Song: War of Change - Thousand Foot Krutch

"What's wrong with her, Donnie?" A voice asks.

"I won't know until she wakes up. Falling unconscious is a symptom of anything," Another voice answers promptly.

"This is a waste of time. I don't know why we even bothered to save her," A third, irritated voice breaks in.

"You didn't save her, I did!" A fourth voice reaches my ears. I hear a thump and the same voice adds, "Ow!"

I open my eyes slowly. My head is throbbing painfully and my muscles feel like they're on fire. That was not a peaceful sleep. Actually, I'm not even sure it was sleeping at all. It feels like I've been repeatedly knocked around by Thor's mjölnir.

But what I see takes my mind off of my problems. Four oversized, green, animal-like things stand in front of me. They are dressed with weapons and different colored bandanas. Each one is a different height and their postures vary. All eight of their eyes are fixated on me.

I shrink back into the chair I'm sitting in. I look around for an escape, but there isn't one; I am surrounded.

"You're awake!" The green thing with an orange bandana and sky-blue eyes leans closer to me.

I flinch back. I'm too shocked to speak. What do these things want from me?

The one with the blue bandana pulls the excited one back. "Don't scare her, Mikey," he warns.

The purple bandana-dressed thing steps forward and gently touches my forehead. His hand is cold and it doesn't feel like human skin. I turn my head away quickly.

"How are you feeling?" The creature asks me softly. "Are you dehydrated? Does anything feel sore? Do you feel nauseous at all?"

"I feel nauseous after all those questions." My voice scratches my throat and doesn't feel like my own. I long for a glass of water, but I'm too afraid to request it. These things might not even know what water is, anyway.

The green thing with the orange bandana lets out a loud laugh. "See, guys? She's got a sense of humor! What more can we want?" He grins widely at me, which I do not return.

If they're going to kill me, they certainly aren't acting like it. Plus even if they try to harm me, I won't have the energy to stop them. My head is throbbing faster than the hooves of a racehorse. I am beaten. Resigned, I relax into the chair, though I still can't take my wary gaze off of them.

"What are you?" I mumble.

"We're teenage mutant ninja turtles!" The orange bandana thing announces proudly.

The turtle with the blue bandana paces forward. "Sorry, we didn't formally introduce ourselves. I'm Leonardo. This is Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael." He points at each turtle in turn.

My confusion finally kicks in, replacing my apprehension. "You're not teenagers. There's no way. You're huge!" I pause. "What's a mutant?"

The purple-clad turtle named Donatello speaks up. "Mutant means to show the effects of a mutation. Mutation means to alter the structure of a DNA strand to inflict a physical change, usually through generations of-"

"English please, Donnie," Leonardo interrupts.

"We were regular turtles until green gooey stuff changed us," Donatello translates quickly.

Green gooey stuff? Turned regular turtles into oversized, talking, ninja, bandana-faced turtles? That doesn't explain anything. It just makes my brain hurt.

"Where am I?" I switch the subject before my mind seizes the chance to melt.

"You're in our secret lair!" Michelangelo answers with another large grin. "Pretty awesome, right?"

I look around. The walls are dark and lonely. A television is a few meters away and a couch-like structure is close by. An arcade machine is placed behind one of the turtle's shoulders. Not to mention, it smells terrible. Almost like trash. Or other unmentionables.

"Um, yeah. It's lovely," I reply uncertainly.

"What's your name, anyway?" The stern-looking turtle named Raphael asks. His voice is deep and raspy, and his stance suggests he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Elizabetta," I say softly, as I feel rather intimidated.

"Nice to meet you, Elizabetta." Leonardo gives me a small, kind smile.

"What do you want from me?" I press on. There must be a reason they have me.

"Nothing," Leonardo says simply. I wait for something more, assuming he is joking, but he doesn't add anything else.

I look at each of them, one by one, yearning for a longer answer. But they all stay silent.

It's awkward.

"Then... Why am I here?" I am starting to wonder if they actually know how to talk. Maybe I'm hallucinating. Yeah, that's it. I'm hallucinating and probably just talking to stuffed animals or something.

"We totally saved your life!" Michelangelo exclaims. Does he ever shut up? "The Kraang were all, 'pew, pew, pew!' And we were all, 'you're going down, you walking toasters'! Then I found you and convinced my brothers to get you out of there!"

As creeped out as I am, I still manage a smile. "Thank you... Er- Michelangelo?" It comes out more as a question because I'm not sure if I have his name right.

"You can call me Mikey," he says, returning the smile. "Or Mike. Or M-dog. Or-"

Raphael thumps Michelangelo on the back of the head. "She gets it," he says sharply. Does he always look so angry?

I glance at each of the turtles. It's hard to accept I'm not just dreaming. But I can't be; it's far too real. There's no such thing as talking ninja turtles, but the creatures in front of me prove that theory wrong.

It's kind of scary.

I shift uncomfortably in my chair. "Why was I unconscious?" I already tried to remember by myself, but it only makes me feel dizzy. Like my mind isn't supposed to recall it.

"We were hoping you could tell us that," Donatello replies in a gentle but pressing voice. He looks concerned. "Can you recall anything that happened?" Does he always ask so many questions?

I bite my lip, but my mind stays blank. It's like something is blocking my memories. Or maybe I'm just too exhausted. That sleep wasn't actually sleeping, after all.

"I... I can't..." I confess.

"That's alright. It should come back to you soon." Donatello gives me an encouraging smile, though I take note of the doubt in his eyes. "Give it a day or two."

"Oooh, I read a comic about this once," Michelangelo says eagerly. "The girl forgot everything, and the only way to bring them back was to take her to the place where she had the memories. Only, the memories were so much that she went crazy! And that's how she became Woman Psychic."

"More like Woman Psycho," Raphael snorts. "You need your brain checked. And you need to stop reading so many comics. That stuff doesn't happen in real life, Mikey."

Michelangelo grabs onto Raphael's arm and shakes it. "How can you say that after all we've been through together, man?!"

Raphael glares at the orange-clad turtle and shoves him across the room. They tumble around the room, kicking up dust. I can hear Michelangelo letting out squeaks of pain.

"Knock it off, ninjas," Leonardo scolds them as he tears them apart. Does he always take charge of everything? "Save it for someone who really deserves it."

"Mikey really deserves it right now!" Raphael argues, trying to shove Leonardo away from him. He lunges past the blue-clad turtle and attacks Michelangelo again.

"Hey, bro, not cool!" Michelangelo protests as he is taken down.

Leonardo frowns as he jumps into their skirmish. "Stop it! This is not how ninjas- Ow! Donnie, help!" The turtle ends up right in the middle of the fight, being bombarded on both sides.

Donatello gives me an embarrassed look and lets out an awkward laugh. "Excuse me," he murmurs. And then he inserts him into the wrestling match.

It's so strange to watch overgrown turtles fighting. It's a lot more entertaining than watching a regular turtle attempt to eat a cherry tomato, though; and that's pretty hard to top.

"This is stupid, Raph, just let Mikey be!"

"I'll leave him alone when he stops acting like an idiot!"

"Never!"

I'm not sure who to watch. I think I am focused on Leonardo one second, but then Michelangelo takes his place his place without me noticing a difference. Then I just get very confused and a headache starts to come on. I put my hand on my forehead and groan in pain.

Suddenly a voice speaks, nearly causing an earthquake in the room and scaring me half to death.

"That is enough."