First Encounter

"I know it's New York but this is ridiculous." grumbled an irate pizza delivery girl as she wandered down a back alley. "I've delivered to plenty of weird places before but this takes the cake. Who lives this far out in the middle of nowhere? The only things out here are shops for crying out loud! I should've never accepted this call. One of the guys should have come and walked through the creepy neighborhood while I stayed behind to cook the pizzas but no they all insisted that it was better suited for me to do. Whoever said chivalry isn't dead is such a liar." As she fumed she sped up her walk. It was definitely not a pretty part of town that she was delivering to. This was gang territory and she knew it. Tagging on almost all the buildings, destroyed or barred shops everywhere. The longer she was here the worse she felt, 'Yeah better that I hurry up and deliver this so I can leave.' As she reached the end of her instructions she became confused for there was no address. Looking around she only saw one building you might call a 'house' but it was on the other side of the street. Doing a scan of the area the only thing she could find was a fire exit against one of the boarded up, most likely out of business shops, and a manhole cover. "Great. Not only am i out in gang territory, I am out in bad territory over a stupid prank. This is just perfect." Her rant was cut off by the sound of footsteps behind her making her whip around. The sight that met her sent chills down her spine, four men all dressed in torn up and dirty clothes obviously up to no good and here she was with no weapons and no way out. If their general appearance wasn't creepy enough they all wore masks with one thing in common. They were all clowns now she was never fond of clowns to begin with but now she really didn't like them.

She pulled a big breath of air in preparation to scream only for one of them to cover her mouth, successfully stopping her attempt before it even started. As the other three masked figures closed in all she could do was get ready to fight for her life and hope for the best. 'I really wish I had listened to Anamarie when she was trying to teach me martial arts now.' However before her attackers could reach her the previously glanced over manhole cover flipped as something, or someone, jumped out of it. She staggered back as she was suddenly released from her hold, taking deep gulps of air she swung around. Only to come face to shell with a giant turtle that stood on two legs like a human. If that wasn't odd enough it seemed to have technology strapped to its back and a purple piece of fabric tied around its head. She couldn't see around it but from what she could tell whatever it was, it was helping her by fighting off the thugs. 'I'm not sticking around to see if it will come after me next though.' With that thought she ran toward the fire escape, she only reaches halfway up before she heard a pained yelp. Hesitating in her climb she glanced over her shoulder to see her saviour focused on one of the thugs that had just injured him and not noticing one sneaking up behind him with a pistol. The girl only had a few seconds to decide what to do, what was easy or what was right. With a quiet groan her morals won out. Sliding down the ladder at breakneck pace she jumped off and shoulder rolled to a stop between the goon and the turtle hybrid shouting as she did so to get the turtles attention. She quickly took advantage of the goons shock and grabbed his arm to wrestle the gun out of his hand. He jerked his arm free and clubbed the side of her head causing everything to go dark.

The large turtle heard the girl fall to the concrete, and though he was hurt he flipped backwards kicking the man in front of him in the chin, and bringing his heel down on the crook behind him. Knocking the last two unconscious he allowed himself to slump against the brick wall to catch his breath. But when he spotted the girl lying on the ground very still he panicked, kneeling down and using his large finger to check her pulse. She was alive, but there was blood running down the side of her head. He looked at the attackers and sure enough they had metal handguards, one with blood on it. "Oh come on! We just wanted pizza!" He said in a whining tone, thinking as fast as he could for a solution that didn't involve bringing the girl back to the lair only to mentally wave the white flag when he came up with no better option. "Master Splinter isn't going to like this." He sighed as he scooped her up, grabbed the dropped pizza box, and jumped into the sewer, running to the place he called home.

As Donnie ran full speed back to the lair all he could think about was how angry his father was going to be with him. 'Surely he won't get too mad since the girl had probably saved him from what would have been a nasty hit?' He worried his lip between his teeth as he approached the entrance to their home. 'Who am I kidding? Of course he is going to be angry with me but maybe he will give her a chance since she saw me but instead of running away like she could have she decided to turn back to help when she noticed I needed it.' Shaking his thoughts off he stepped through the doorway awkwardly shifting the unconscious girl in his arms. He was immediately greeted by the youngest of his family exuberantly bounding over for his long awaited food. "Hey bro! What took you so long, it was only one pizza this time!" Mikey froze mid step at the sight of the girl in his brother's arms. His jaw dropped comically and in any other situation Donnie would have laughed at his expression but in his current one he was focused on not dropping the food or the girl. Before he could stop Mikey he turned on his heel and ran back into the lair towards their master's meditating area. "Master Splinter! Donnie brought a girl back with him!" Donnie flinched at the sound of weights dropping to the floor and all other noises suddenly ceasing all at once. Before he could get a word out in his defense there was a tail moving to wrap around his leg and flip him over onto the concrete floor. "Wait she's inj-" He didn't get to finish his warning before he was mid motion of a harsh flip. It was all he could do to curl around her to the best of his ability and absorb as much impact as possible. He hit the ground hard on his side, still protecting his passenger as splinter jumped forward and began asking questions. "What were you thinking?! Bringing anyone down here is strictly forbidden, you know this! What is your excuse?!" Donnie shakily stood up and held his arms out to present the reason for his breaking orders to his father. "I know what the rule is but she saved me! Some thugs attacked her because she was delivering in this neighborhood and I couldn't just stand by and not do anything. I was dealing with them and she was running away but one of them got behind me in my blind spot and would've gotten a bad hit in if she hadn't come back. Sensei she could've run away and left me there but she didn't and she was injured because she came back to help me! I couldn't just leave her there you taught us better than that." Splinter had been silent throughout his son's explanation. Hearing what happened made him grudgingly admit that in this situation his son at taken the best course of action available. He had raised then to never sit on the side and allow an innocent to be harmed. This girl was not only an innocent but she had saved his son from a possibly harmful hit. This earned her at least a chance to prove herself trustworthy. Decision made Splinter reached out and stroked a hand through the girls hair as he said, "In this one case I will not punish you my son. You are correct in saying I taught you to help the innocent." Donnie looked hopeful as he stood completely, "However, since it was you who saved her it will be you taking care of her." Donnie nodded in acceptance as he turned to head back to his lab to check her injuries over. As he is walking out of the room he could hear Mikey's question, "So does this mean we can keep her?"