Fanart of Shelby by my friend, VioletPixels!
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Shelby laid on her sleeping bag, looking up at the rafters of the abandoned factory. She wondered what the assembly lines that surrounded them used to make, what the scattered boxes contained. She wondered how terrifying this mutant must be to drive everyone out of the neighborhood.

April sat down on the sleeping bag next to her. "Donnie's talking Leo through removing the arrows as we speak."

Casey plopped down next to her. "Don't worry, Small Fry, your boo-thang will be fine!"

Shelby glared at him. "Could you say that any louder?"

"Yes, I could. DON'T WORRY, YOUR-"

Shelby shot across April to clamp her hand down on Casey's mouth. "Casey! I will literally freeze your mouth shut!"

Casey laughed as he pushed her hand away. "Aww, I'm just messing with ya, Shelbs. You need to chill out." He elbowed April. "Get it? Chill out? You know, ice powers?"

"I think you both need to just go to bed." April stated, though she did let out a small giggle at Casey's joke.

"I don't know I'm going to be able to sleep." Shelby muttered. "Way too much has happened in the last couple hours for me to process."

"I'm assuming I contributed to that problem." A new voice announced, and Shelby turned to see Monica standing over her. Laying on her shoulder was her rather large pet iguana, who was asleep.

"I'd be lying if I said no." Shelby grumbled, eyeing her up and down. She was definitely a few years older than the turtles, much closer to Casey's age. She was tall and thin, with a wide-bridged nose and high cheekbones that were accentuated by the fact that her long, dark brown hair was pulled up in a high pony tail. Even in the darkness, Shelby could see that her eyes were a soft caramel brown and her complexion was dark tawny.

"That's fair." She stated, sitting down next to her. She avoided eye contact as she scratched the underneath of her iguana's chin. "I did come to apologize. I didn't mean to shoot at you guys. I mean, I did. But that's when I thought you were here to kill me."

Shelby considered her words. "I suppose I'll forgive you. But only because being scared of mutants is a legitimate excuse after what you've gone through." She said begrudgingly.

"I appreciate it." Monica nodded, her eyes drifting over from Riley to Shelby. "So, what kind of a mutant are you exactly? A werewolf mutant? 'Cause now you look very normal."

"I guess that's one way to describe it... except I don't transform during a full moon. I transform when I'm upset or angry." Shelby stated. "And most werewolves don't have ice powers."

"Okay, so I wasn't imagining that." Monica muttered. "Good to know."

"Yeah, I can't really explain that either- or control it, frankly. I make the room colder on accident a lot. When I'm a wolf, whatever I bite or scratch freezes over. Snowflakes and ice crystals form sometimes but- yeah, nothing I can really use to my advantage unless I'm right on top of someone."

"Well, I'll tell you from first hand experience that you're quite the adversary- I wasn't really that scared until you started attacking." Monica laughed slightly. "That was terrifying. The turtle guys look strange but... they're more goofy-looking than scary to me."

That made Shelby snicker. "I'm glad you decided to give them a chance. They're great guys. They basically took me in when I had nothing left. Mikey... he's what kept me going during a time when... it felt like I was drowning."

"Please stop making it cold." Monica interrupted. "Riley needs to be toasty."

"Oh- my bad." Shelby cleared her throat, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. She hated that talking about Mikey made her so nervous. "Anyways- I guess I'm trying to say that they'll do everything they can to take that Scorpion mutant down. We all will."

Monica smiled. "That's... really great to hear. Thank you."

"Uh, hey, Shelby." Leo's voice sounded from behind her, and Shelby turned to see Leo standing there. "Sorry to interrupt- I, uh, got the arrow out of Mikey's shell if you wanna see him."

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Leo." Shelby looked back to Monica as Leo walked away, then glanced at April, who was laying down, but still very much awake. "Do you think I should really go see him? After what I said earlier?"

April shook her head. "If you do, you'll only keep leading him on. If you want to put your foot down, then you should just wait 'til morning."

Shelby paused, looking down at her feet now as she frowned. Her stomach was doing somersaults as she thought about the look on Mikey's face when he followed her out of the van. The sincerity in his voice. How soft and warm his skin had been. "Is it so bad that I don't want to put my foot down?" She inquired softly.

Silence settled over the group for a few moments, before Monica sucked in a deep breath, pursing her lips slightly. "Eh, I suppose I don't really know what you're talking about, but... I do know you just told me this dude was basically the reason your here. If you have any feelings, I say go with flow and see where it takes you, you know?"

April looked at Monica in surprise. "But he's a turtle."

"And she's wolf. And you're an alien. And I'm Puerto Rican." Monica jokingly counted off the labels on her fingers. "Does it really matter? I mean, they're not human... but you can't disregard them like their just animals either. They're a separate category all their own."

Shelby weighed both their words. Maybe she was overthinking this- that's what she always tended to do. She couldn't even think of what she really wanted because she kept thinking about every single factor, every person's opinion. But this wasn't anyone else's decision, it was her's. Deep down she knew what she wanted. She told herself to shut off her brain and act on her feelings, just this once.

Shelby found herself standing, walking briskly to where Leo and Raph had set up makeshift curtains. Her heart began to beat rapidly as she picked at the skin around her nails. What was she going to say if he was mad at her?

"Mikey?" She called tentatively, trying not to talk too loudly.

"Back here." Mikey responded. Shelby clenched her teeth together as she pushed the curtain to the side. Mikey was laying on a cot, gauze layered over the spot on the left side of his plastron, with longer bandages wrapped a couple times around his shell to strap it down. His mask was off and he looked tired, but he still smiled as Shelby walked in.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. My shell is just really sore." He muttered. As Shelby got closer, she could see that his skin was shimmering.

"Oh my god, you do not look okay." Shelby stated, kneeling at his side. "What did they do?"

"Raph and Leo had to chip away at my shell and then pull at it so Leo could pull the arrow out." Mikey whispered hoarsely.

Shelby frowned, placing her hand very gently on the gauze. "Donnie didn't bring anything for the pain?"

"He gave me something after they finished, but he didn't have anything for the during-part."

Shelby looked at him with horror. "I- I didn't hear you shout or anything."

He let out a small chuckle. "Hey, I'm tougher than I look."

His smile was contagious. "I guess so." She sighed, part in sadness and part in relief. "Would this is a bad time to apologize?"

"For what?" Mikey asked, slowly raising a brow ridge.

"For being so bad at being there for you when you're always there for me." Shelby stated. Her heart raced as she leaned forward and pressed her lips onto his freckled cheek. His skin was just as warm and soft as before. As she pulled away, Mikey eyes followed her with astonishment. "I'm really sorry."

"I-" He did a small glance around make sure none of his brothers were nearby. "I thought you just wanted to be friends." He whispered.

Shelby could feel her face getting uncomfortably warm as she looked to the floor. "I panicked."

Mikey's flashed a bright smile. "You have no idea how badly I want to squish you with hugs right now."

"Okay, settle down, tiger. That can wait until you feel better." Shelby grabbed his hand in both of hers as she stood up. "I'm gonna go to sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

Mikey was beaming. "Can't wait."

~~~~~

"Okay, listen up, everyone." Leo spoke as he looked around at the rest of the group. He had made sure everyone was up by 1 in the afternoon to go over plans and strategize. Donnie and Mikey were in good spirits today, though Donnie was hesitate on moving his injured arm. Shelby sat close to Mikey, and next to her was Casey, April, and Monica. Raph completely the circle by sitting in between Monica and Donnie, though he did not look pleased about it. "I know last night didn't go as planned. But I personally think stumbling upon Monica is gonna turn out to be a huge advantage for us."

"How is she an advantage? Because of her, Donnie isn't even going to be able to fight!" Raph interrupted, glaring daggers at Monica.

Monica looked unbothered by that comment as she stroked her iguana in her lap. "I've apologized for hurting Donatello and Mikey. They've forgiven me- right, boys?"

"Sì, señorita!" Mikey cheered.

"Water under the bridge- as long as this doesn't get infected." Donnie added.

"Well, I'm not as nice as my brothers. Good terms or not, you still took Donnie out." Raph stayed.

Monica looked at Raph with narrowed eyes. "Am I not sitting right here? Obviously I'm going to help."

Raph looked to Leo with confusion. "Are you really gonna let her do that? She isn't trained in ninjitsu."

"I mean, I'm not either." Casey muttered. Raph shot him a warning glare. "What? It's true."

"I didn't need to be a ninja to slip past you last night." Monica smiled sweetly, though her irises glinted with fire. 

"Yeah, I still don't understand how that happened." Shelby stated.

"I tell you later." Monica winked. "Anyways, I thought I made it clear last night that I was participating in this. That mutant killed my family. I want my arrows through its head."

"Enough!" Leo snapped. Raph and Monica both begrudgingly closed their mouths, though they didn't stop glaring at one another. "Monica is helping us like we agreed."

"And even though I can't actually fight, I'll be responsible for planting a tracking device on it so we can at least see where it goes. We figure out it's home base, we figure out who exactly is behind this." Donnie stated with an excited smile.

"We take them all down, mutant included." Leo added as Monica began to get visibly antsy. "Monica, since you do lack hand-to-hand combat skill, you'll be fighting from range only. Mikey, are sure you're good to fight?"

"Indeed, captain!" Mikey cheered.

"Okay, then your job is to protect Monica. Don't let the mutant get too close."

"Got it!"

"Casey, I want you fighting range as well."

"Casey Jones is on it." Casey winked.

"That leaves April, Raph, Shelby, and I to take the mutant head-on. Shelby," Shelby looked at Leo hesitantly, already guessing what he was going to say, "don't be afraid of using your powers on this guy. It could really help."

"Yeah, as long as she doesn't take out anyone else in the process." Raph muttered.

Shelby glared at Raph, but otherwise didn't acknowledge the comment before she looked back to Leo. "I'll do what needs to be done."

"Good. Now, Monica. You and Donnie are gonna have to work together to navigate us through this city."

"We're in Fairhill right now. From what I saw on the news, this monster started from Center City near the Delaware River. Made it all way up here. They think it's still somewhere in Upper North Philly. But I can take you to my place and we can track it from there." Monica explained.

"I'll help with tracking as well!" April added. "My psychic abilities might narrow in on him once we get close enough."

"Okay, good. Any other question?" When the group didn't respond, Leo nodded. "All right. Then we move out at dawn."