• • •

That Friday, Akila finished her look with a simple clear lip gloss. Taking a step back, she admired herself in the mirror. Wow, I guess I am kinda pretty, she thought with a small smile. She slipped on her heels and grabbed her black purse, which matched her tight, strapless black dress nicely. She didn't look like herself at all.

It was 8:00pm, so her father should have been out by now. But for some reason, he was still up. He sat on the couch and eyed his daughter suspiciously. "Where you think you're going?" He asked, causing Akila to jump in shock.

Akila felt her heart speed up. Her plan had been to sneek out unseen, but it looked like that might not be happening now. Let's just hope he's too drunk to remember this, she thought hopefully. She smiled and said, "I'm going to a friends house."

Her father staggered off the sofa. "Dressed like that?" He asked in confusion.

"Yeah," she replied, "just for fun." Her dad didn't say anything, so there was a long awkward silence. Akila cleared her throat and offered, "how about I get you another beer, then you can go to sleep?"

Her father smiled. "I like the way you're thinkin', Akila," he agreed, seemingly forgetting their past conversation.

Akila mentally sighed in relief, then fetched a can from the fridge. After walking her father back to his room, she left.

Outside of the apartment room, Tommy looked like he was just getting ready to knock. "Oh, hi," she greeted.

Tommy looked her up and down, making her feel somewhat uncomfortable. "Wow, you look great," he admired her with a smile.

Akila completely forgot her discomfort and found herself giggling. "Th-thanks," she muttered and blushed. And with that, they walked to the place where the party would be.

• • •

Leo hopped from rooftop to rooftop, followed closely by his brothers. They were on their nightly patrol, skirting the city for trouble. But tonight was quiet...or so they thought.

"Let's get back to the lair already," Raph complained, "there's nothing going on tonight."

But just as the four were about to make their way home, Leo stopped them. "Guys wait!" He hissed, pointing down to the ground.

The other three turned to him and followed his gaze down to the ground. There, a girl walked at a fast pace down the sidewalk, high heels in her hands. There was a faint sound of sobbing. "A girl?" Donnie questioned, "what's she doing out so late? She could run into some real trouble."

Leo recognized the girl right away. He'd seen her walk at night before; she'd do so every now and then. Just walking around, alone and silent, not even the slightest bit afraid of what might be lurking in the alleys. But this time she cried, and Leo couldn't help but wonder why.

Ever since he'd first seen her, he felt a sort of pull toward her. She wasn't just another girl to him; she was different. He just didn't know how...yet. "She's just some girl walking home from a late shift or something," Raph interrupted Leo's thought, crossing his arms.

But Leo shook his head as his eyes widened and he realized, "no, she isn't." At his sudden change in expression, the other three followed his gaze. About a block behind the girl walked a tall, pail man in a suit; a krang-bot.

"We've gotta help her!" Mikey whisper shouted.

"What are you nuts?" Raph asked, "she's a human; she can't see us or she'll freak out!"

Mikey frowned. "I hate to say it, but Raph's right," Donnie agreed, "we need to keep unseen."

While the three argued, Leo watched intently as the krang-bot came closer and closer to the girl. Then another one showed up a half block in front of her, walking her direction. Something's definitely up, he thought.

Soon, more krang came out of no where. The girl, now taking notice to this, began to run. But she was quickly cornered in an alley. Leo looked back at his bickering brothers, then to the alley, and left.

He flung himself into the darkness, hoping it would cover him good enough. Landing silently, he could hear the girl's voice. "Get off of me, you creeps!" She shouted as the two krang grabbed her by either arm and attempted to pull her away with them.

Leo took a deep breath and lunged forward. He took out krang left and right, slicing their robot bodies into halves.

The girl, Akila, watched the silhouettes in front of her fight. What was going on? Then there was a bang, followed by a pink flash of light. In the light of the flash, she could see one of her captures holding what looked to be a very advanced looking gun.

Then there were more flashes, as the strange men shot their pink flashing weapons at who looked to be her savior. She watched in both fear and fascination.

Then she gasped. In the split second of a single pink flash, she saw her hero. Thick green hands wrapped around two long swords, and a blue masked face that wore a look of determination. And on his back was a...a shell?

A few seconds later the flashing stopped, and everything was silent again. Akila looked straight ahead to the one who had saved her. His silhouette was tall and muscular. "Who are you?" She asked, her voice stern and confident.

But the silhouette simply jumped away, disappearing out of the alley. Akila ran out, looking left and right, but her savior was no where to be seen, as if he was never even there. She rushed back down the alley and fumbled for her phone. She quickly turned on the flashlight app and shone it on the ground. She gasped quietly as her free hand covered her mouth. There, lying all over the ground, were the uniformed men that tried to kidnap her...only, their insides were all robotic.

"What the hell..?" Akila breathed. Then she sprinted the rest of the way home.