Beep! Beep! Beep!

Her hand hit the snooze button and almost a second later, her alarm went off. Rowan stared the ceiling, a heavy sigh coming out of her lips. In the meantime, she brought back in her mind her recent dream. What she saw in her sleep, however, wasn't a dream; it was a real-life memory which occurred five years ago. Of course she would remember every detail of her meeting with Splinter and his four turtle sons. She would never forget the kindness, care and love the five showed her the following years she stayed with them, despite of her being a human.

Rowan's gratefulness was huge, even if she never showed it. The five mutants assisted her to forget her hurtful past- at least as she thought of- and she wanted to thank them for that. The surprise birthday party she was planning to throw that day, so, was -mainly- for that reason. And, before you ask, Rowan happened to be born the same day the turtles and Splinter were mutated.

It was 6:15 in the morning and the lair had the deadliest of silences. But when Rowan began to shower the lair obtained a new but short timed noise.

The redheaded sighed in satisfaction as the hot water fell on her naked body with power, drawing away every hint of sweat and dirt she had from the other day. Her nails digged in her skull as the soap washed her long hair, massaging it. Five minutes later, she washed the rest of her body taking it as slow as she could. She had the rare chance to enjoy her shower without listening to Mikey's annoyed yells that he has to pee or even Raph's fists banging on the closed door, telling her to "finish showering already!"

In any other occasion, she would have questioned herself how she stood living with four boys full of tosterone and questions. And now, after five years, she would crack a smile and tell that it was a matter of time to get used to that way of life. Fortunately, Rowan has answered most of her friends' questions. If it wasn't her, also, the unusual family would still have algae and worms for breakfast, lunch and dinner even. Though Splinter never allowed her to bring junk food except a bar of chocolate sometimes, the turtles learnt to eat like humans. The first two years Rowan was their cooker, making foods that she had learnt from her passed mother. Most of them were Greek, such as moussaka, and others were Japanese in respect to Splinter's origins. And Rowan had passed her childhood in Tokyo too.

She stared at her reflection on the small mirror. A yawn escaped from her mouth and she quickly shook her head. There was no time to relax;if she wanted to have everything settled before the training was over, she had to get over her tiredness.

Her icy eyes looked at their twins reflected on the mirror. She had her mother's, Ann, eye color and her skin color. Everyone she knew always told her that she was an exact copy of hers, except the hair but as a character and behavior, she was more like her father, Tom; stubborn yet gentle and sensitive. He had a strong will and sometimes huge ego.

Unlike to his mother, her baby brother, James, had been a better copy of her dad, in matters of looks-

She shook her head. Why now?

Her parents and brother were long gone, buried back in Tokyo along with their house. Rowan would never forget the hurtful day she lost everything, the day the car blew up and damaged her family's bodies, burning half of them to ashes. The doctors managed to save them but fate had other plans for them.

She remembered staying the whole night of the surgery in the hospital, holding her best friend's hand tight. She had slept on the chairs when they passed away and she woke up the next morning, when doctor King came out of the surgery room to announce the bad news.

After that, she was never that ten year old girl everyone knew.

She took her life in her hands, taking all of her important stuff and her parents' savings for her future college and flew to New York. She decided to focus on her dancing career that at the time was just a hobby.

A tear slid down to her cheek; she swiped it away.

Today's a joyful day, remember, she scolded herself before she dressed up.

Not a single glance was given to the mirror afterwards.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hot tea and cinnamon quickly filled her nostrils. She smiled, knowing that Splinter was awake and already had made his morning tea. It didn't surprise her at all when she saw a cup full of tea on the table of the kitchen. After all he knew that Rowan had to do the groceries. He was the one who permitted her to dismiss that morning's training.

Taking the cup, Rowan sipped the hot liquid with pleasure, feeling it running through her organs and warming them. A peaceful smile crossed her lips. Then, she took another sip.

Her left free hand drew out of the pocket of her black hooded jacket a folded piece of paper. There was a name written with red ink and it drew her attention for a couple of minutes. Later on, she placed it on the table, next to her empty cup.

At the same time, her thoughts ran elsewhere. Certainly, they ran to a turtle with a blue mask who always made her blush red.

It was Leonardo, yes.

Leo (as he was called by his brothers) and Rowan had been best friends from the very beginning of their meeting. Sharing secrets, training very often, loving tea and books, the two always found a way to spend their day together and have fun.

...Well, not always.

You see, Leo was a huge fan of an old cartoon show called Space Heroes and especially to its main protagonist, Captain Ryan. There were few times that the turtle mimicked some of Captain's phrases, deepening his voice, taking his stance and adopting his look. That annoyed everybody causing the turtle to receive hateful comments each day, most of them coming from Raphael and Rowan who never lost a chance to twitch the blue banded.

Many of these comments led to stormy arguments between the trio but in the end, Raph and Leo fought by themselves.

The smile reappeared on her lips as she jumped above the turnstiles and walked away. She was lucky, yes, by all means to be a member of that unusual family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That morning would have been the same, like any other. For him wasn't.

...Well, that could be specified some hours later.

Leonardo (Leo for short), stood up from his cozy and warm bed, tying up his blue bandana that he always wore around his sapphire blue eyes. And after a quick scan of his dark room, he exited it. Whilst heading to the kitchen, his ears caught snorings coming from his brothers' room, added with some mutterings from Michelangelo.

"Not that candy Mr Bear, the other one-"

Shaking his green head, Leo cracked a small smile. He kept walking to the kitchen with the smell of cinnamon filling his nostrils. He hoped to see a certain person there. Instead of a person, the kitchen greeted him with an empty cup, a piece of paper and silence.

Curious, the young turtle took the paper, seeing that his name was written on it. He recognized the handwriting; it was Rowan's, his best friend.

But... Rowan never left letters to him. In fact, she never wrote letters.

He began to read it as his curiosity grew more each minute.

Leo,

I'm gone for grocery shopping, like I believe you have noticed. You know how it goes, I get back late with lots of bags and all of sudden disappear. Curse Mickey and his hunger for that. And that I won't be at training with you guys today; I may do some when I get back, I dunno.

Take care and beat up Raph for me, please.

Rowan

He stared at the latter for a couple of minutes. He even read it all over again. There was no hidden message or anything else. What was he even thinking? Rowan Fox wasn't the type of girl that hides everything.

To him, the very least.

She was specific to her words and always to the point. She hated when somebody didn't understand her, making her repeat everything. She was a hard personality to cope with, at times.

Despite these, she was a great girl. She had her sensitive moments, she was funny, a total prankster and joker, intelligent, wise beyond her years and a great fighter. None of the four brothers could beat her and if you were passionate and couldn't give up that easy no matter how many times she beat you (take Raphael as an example) you could fight her for hours. Never was she a quiter, even at times it was necessary.

"I believe you are ready, my son."

Leo yelped, gripped tighter the letter and turned around. He felt an uncomfortable heat rising to his neck seeing his father and sensei looking at him with that serious look that hid many behind.

The rat chuckled. "Perhaps you will need ten more minutes to wake."

Leo sighed as Splinter walked out of the room.

The blush didn't disappear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rowan coughed once the thick grey gas smoke broke. Damn, that bike had a lot of gas to spend.

New York's streets were busy as always. That day, though, there were more people out, heading to their works or to their homes after a long night shift. Others, like Rowan, were doing their casual shopping. In addition to that mass of people the weather was unusually hot and even more hot for Rowan who wore her black jacket (curses for her own self and the weather went on and on in her head). She literally could feel the heavy sweat droplets falling on her back and wetting her clothes.

Problem was that she couldn't get that jacket off. She was carrying her cash and her favorite stiletto knife. She would have brought her gun but, unfortunately for her, that was under Splinter's strict supervisor. She knew that she wouldn't have shot that kimono from the very beginning. Stupid Mickey and his challenges.

The bags she was holding looked a lot heavy to a normal human but for her -something she didn't even could explain why- weren't. That question was held in the back of her head for a long time because she couldn't come up with a reasonable answer. She had noticed the past few weeks that this strength grew more and more. She saw that her kicks and punches were much more stronger and violent than they should be. The more weird thing was this; whenever her nose bled, she was fainting really quick. Donnatello had run some exams on her but turned out to be nothing serious; occasional tiredness- that was how he told her.

Of course she-

Her thoughts cut sharp when her eyes fell on a pair of black sunglasses that belonged to a man. He was sitting on a bench outside a barber's shop with a newspaper at hands, pretending to read it. Unlikely to the hot weather, his outfit was a black suit.

She immediately felt something off about him. She could tell by the way she was looking at her inside a mass of people, focused and never thinking to look away or even shake his head.

Her heart began to beat faster as anxiety grew inside her and filled up her thoughts. It had been five years ever since she had that short of action and she feared that she might have forgotten the basics.

Another thought popped up; what if the man she was hiding from for the past five years sent him?

She kept walking, trying to remain calm. She began to think of how she would avoid him, where she could hide. She had to avoid any contact with that man, mostly, not getting captured.

Then it hit her.

An alley. This would be her hiding place. And then she could she if he would follow her up until the lair, something she didn't wish for at all.

A meter in front of her, there was a small alleyway. Small enough for her and her stuff to fit in and hide. And there was a fire escape scale too.

Rowan ran inside and quickly threw her stuff up to the scale. She assumed that in about two minutes, her "hunter" would come there and she had to hide until then. So, she climbed up to the scale and hid into the shadows, exactly like Splinter taught her.

And she waited.

Just like she predicted, a minute later, the black suited man walked in the alley calmly, like he was doing his morning walk. What he was actually doing differed from that.

And he didn't find what he wanted in the end. He turned around, walked out of the alley and finally disappeared.

Rowan sighed in relief and let her legs slide down to the metal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emerald green locked into reddish brown; his eyes narrowed around his red mask but didn't break contact with their opponent that were covered by a purple mask.

At the same time, sapphire blue locked into, already narrowed, baby blue while blue and orange masks were stiff.

Leo was the first who stood up. He drew out one of his katanas without breaking eye contact with MIchelangelo, his younger brother. The other flipped himself up and took out his twin nunchucks. The Dojo around them was silent.

Leo was the first who attacked.

Raising his sword upon his head, the young turtle launched himself towards Mickey with a war cry. Meanwhile, Mickey was already running to him, nunchucks spinning around and a wide smile had crossed his lips.

"Oh yeah!" he exclaimed, "Michelangelo is on the move!"

When they came close, Leo swung his katana and Mickey flipped away in an attempt to avoid the hit. Leo frowned at that move as he listened to his brother saying: "You don't know what to do!"

Another lunch. That time his katana swung three times and all of three were avoided with rolls on the mats by Mickey. The orange clad then kneed before Leo and pointed a chuck at him.

'"I could be anywhere!"

Fifth katana swing.

Mickey rolled away after a widen of eyes right on the moment the sharp blade touched the mats. Upright once again, Mickey began dancing, ignoring his brother's evil smirk and hit with the katana hold on his platstorn. Mickey rolled, made a pained face expression and fell down.

"Like that?" Leo asked with a ghostly smile.

"Good one, Leo."

Donnatello swung his Bo staff multiple times while Raphael watched him with a rather bored and impatient look. The moment the purple masked was over, he cracked his neck twice.

"All right, Donnie," he said, "Put down the staff and no one gets hurt."

Donnie rolled his eyes skywards and didn't do what he was asked. "Uh, you said that last time, Raph," he answered clearly annoyed, "and then you hurt me."

"Yeah, but less than I would have."

"Yeah, right."

Then he attacked swinging his staff on his brother. Raph crouched and rolled away right before Donnie landed his next hit. Dodge, attack, dodge, attack, dodge again added with some ducks; that was how their fight went.

Until Raph decided to put an end to it.

Donnie raised his staff upon his head, deciding to make his next move (and probably his winning one). He had enough in losing spars from Raph.

He lowered his staff and...

...nothing.

The hit was never landed and Donnie didn't feel the usual wooden staff on his hands. Fear clouded his heart and eyes as he realized who took his weapon.

It was Raph.

The red clad swirled once the staff in front of him before it broke into two pieces on his knee. The cynical smirk on his lips caused a shiver to Donnie who at the time had his eyes widened.

"Should've dropped the staff?"

"Should've dropped the staff."

As a form of punishment for not listening, Raph began hitting Donnie's shell with the two broken sticks. Not affording the hits, the purple clad kneed on the mats and covered his head. "Okay, okay. Ow! I'm down!" he cried out.

Only when Leo's katana swung he stopped.

Raph threw away the sticks and turned around, kneeling on the mats the same way his brother did.

"Onegai shimasu," Leo said.

'Whatever you say," Raph replied with an eyeroll.

The next moment, the long katana was pointed on his chest while Raph drew his twin sais.

And let the battle begin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She relaxed; her heavy bags fell on the floor of the lair, her safe house. Never did she felt so anxious about anything but that day proved her wrong.

On her way back, Rowan spared a couple glances back just to be sure that the man in the black suit didn't follow her down there. Though she never admitted to herself, she was afraid of what would possibly happen if she was captured. She wasn't ready to face whatever would happen.

Even if fate had made other plans for her.

She listened to the turtles sparring in the Dojo and she let herself to smile. Then, she picked up the bags and walked to the kitchen, muttering to herself in her second native language (Greek), "Γάμα τα, δεν πρόκειται να σε πιάσει. Ούτε σε χίλια χρόνια."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mooom..."

Rowan, Splinter, Leo, Raph and Donnie watched Mickey hugging the empty and broken bottle that once contained the substance that created the turtles and rat. That hug contained so much love from the orange clad's that made his brother and adopted sister wonder why MIckey was so weird. By all means the turtles' biological mother was a turtle whom they never met. Calling a bottle or vase (whatever this was) "mom" was weird.

These thoughts were put into hold when Leo said:

"So, sensei, now that we're 15, I think we're finally ready to go up to the surface, don't you?"

Their sensei gave them a serious look. The boys were waiting rather impatiently for his answer while Rowan was watching the whole scene without any emotional expression drawn on her features. She already knew his answer just as the boys knew. After all, it had been the same for years now.

"Yes," he answered, surprising the redhead. The turtles began to celebrate.

"..and no."

"Of course," Rowan scoffed while her brothers began complaining

"Oh, man, come on."

"Lame".

"I hate when he does that."

Splinter's look remained serious with a hint of wisdom this time. " You have grown powerful, but you are still young," he answered to the compliments, "You lack the maturity to use your skills wisely."

"So, sensei," Donnie, questioned,"isn't that just no?"

He thought about it for a second. "Yes... And no," he then answered, "Wisdom comes from experience. And experience comes from making mistakes."

"Aha!" the purple clad exclaimed, "So in order for us to gain the wisdom, we have to make the mistakes. So... we can go!"

"No."

"And yes?"

"No!"

"Aw!"

Instantly, Leo decided to butt in the conversation. "Sensei," he said, "we know you're trying to protect us, but we can't spend our whole lives hiding down here."

"Besides," Rowan added, raising from her seat, "If I go with them, I can watch them out in order not to be seen."

The sensei began to stroke his beard, thinking of what his children had said. He was in deep thoughts that he didn't notice Rowan walking up to him. Her hand on his shoulder alerted him and he looked right on her icy eyes, ears focused on her young voice talking.

"Please, sensei. It'll be only for one time. Promise."

Then, both looked downwards, where the turtles had knleed before them and made their infamous puppy eyes to Splinter. He sighed.

"You may go tonight."

The five children celebrated their win with a high three.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two hours later, half time before midnight, Rowan and the turtles were standing in front of Splinter who was pacing calmly with his hands -as always- folded on his back. Rowan could sense his worry and anxiety from the way he was walking. It wasn't the first time she was seeing this; he sometimes did it to her whenever she was going for grocery shopping. She was used to it in one way or another. Plus, it was showing parental affection and care.

"You are going up to a strange and hostile world," -Not for me but whatever, Rowan thought- "You must maintain awareness at all times."

"Hai, sensei!" the five yelled.

"Stay in the shadows!"

"Hai, sensei!"

"Don't talk to strangers!"

"Hai, sensei!"

"Everyone is a stranger!"

"Hai, sensei..."

The moment Splinter stopped talking, the five teens ran to the turnstiles, excited for their first night out in the real world as a group. They climbed the stairs-

"Make sure you go before you leave! The restrooms up there are filthy!"

The turtles turned, annoyed and said, "Sensei!"

Their father kindly smiled at them, "Good luck, my children."

With bright smiles and exclaims, the turtles jumped above the turnstiles and ran away from the lair.

Rowan stayed behind.

"Look both ways before crossing the street!"

"Sensei, chill," she said while approaching him. He lowered his gaze on her with a sigh. Rowan offered him a peaceful yet assuring smile. "I'll take care of them, promise."

He nodded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She let them wander around the empty street. Her back was laid on a wall nearby the alley the came out of and her eyes were fixed on the four young mutants who admired the new -yet strange- surroundings. Rowan's ears caught, among other normal in the city sounds, words of excitement from the boys. She could cringe at them freely but she reminded herself strictly that it was their first time out there. Anybody would act like that in their place.

"There could be an adventure around this corner!"

"Look at all the computers!"

"A hand made out of light! Now it's an eye made out of light! And the hand again! Now the eye's back! Now the hand!"

"Come on, genius."

"The eye!"

The brothers stood in the middle of the road, wondering where to go next. Instantly, they all turned to their human friend-adoptive sibling who was currently fixing her t-shirt. The girl didn't even notice that.

On purpose.

A pair of white lights hit their eyes and the turtles turned at the direction of the source. A pizza delivery bike was approaching them and the young man riding it stopped immediately after he noticed the turtles. He stood like that for some moments, curious of these weird costumed persons. It wasn't even Halloween and they were already dressed up? How strange..

They stared at each other for a couple minutes until Raph got bored and decided to something fun.

So, he made a scary face to the boy who screamed in fright and drove away at high speed. Raph, the only one who enjoyed it, began to laugh, much to his brothers' annoyance.

"That was kinda fun."

Rowan scoffed; their attention drew on her as she walked to them, rolling her icy eyes skywards.

"You could just let him pass. You know, more convenient. Or your vocabulary lacks that word too?" she said with a cocky smirk, eyes challenging the turtle with the red bandana.

"Do you know what is more convenient for me? Punching that fa-"

"Oh, Raphie," she interrupted, "please. We both know you wouldn't do that," she turned around and walked away, "And anyways, you four are more exposed here than the roofs. Come on."

The four exchanged a look. "Roofs you said?" Leo asked.

"Yep," she replied without turning back, "I'm sure you're gonna love it up there."

Full of curiosity, they followed her. Mickey was the last as he picked up a hot box of pizza -probably it fell when the delivery boy sped away- having the intention to ask her later of what was that exactly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Turned out, like Rowan wisely predicted, the roofs became the turtles' favorite place in the whole city. Well... second. Pizza was their first favorite thing.

As Rowan told them, the roofs provided many hideouts and enough space for them to perform what they were trained to all these years without getting worried if they would be seen by humans. Plus, it was fun.

"Hey, slowheads, check this out!"

Four different pairs of eyes looked at the redheaded girl who slid down from a water tower, doing a flip, landing on the ground with one hand and then flipped again to the next roof where she stood on the edge with hands folded on her chest.

"Nice one Ro!" Mickey exclaimed excitedly.

Raph, on the other side, wasn't very impressed. "Eh, seen better."

Again, that cocky smirk of Rowan's appeared on her lips. "Έλα ρε μη μου πεις," she said ironically in greek before quickly turning into english again, "Show us you mister 'oh I'm so awesome'"

Leo, Donnie and Mickey shared looks and smirks. Of course they knew that Raph wouldn't deny a challenge. Especially when that challenge came from Rowan.

Mutant and girl had always a reason to rival due to their aggressive character and intention to tick each other off, mostly from Rowan. A single day wouldn't pass without their fights and(rarely) a broken object.

Tonight's rival was a flipping challenge.

Raph took two steps back before he launched himself forward to the edge of the roof. He performed a handstand before flipping to the opposite roof and he landed almost two meters before where Rowan was standing, a victorious smile had been drawn on his lip line. But it vanished as soon as he realized that the famous young dancer had already turned her back on him and walked away. Specifically on the other side of the roof.

She sat down, legs hanging from the edge fearless and she admired the view of the city that was dressed with its 'night outfit'. No less than a minute, the turtles came by and stood next to her, viewing what she was viewing too.

"All right, guys," Leo said, "it's getting late. We should probably head back home."

Groans followed after along with a "lame!" from Mickey. But they followed their brother as they didn't have any other choice. Plus, they weren't ready to listen to Splinter's complaints and-

"Guys! Look at that!"

It was Donnie.

Below, to the dead silent streets, a man with his daughter were walking calmly. Both had the same hair color (ginger red) but in the father's case it was more visible on his beard. Donnie's extended finger was pointing on the young teenage girl.

She was no older than 16 with her short hair being pulled to a low ponytail. Her bangs half covered her eyebrows and her sky blue eyes. She was also wearing on her head a yellow headband that matched perfectly with her -also- yellow t-shirt paired with a black blouse inside, a jeans shorts and black leggings.

"She's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," the already fascinated purple clad turtle said without looking away from the girl.

"Isn't she the only girl you've ever seen?" Raph asked, breaking his brother's daydreaming.

"Hellooo, I'm a girl, remember?" Rowan said ready to slap Raph's head from annoyance.

"You don't really count," he answered with a smirk, earning a death glare from her.

"Θα σου δείξω ποιος μετρά και ποιος όχι εδώ πέρα," she snapped in greek while clenching her hands into tight fists. The four brothers looked at her confused as they understood nothing of what she said no matter the years she was staying with them.

"My point still stands!" Donnie said, wanting to end the upcoming rival, having his head raised up high.

Rowan scoffed and crossed her arms. "Boys," she muttered annoyed and looked away the moment a loud tire screech broke the silence.

Everyone's attention drew on a white van that stopped in front of the small family. Rowan's jaw clenched when she saw a couple of men in black suits -the same she saw earlier that day- stepping out of the van and lurking to the two. She wanted to jump down there and kill them.

Less violent than Rowan's, were Donnie's intentions who panicked said, "We gotta save 'em!"

"Splinter's instructions were very clear," Leo answered with a bolt look, "We're supposed to stay away from people... And bathrooms!"

"I thought you wanted to be a hero," Raph retorted, ironically, "Since when do heroes ask for permission?"

"They don't. But-"

"Well, I'm going!" Donnie interrupted and leaped off, Mickey and Raph following him.

Leo sighed.

In the meantime, Rowan was already running towards the weird men in suit, her hands holding tight the black grip of her tanto sword. She seemed furious but she was, also, determined.

Her kick landed on the one who held the girl's arms. He flew away -not so far as she expected- and fell on his back. But he stood up quickly, without a single scratch, confusing for a moment the young kunoichi.

Rowan looked straight into the girl's eyes. She read her fear mixed with relief. There was something about her that she couldn't understand though. Something unique.

"Run away!" she instantly said, "Run, now!"

The frightened girl ran to the alley as fast as she could. And Rowan focused back on the battle.

Meanwhile, Raph's punch to his opponent didn't have the results he hoped it had. And if it did, it may have dragged Rowan too. The girl gave him a glare shouting an angered "hey!" before she dodged a punch.

Raph didn't pay so much attention to that as he was fully focused on his enemy who didn't even have a scratch. That boosted the turtle's anger and will of fight as he drew out his twin sais.

"Still standing, huh? I'll fix that!"

The same moment he said it, Leo fell on, causing his attention to draw on his blue banded brother.

"Watch it!"

"You watch it!"

"Both watch it!" Rowan yelled as she kicked the same man she kicked before. Seriously, she thought, why Splinter never taught them to work as a fucking team? They're messing everything up!

A pair of hands went under her armpits and lifted her up. She had no doubt that it was another man in black so that her body acted fast; her feet pressed on his knees and her hands clawed around his shoulders, flipping herself upon him. When she finally freed herself, she kicked again.

Problem was that he didn't even move an inch from where he was standing.

"You really gotta be kidding with me, God," she muttered to herself right before the man made his move; punch. The young girl slid to the right, avoiding the hit which fell on the van instead. She tried to punch back but a kick of his prevented her.

Her head hit hard on the van, making her dizzy. Instantly, her hand flew up to her forehead and rubbed it hard in an attempt to get rid of the dizziness.

Rowan knew though, that during a fight there was no proper time to get back on your feet. And that was a reason why she cursed herself later for what followed up next.

The next kick she received was harder and it sent her flying on a wall. Her vision blurred, adding some red and black spots. A liquid began to fall to the one side of her face and the usual taste of copper filled her nostrils. She was bleeding badly.

She could listen to yells and struggles but she couldn't see anything. Right before she fainted, she saw a figure approaching her. She was very tired and dizzy to recognize it.

"They're getting away!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well, none of these would've happened if... Somebody hadn't trusted us to go up there in the first place!"

And there the four were. Back at the lair, telling Splinter what happened. How did they lose to their very first fight, how did they let these men get the poor family with them. How did they let them take Rowan with, even if they all wondered why. Their sensei was angry, yet worried for Rowan. Then, the brothers began to blame each other for this. Until Mickey took the lead and said what he said.

A series of gasps followed.

"Oh, geez," the orange clad said while rubbing the back of his neck in shame, "Sensei, I didn't mean to-"

"No, Michelangelo," Splinter replied, "You are right."

"I am?"

"He is?"

"You were not fully prepared for what was up there," Splinter continued, pacing up and down in front of his sons, "I trained you to fight as individuals, not as a team. And as your teacher, your father, the responsibility for that is mine. Perhaps in another year we can try again."

Splinter waited, of course, his sons to bring some protest to his words. But he didn't expect the kind of protest Donnie did.

"Another year?!" the genius brother was frustrated yet surprised by his father's words, "Has everybody forgotten that people were kidnapped?! Our sister is kidnapped! They don't have a year! Sensei, we have to do something now!"

Splinter remained silent even if he wanted to say out loud what he was thinking. The boys weren't ready for what they wanted to do. As for Rowan, he could go and save her himself. He couldn't afford to put them in such risk, no way.

"You weren't there, sensei. You didn't see the way that girl looked into my eyes." Donnie continued, "She was scared. And she was counting on me -us- to save her!

"Rowan is in danger, sensei. If you don't want to think of the other two, at least think of her!"

Splinter turned around, staring at an old photograph. It was showing a man in his early 30's and a woman at around the same age. It was clearly that the two were a couple as the woman was holding in her arms an infant. Seeing this picture, Splinter remembered forbidden memories of his past, finally, making him realize that his son was true to his words.

"Yes," he said, "you must save them."

"I agree, sensei," Leo replied, "But in that fight, we weren't exactly a... well-oiled machine."

"Like that robot with the brain thing-y," Mickey popped in earning an annoyed "Give it a rest!" from Raph.

"Hmm... If you are to fight more effectively as a unit, you are going to need a leader," Splinter said.

That was when Leo raised his hand, asking, "Can I be the leader?"