and sprinted back over towards the lockers along the back wall, jumped up and pulled herself up on top of them. “SAM!” shouted a worried Michelangelo. “Trust me I’ve trained for this, plus I need to find a tight spot where I can edit all the main cameras and then also go and collect mine.” “Cameras have been collected and I can edit the ones that belong to this building” Donnie said in a serious yet stern tone. “Oh, thanks” Sam said with a small smile. “Anyway, I’ll go this way. If they’re tracking you guys, then its best if I go a different way. Plus it’s easier for me to travel this way because these vents are super thin, that’s why you and I came in through the alley way. If a tiny teenage girl can barely move through these vents, then I’m sure it will be hell for a bunch of male Foot soldiers to do the same.”

Mikey looked over at Donnie who was nodding his head. “As much as I hate to admit it, those are all valid points.” He looked up at Sam. “Meet us on the top of the building and DO NOT move from there. If you see Foot soldiers then hide somewhere and don’t let them find you. We don’t need a hostage situation to make things worse than they already are.” Sam made the O.K. symbol with her fingers, and then she climbed up into the vent.

Leo looked over at Mikey, squinting his eyes in confusion. “How does she know that the vents are tighter here?” “Oh, she’s been sneaking into places like this for years” he said with a playful smile. “Oh great!” Raph cut in, “Now it’s official that we’ve been letting our brother hang out with a criminal.” He then turned around and ran towards the end of the lanes where the door that lead to the alley way exit was located. “Dude it’s not like that! No one at her school gives her a chance, and her family members are always busy, so she’s all alone!” he said as he ran behind her. Donnie was hacking into the cameras with the control pad on his wrist as they ran. “Mikey, don’t you find it a bit odd that she doesn’t have one friend from school, and that out of her seven other siblings, they’re always busy?” “Well, yea. But I know there has to be a reason for that, and eventually she’ll tell me!” “Alright,” Raph said, “has she told you why she has so much strength when she’s as thin as a stick?” “She took some self-defense classes in the past, and keep insulting her and see what happens!” Mikey said as he nudged his brother. “Oh please continue to threaten me you half-pint! You totally won’t regret what will happen if you do!” Raph replied as he shoved his brother’s face away. “STOP!” Leo had been leading the way but now was holding his hand up for his brother’s to come to a halt. “Leo he’s getting way to attached-” “HUSH! Look.” Leo held up the device in his hands. While Donnie had been hacking the cameras, Leo had been holding the device showing the location of the Foot soldiers, and right now it showed that multiple bodies were standing down at the other end of the alley way.

“Wait,” Donnie took the device into his own hands. “This is showing that there’s a bunch of bodies outside, but they’re focused on getting up to the roof. Look, they’re all standing around waiting to climb up the ladder.” Leo sighed. “We have to act fast, they may have found her.” Mikey clenched his fists, waiting for orders as to how they should attack. The four brothers heard a few gun shots. “These guys are purple dragons, which means they should be a little easier to fight.” “They’re who?” asked Raph. “Never mind, I’ll explain later. Leo what’s the plan?” Mikey asked seriously. “…Alright, we need to get through these guys down below as soon as possible. According to the device, all the soldiers are at the bottom of this alley and only a small handful are at the top of the building. We need to clear through these guys down below as soon as possible. Mikey, you go directly to the roof as quick as you can and defend Sam. Got it?” “Wait!” Donnie chimed in. “There’s a strong reading of our own DNA on this device, which means one of those soldiers has the device they’re using to track us. We need to destroy that device. The knife they used earlier barely hit me, so any and everything they have to track us is out there right now.” “Alright, are we all good now?” All four brothers nodded their heads. “Alright, LET’S GO!”

The four brothers shoved open the door and followed the orders they were given. Mikey instantly jumped onto his board and rocketed up to the roof of the building. Raph pulled his sais out and started cutting into every gun he could dig his weapons into. The best thing about these guys was that once they lost their guns, they were powerless. Leo leaped over his brother, attacking the soldiers in the back of the group. He used his katanas to block bullets that were shot at him while shoving soldiers into the wall, knocking them unconscious. Donnie momentarily hid in the shadows, trying to pin point who had the device that was tracking them. Finally he saw one of the soldiers in the middle of the group wearing a small pack with a few wires that lead to a small bump on his wrist, bingo.

“Raph back me up!” Donnie yelled as he rushed towards the center of the pack of men. Raph began barreling through, helping to create a smoother path way for his brother to run through. Donnie attacked men with his bo staff as he dodged bullets and flipped over clumped groups of rushing soldiers. Eventually he caught up to the man with the pack on his back. Donnie swung his bo at the man’s feet, tripping him and making him fall flat on his face. As the man��s face hit the concrete, Raph came up behind him and dug his sais into the top of the pack and dragged them all the way down, destroying the device.

Within a few more minutes, all the soldiers on the ground had been knocked out. “Raph, give me a boost” Leo said as he nodded his head towards the ladder along the wall of the building. Leo jumped up as Raph pushed his feet up with his hands, helping Leo get to a higher point on the ladder so that he could reach the roof sooner, with Raph climbing up the ladder right behind him. Donnie used an electronic grappling hook to help him get to the top of the roof. When all three finally reached the top of the roof, they were shocked at what they saw.

There were four Foot soldiers in total, and these were actual Foot soldiers, and they were being fought by not only Michelangelo, but Sam as well. Sam and Mikey were standing back to back, each defending punches and kicks from two soldiers each in front of them. The three brothers were shocked to see Sam dodging these attacks, blocking attacks that were close to hitting Mikey as well. A fist went by Sam’s face, and she slammed her tonfa down on the man’s arm. As she did so she ducked down from a kick coming from the second man. Overall she was good at timing when to dodge and when to attack, but it was also extremely noticeable that she was getting exhausted, and fast. Suddenly, as she put her tonfa in front of her to block another kick, she left her middle section open, and the second man landed a second kick right to her stomach.

Sam did her best to pull herself to the side as fell to the ground, keeping her tonfa above her in case another blow was sent towards her head as she fell, but to her surprise the remaining three brothers rushed in and began to fight. Now that each turtle was fighting one on one with a Foot soldier, taking the men down was much easier. Sam scooted off to the side and watched the brothers fight…well, barely. The fights were over almost as soon as they began.

Once it was confirmed that all four soldiers were knocked out, the brothers all sighed in relief. Mikey walked over to Sam. She looked up at him with concern in her eyes. “You okay?” He chuckled, his eyes wide in amazement. “Are you serious? You’re the one that just took a pretty nasty blow!” He put his hand out to help her up. She took his hand and grunted a bit as she stood up. “What, that last hit? It didn’t hurt as much as you think, I’ve been hit worse in soccer games. It just caught me off guard is all, and I didn’t want to fall backwards and have four guys right on top of you. It’s been a while since I’ve fought like that so I’m a little shaky, hehe.” “Why have you had to fight like that ever?” Leo asked as walked over, crossing his arms. “I used to take some self-defense training classes.” “Those classes teach martial arts? I thought it was more so teaching what to do when attacked by a robber and how to throw solid punches, that kind of thing.” “Well…special request classes do” she said timidly.   “Well they totally taught you how to be a badass!” Mikey chimed in. “That was awesome! Guys you should have seen her! She was defending herself with a gun she had got from some of the Purple Dragons members who had come up here first, like those four couldn’t get anywhere near her. Once I got up here she totally landed some solid hits to all four of them once she caught them off guard!” “Who are the purple dragons?” asked an angry Raph. Sam looked up at him. “The Purple Dragons are a gang that is run by a man named Hun, who now is basically owned by Shredder. 99% of the time when you see soldiers with guns, it’s Hun’s guys. The actual ninjas are from the main Foot Clan branch in Japan.” Leo gave her a weird look. “And you know this how?” “Hacking into documents at police headquarters” she said, followed by a beaming smile. Sam was proud of the technological skills that she had learned over the past four years. “…You have really strange hobbies.” “And I think it’s strange how you talk sternly like a 90 year old man” she said with an innocent smile. Leo was not amused as he continued to frown at her. Mikey’s face on the other hand was covered in nothing but smiles. “Dude, with more training, you could possibly even catch up to our level of expertise. Back at the lair we have a dojo where I could teach you everything-” “HELL NO! She cannot come back home with us!” “Oh come one Raph! She just fought with us, what other proof do you need that she’s a good guy?” “She has ninja skills, ridiculous strength for someone her size, and she knows more about the Foot clan than I’m comfortable with, and apparently she knows this because she’s good at hacking into documents she should never get her hands on. She’s provided more evidence as to why we shouldn’t trust her than as to why we should! You agree with me right Donnie?...Don?” They all turned around to see Donnie staring off into the distance. Leo walked over to him. “Don?” “She’s watching us. Look over there.” Leo looked straight ahead in the direction that his brother was pointing and saw a thin figure staring at them, and then quickly run off, disappearing into the darkness of the night. “Karai…” Leo mumbled. “See! We can’t let crazy chick number two hang out with us when crazy chick number one is still after us.” “Dude!” Mikey shouted in frustration.

Both brothers looked over at Leo. The eldest brother stood there, contemplating what his options were. Finally, he came to a conclusion, one that he was far from thrilled about. He looked over at Sam. She was staring at the ground with a blank face. She had a strong feeling that this would be the last time she would ever get to talk to her new friend and she hoped that she would at least get to walk home with him before he was ripped away from her.

“You” he said as he faced the girl. She looked up at him from afar, standing silent and still. “…You can visit us in the lair from now on, but you need to let Mikey know when you’re heading down. If you just randomly show up then I’ll personally kick you out. Understand?” he said through gritted teeth.

Sam’s jaw dropped slightly in disbelief in what she was hearing. On the other hand, Donnie’s jaw had dropped completely, and while Mikey grew a huge smile on his face, Raph’s frown grew bigger than ever before. “What?!” Mikey said in excitement. “WHAT?!” Raph snarled in furry. “Leo…are you sure that this is the best solution?” Donnie asked. Leo took a deep breath in, and slowly let it out. “Mikey already broke code after we told him not to go see her, so I’m sure he’ll do it again” Leo said as he glared at Mikey, who pursed his lips together and stared at his feet. “Next time the police scanner goes off, it will be safer if Mikey is somewhere close rather than being somewhere where we would have to hunt him down, like we did tonight. Plus, Splinter has seen her up close now. If we leave and she tries to pull some type of stunt, he can handle her.” Donnie nodded. “I see you put a lot of thought into this. Alright, I support your decision.” He wasn’t thrilled about this decision, but his older brother made a good point. Plus, this also meant that they could keep a closer eye on this mysterious girl as well. “Pshh, whatever.” Raph had had enough. He began to walk over towards the edge of the roof and then slid down the ladder. Even if this girl was now allowed in his home, he would do everything possible to make her feel uncomfortable and unwelcome, then maybe she would get the hint that she wasn’t wanted.

As Donnie and Leo turned to follow, Sam called after Leo. He turned to face her as she spoke. “Um, thanks, for trusting me to come into your home that is” she said with a small but innocent and sincere smile. Leo pursed him lips together and forced a fake smile. “Well, I didn’t really have a choice” he said in a sour tone.

While Sam played it off like it was no big deal, Mikey noticed his brothers behavior. He waited and made sure that his brothers were below ground before he spoke. “Tch, honorable and noble leader my ass, a leader doesn’t treat someone like that.” “I don’t blame them though.” He looked at her in shock. “What?!” Sam gave a light disheartened smile. “I’m a stranger to them, and I didn’t exactly meet them in good circumstances. Plus they’re you’re older brothers, so if I’m not the perfect typical girly girl who can’t throw a punch and who always needs saving then I’m seen as a threat. I mean Raph makes a good point when he gets upset at what I can do. Most normal girls can’t fight with tonfa and dodge punches as quickly as they can throw them. I’m sure I’d be extremely worried if someone like me became friends with Chuck as well.” Mikey gave a small smile and put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, eventually they’ll soften up once they get to know you. There’s already things you can talk to them about, once they get used to having you around then they’ll never want you to leave.” She laughed out loud. “Just because you want me around all the time doesn’t mean that they will.” He put his arm around her shoulder. “Heh, we’ll see about that. Anyway, I’ll walk you home since it’s getting late.” And the two walked back to Sam’s apartment, talking about all the fun things they would do the next night when Sam would finally get a chance to enter the lair again.

Author’s Note:  Hopefully people deem me as keeping the turtles in character. I got really creative in creating their personalities for these scenes.