I do not own... ANYTHING!!!!! The turtles are not mine, the girl isn't mine, the loon at the beginning isn't mine, I didn't even write the thing!!!!

This story was co-authored by myself and CheshireDreaming. She did all the planning and instigated the story so the vast majority of credit goes to her. *claps* The next chapter will be written by me but until then, give Cheshire a hand! You can find her account at; CheshireDreaming dot deviantart dot com

For those who are familiar with my writing, there is a slight language warning, but I doubt it'll be a problem.

Chapter one; In which Quinn awakens...

The first thing I noticed was that it was very, very cold. And then I opened my eyes and it was even brighter than it was cold. I groaned and shivered. What a wonderful way to wake up. And I was fairly certain it was a Monday as well. Great. Just great.

It wasn't until I sat up that my sense of touch awakened, and I promptly realized that I was sitting on something hard and cold and smooth and metal. And that I was nude. Totally, utterly without clothes. I let out something between a shriek and yelp and curled into a ball.

But the morning wasn't over yet. I felt something brush my back, tickling me, and I turned to see a giant, fluffy pink-and-purple tail. My eyes followed it back to where it grew out of the bottom of my spine.

What the hell.

This was, of course, the moment I reached up and found cat ears atop my head, nestled amidst significantly shorter hair. I froze, everything other than my hands unmoving as I traced the edges and contours of the ears. In the next thirty seconds I went on to discover wicked black claws in place of human nails, and a layer of half-inch-long, nearly invisible fur covering my entire body, giving my skin an alternating pink-and-purple tinge, striped to match the ears and tail.

Well, that was freaking great. I'd gone to bed just like I would have on any other Sunday night, and woken up as some kind of screwed up anthro Cheshire Cat. On what looked like an operating table in a blank white room. Naked. A normal person would've probably assumed it was a dream, or that they were going crazy, but I wasn't exactly a "normal" person. And, while I certainly hadn't anticipated becoming a cat-girl in my future, my overactive imagination and eccentric personality found it within their capabilities to accept this sudden, unexpected and totally unrealistic change. It was like a book, and while my imagination was having a field day, the rational part of me was screaming in terror. Together, they balanced out to a state of eerie calm.

The room was white, and completely empty except for the metal bench-table that I lay on. I breathed in slowly and listened hard for any sounds; I figured that since there was clearly no quick fix for my appearance, if there even was one, I might as well put my new body to use.

There were slight noises coming from beyond the only door, and a lingering chemical smell hung around the room. I didn't know what was going on, or how I'd gotten there, but I knew I needed to get out, fast. This place made me feel anxious, apprehensive. The air felt…wrong.

I slipped off the metal, surprising myself with my own gracefulness as I landed easily on the floor and walked soundlessly to the door. I managed, after a few unsuccessful tries, to cover myself using my mercifully semi-prehensile, poofy tail.

I was three steps from the door when it flew open, slamming into the wall. Something in me reacted and I bristled, lips pulling back in a snarl as my fur stood on end. I was glaring at the man in the doorway before my brain had even registered that he was there. The man seemed not to notice and set about circling me like a vulture. He smelled like deodorant and cologne and the chemical scent that had already been in the room.

A sinking feeling settled into the pit of my stomach and pressed down on my shoulders. He was muttering incoherent phrases of words and generally treating me like I had no mind of my own, that he didn't care about invading my personal space because as far as he was concerned, I had none.

Like I was some kind of specimen.

He reached out to touch my ears and I acted on reflex, jumping back and hissing like a cat—which, in part, I was. My nose wrinkled and my ears flattened down against my skull.

"Who are you?" I spat, asking the first thing that came to mind. I froze at the sound of my own voice. It definitely hadn't sounded like…that…before.

"You can talk," he said, and then grinned, looking positively delighted. A shiver ran down my spine. He straightened, looking down at me with pale green eyes. They scared me. He scared me. "My name is Dr. Elder, and you are my first successful experiment. First experiment at all, actually." He giggled, and my blood ran cold. I took a step back.

"Oh, don't worry," he cooed. "I won't hurt you. I never hurt my children."

He was insane. I had to leave. Now.

"I want to leave." My voice shook. Damn.

He frowned. "But why would you want to leave? I'm your father. I'm the only one that understands you, the only one who loves you. The rest of society will judge, misunderstand. To them, you are a freak of nature. To me, you are a miracle. My first child, my eldest, dearest daughter." He reached out to touch my face, and I recoiled, cat instincts kicking in again. I leapt up onto the steel table and hissed at him, arching my back. He sobered, looking almost pitiable.

"Very well," he murmured. "I won't stop you from leaving, if that's what you want. But remember that I will always be here, and that this will always be your home." He left momentarily and returned with a bundle of clothes. "Wear these. Go down the hall, turn left, and make the first right. The exit is at the end of the hall."

I blinked numbly at him as he left. I could leave? Just like that, no strings attached? It definitely seemed to good to be true, and probably was, but if there was even the slightest chance I could be permanently rid of this place, I wasn't about to pass it up.

The clothes turned out to be a fairly baggy pair of sweat pants (the cheap kind), a generic t-shirt, clunky hiking boots, and a several-sizes-too-big hoodie. There were gloves and a hat, too, which were probably only for the purposes of covering up my more obviously catlike features. The Elder guy had also thought to include underwear, but I decided not to wear those, knowing they'd been in his possession. I dressed quickly, tucked my tail into the leg of my sweat pants and practically ran down the hall, turning into another hall, then another, and finally bursting through a door at the end of the third hall into the crisp Autumn air.

It was when I saw the huge towering buildings and street vendors that everything finally sank in. I was half-Cheshire Cat, and the madman who had supposedly created me thought I was his daughter. And now I was all alone in what looked like New York City, just an hour or so before sunset. And a sudden rumble from my stomach meant I was hungry. Actually, I was really hungry, now that I noticed it; I felt like I hadn't eaten in days.

Damn. Maybe I was dreaming.

I pushed the thought aside. Whatever was going on, I'd have to deal with it. Food would have to come later, when I figured out what to do. I shoved my gloved hands into the hoodie's pocket and started walking.

What now? I was a young woman, penniless and alone in a notoriously crime-ridden city. But I wasn't about to go back to the creepy , either. I walked for almost half an hour before deciding to see exactly what my new body could do. It would keep my mind off other things, at the very least.

I ducked into the next alley I saw, scanning it for movement in case there were any people in sight. The fire escape was several feet above my head, and I jumped as hard as I could, thinking maybe I could reach the lowest step on the steel ladder. Instead, I reached the first platform and managed to swing myself up onto it with ease. Maybe being half-cat wasn't so bad after all.

The rest of the fire escape was a piece of cake, and I was up on the rooftop in no time. The sun was just setting, and after jumping to a higher roof I got a beautiful panoramic view of the sunset. The heavy pollution and exhaust wafting up from the cars and trucks below was less than pleasant, but the cool breeze and spectacular view was enough to make up for that.

Once night took over I thanked my lucky stars for giving me night vision and a layer of thick, warm fur. And, though I hated to admit it, the t-shirt and hoodie helped a lot too.

I went over my newly acquired inhuman abilities in my head. Night vision, the ability to jump really high, enhanced hearing, smell and sight, and probably really good balance. Plus, chances were if my leg muscles were strong enough to allow me to jump as high as I had, I had some pretty awesome running skills, too.

I eyed the expanse of buildings and rooftops, reveling in the vastness of space for a moment before I took off, slowly at first, but I quickly picked up speed until I was running faster than I ever had in my life. It was thrilling, and the adrenaline rush it gave me only added to the excitement. The wind against my face was cool and refreshing, and I felt like I could keep running like that forever. My legs agreed, which was a totally new thing for me; I'm never been very athletics-oriented, despite my height and long legs.

It occurred to me that I still had no idea what I looked like. I hadn't seen myself in a mirror yet, so I might not have resembled myself in the slightest. I wondered if I had a different body altogether. It seemed possible, and that scared me.

I ran for a while longer, and without a clock or wristwatch around to tell me the time I had no clue as to how long I'd been running. I chanced upon a heating vent and settled there, planning to make it my resting place for the night. The heat made me drowsy, and I was almost asleep when the sounds of clanging metal and grunts and shouts woke me up. I was standing in a flash, but there was no one on the roof. My ears twitched, and I realized the sounds were coming from the alley below. I hesitated for a moment before deciding I might as well see what was going on and darting over to the edge of the roof. My eyes widened, and I forgot to breathe for a second.

There were the turtles, Raph, Donnie, Mikey and Leo, the turtles, fighting with a group of…Foot ninja? They definitely looked like it. My eyes kept drifting back to the turtles, Donnie and Raph especially. They were right there. Right there!

After staring at them for what was probably at least a minute or so, I started to notice that the turtles were actually having a rough time dealing with the Foot Clan. They were better fighters, but the Foot had strength in numbers, and the turtles had probably been at it for a while because they were starting to look pretty tired. It took me all of five seconds to decide to come to the turtles' aid, jumping heroically down from the roof to join in the melee. Which I quickly realized was a bad idea, as I had next to no weaponry and the Foot had swords and smoke pellets and probably a whole slew of other nasty things. I saw a sword come flying at me, and I avoided it automatically, lashing out to punch the ninja in the face a second later. He stumbled back, and I kicked him where I knew it'd count. He went down and didn't come up.

Well. Maybe I could do some damage after all. I set about attacking the Foot and defending myself, mostly at the same time; now that I was involved, I wasn't exactly being overlooked. I few minutes in, I spotted a Foot ninja sneaking up on Leo from above. I hissed loudly, took off one of my clunky boots and hurled it at the offending ninja. He fell, and I left the boot where it landed. There was no time to get it right now anyway.

I think the turtles and I were actually succeeding in pushing the Foot back when one of the sneaks shouted something in Japanese and they threw down smoke bombs, disappearing in the confusion. The smoke cleared just in time for me to turn and see Raph take a stab at me with one of his sai. My cat instincts took over and I jumped onto a dumpster.

"Waitwaitwait!" I yelped, throwing up my hands. "I'm not a Foot, I swear!" I winced at my poor choice of words. Way to go, Quinn. I was starting to feel dizzy, too. Had one of the Foot cut me during the battle? I tried to remember, but my slowing brain couldn't come up with an answer.

"Then who the shell are you?" Raph growled. He leapt up onto the dumpster, landing in front of me, and held a sai to my throat.

"Quinn," I managed, and it came out as a half-squeak despite my efforts."I…"

I never finished my sentence, because at that moment everything faded into black as I fainted.