Before (Part 1)

Chapter Two

The four turtles climbed into the window slowly after Donnie had cracked the lock. After looking around, Mikey had decided that the girl they were trying to find was actually pretty cool. He held his nunchucks in one green three-fingered hand and picked up an MMA trophy off of a wooden shelf next to a queen-sized bed with a sea-blue bedspred. Inscribed on the small plaque attached to the trophy were the words, 'MMA NYC College League Champion'. Then below those words was a name, 'Madness'.

"Hey, Raph, check this out." Mikey said. The large red-masked mutant turtle walked over to his little brother and took the trophy from his hands, squinting as he read the words inscribed. As he read over the inscription, his eyes widened. "I know, man. She's an MMA fighter. The girl is probably around our age and she's whooped college peoples' butts." the younger one said with a smirk. Raph rolled his eyes and set the trophy back down on the shelf.

"It's probably fake. I mean, did you see the way she freaked out on the rooftop? An MMA fighter wouldn't have lost their marbles like that." Raphael stated as he folded his arms over his plastrone.

"You can't blame her for that, Raph, considering the fact that you held her at sai-point. So, technically, if you think about it, this is kind of your fault." Donnie told them as he lifted up the girl's computer from her bed, examining the metal object.

"Hey, don't blame this on me. We wanted information and she didn't give it to us-"

"Raph, you saw how scared she was. How can you expect her to just spill her guts when it's pretty obvious that she's already been through alot before she even encountered us?" Leo asked his brother. Raphael opened his mouth to protest, his hand in the air pointing at the leader of the four, when they suddenly heard the sound of something hard hitting a wooden floor. The four were suddenly silent as they looked at the bedroom door, seeing the shadow of a person from the crack underneath the door.

They all exchanged glances, nodding in understanding as they all mentally agreed on what they were going to do next. It was obvious that the teenage girl wasn't in her bedroom; she was in the hallway. Leo was the first to react, silently tip-toeing over to the door. He wrapped his fingers around the door-knob, slowly attempting to open it. But it wouldn't budge. Applying a little more force, the door still didn't move.

"She locked it, Fearless." Raph said as he rolled his eyes. Leo glared at him, then quickly pulled out his katana and sliced the door-knob off. The metal knob dropped with a loud THUD and rolled across the floor in a circle before stopping a little more than a foot away from the wooden door-way. "Nice going, Leo."

"Raph, can you please not comment for once?" Leo asked in an irritated tone.

"Why would I? It's way too much fun." the Hothead answered with a satisfied smirk. Suddenly the sound of Donnie's T-Phone wringing filled the air. The other three turtles looked over at their brother as he set the computer down and pulled out his phone.

"It's April. I wonder what's up." Donnie asked.

"Why don't you ask her, Don?" Raph said sarcastically. Donatello glared at him, but answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Donnie! Why are you terrorizing my best friend?!" April shouted into the phone. From the background noises, Donnie could tell she was walking up a flight of stairs, before stopping and knocking on a door. Not bothering to wonder where she was, he asked her a question of his own.

"Wait, you mean you know this blonde girl?" Donnie asked her. From outside the bedroom, the sound of a door opening and a frantic whispering voice filled the air. Ironiclly, Donnie heard the same thing come from the other end of his T-Phone.

Wait a second.

"Guys! Come out right now!" the four heard April's angry voice from the hallway. Mikey's, Leo's Raph's, and Donnie's eyes all widened as the brainiac hung up his cell phone. They all knew they were in deep trouble. April was never a pleasent girl in the mornings, especially at 2:43 Am. Slowly, fearfully, the four pried the door open with Raph's sais, then stepped out to see the most angry red-head in the history of red-heads. April stood there in her pajamas, a jacket covering her top, a fiesty-looking German Shepard by her side, and the blonde girl standing behind them, her face white with fright.

"I don't appreciate being waked up at three in the morning by my best friend, telling me that my other best friends are breaking into her apartment and threatening her with weapons." April said with a low growl. She was obviously very crabby.

"We didn't- Okay, maybe Raph did, but we didn't-"

"Let me say this again," April said, interupting Donnie as she cleared her throat. Then she spoke. "YOU BROKE INTO HER APARTMENT AND THREATENED HER WITH WEAPONS!" the four turtles stepped back in shock. Even when April's father had been mutated, she hadn't been this angry. But from the way she was yelling, this was obviously a new level of inferno they had never seen in her all at once. Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she turned around and took the blonde girls hand, who was slightly less scared now since she could see that April was in charge of these beasts at the moment.

"Madi, these are my friends, Leonardo-" April pointed to the turtle wearing the blue mask and had the katana. "Donatello-" she gestured to the one in the purple bandana and held a bo-staff. "Michelangelo-" the one in the orange mask and was obviously the smallest of the four smiled and waved, his nunchucks in one hand while he waved with the other. "and Raphael." The one in the red mask had his arms folded and wasn't looking at the two girls. He was obviously pouting because they had gotten their shells chewed out by April.

"Guys, this is Madi, my best human friend." April introduced them, her arm around the blonde's shoulders supportively. Madi stared at the floor, realizing why April hadn't called the cops when she had asked her over the phone. Slowly, Madi extended her hand to the nearest turtle, which so happened to be Raph. He stared at it for a second.

"It's nice to meet you, Raphael." she said, her voice a little more confident than it had been when they had first talked. He glared at her, living her hand hanging in mid-air, his arms falling to his sides.

"It's 'Raph' to you, Blondie. Only my friends and family get to call me Raphael. And so far, you don't fit the bill." he spat at her. Madi's hand fell to her side, her face slightly disappointed.

"Raph-"

"We came here for answers, didn't we? That's the whole reason we followed her down here, right?" Raph asked Leo, his voice louder than it usually was. "So, let's get 'em and get out."

"Raphael." April hissed at the turtle. After giving the hot-headed turtle the 'death' glare, April turned to Mikey. She knew that she could trust the youngest of the four to be kind and caring to her best friend in her fragile state. Plus, it would probably be best if she told the three guys the story, and then have them fill Mikey in on the situation later.

"Madi, why don't you and Mikey head to the kitchen and order some pizza? I have some money in my wallet that you could use."

"Sure," Madi said hesitantly. She looked over at April, the uncertainty obvious in her eyes as she lead the nunchuck-weilding turtle out of the hallway and into the kitchen. Madi closed the door behind herself, leaving the three mutants, the human girl, and the German Shepard in the dark hallway. As soon as the door had closed, April glared at them.

"What on earth were you thinking?" she whispered fiercely, knowing that if she spoke too loud, Madi could possibly hear in the other room. "You can't just break into peoples' apartments in the middle of the night."

"Look, this is all just a big misunderstanding." Leo said, trying to do some damage control. "What happened was that we were climbing up the fire-escape outside her window to get to the roof, and we must've spooked her dog," Leo gestured to Sam. ", which caused Madi to wake up and come out and see what was wrong."

"May I point out that she threatened us with a pistol?" Raph said.

"Shut up, Raph." Donnie spoke up. Raph was silent after that, pouting once again.

"Anyway," Leo continued. "she mentioned something about Shredder being after her, and we wanted to know what was going on."

"And that was when Raph over-reacted and attacked her." Donatello chimed in. Raphael glared at the smartest turtle in the group, appearing as if he was going to punch him across the face. His fists were actually shaking with anger as the scene continued.

"You guys have no idea what she's been through, though." April said with a sigh. Then she began to tell them about Madi's past.