CHAPTER 1: In the beginning...

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New York City.

Also, known as the city that never sleeps or the big apple. The people who lived there were similar, they never slept especially in times of great stories...such as mine. My name is Y/N; I grew up in Queens up until my mom died last year. She was the chief of police in NYPD, in other words she was my role model, and I aspire to be just like her one day. But for now, I work as an intern at Channel 6 news, a rookie photographer for the papers. But according to my boss, I'm one of the best photographers she's seen in a long time. I use my dad's old camera, he was a CSI in the police too, that was how he met my mom. But he died before I was even born, which meant I never got the chance to meet him. By the time I was old enough to remember, my mom told me all the stories she could about my hero of a dad.

He got killed in an attack, from the foot soldiers. The foot is an elite terrorist like group, solely named for stepping on the people of New York. My mom was shot dead by one of them last year too. Which means right now, I don't want to go down the same way...even if it meant I went down swinging like my parents would've wanted. I wanted to be a part of something that would help take down the foot. Not just the NYPD, I wanted to take them down for good. Get them at their source, in other words I wanted to bring Shredder in, for justice. And for the people of New York.

But, my day job beckoned.

"And in 5, 4..." Vern mouthed the last three digits before April started talking to the camera. The logo of channel six news shining off her microphone as she did. I was just there standing to the side of Vern, my dad's camera in my hands as I took random shots for the afternoon paper. "Hi guys, this is April O'Neil from channel six news in beautiful New York City on the first day of Spring and you know what that means, it is time to shed that pesky winter weight and here with me today is celebrity fitness trainer: Harley Pasternak. Hi, Harley." April directed her microphone at the trainer as he began to list off his backstory of research into the animal kingdom blah blah blah. Basically, he thought all women should look like sexy seagulls. Since when were seagulls sexy? Is exactly my point. If anything, he was just using the fitness trampolines as an excuse for women to jump up and down and make their boobs jiggle on camera. Objectifying much? There were only one or two guys, the rest of the group were made up of women.

April had been taking care of me for the past couple months, I had wound up in a foster home for a while until she got all the paper work sorted and legally became my guardian. My mom did want her to look after me, but that wasn't how the legal system worked and they needed to wait for April to turn 21 before she could welcome me into her life...full time. I have known April for like, ever. She's my big sister, I would do anything for her. Mom took her in after her dad died, and the rest was history, we were a small yet strong family...until it broke apart again.

"Four years of journalism school so that I can do that." April began her mini rant as I sat in the back of Vern's van, he was putting his equipment away and I was polishing my camera lens as she walked over. "Four years of my life, Vern. It's embarrassing." She shrugged her signature yellow jacket on before Vern came up with a response. "Look, O'Neil, I get it, you want to be a serious journalist. I see you sniffing around the newsroom for the big stories. But it's also okay to just give people something a little lighter. A little...little froth." I raised my eyebrow quizzically as I spectated the conversation between the two of them. Was it sad that my two only friends were also my colleagues?

"Froth?" April questioned with a smirk plastered on her lips "You know, how, when you get a coffee, it's just, like, coffee, then they put a little froth on it. It's kind of nice." He went into further explanation of his 'froth' theory as I rolled my eyes at him. Even though I had no place in the conversation, I kinda understood what he meant. Even though I am only a teenager and an intern at that, I knew that if April wanted to be a big-time journalist she was gonna have to work for it. Not try and get herself killed over a story to do with the foot clan. At least...I know she hasn't done anything like that. Yet. It was only a matter of time really.

"Vern, that's foam." April pointed out as she got ready to head off for the day. "Yes, foam, froth, you get the point. It's just...It's nice, it tastes good, it's candy. You ever heard the expression, 'Never take candy from a baby?' It's because even babies love candy! It's nice. And you're giving people something they like that's good and nice. They look at you and they see, 'Wow there's a nice...there's...candy.'" Vern faltered in his rambling for a moment before carrying on. "The point is, I think that you should be rewarded, not punishing yourself. Okay? And I'm...prepared to reward you...I say that we go to my buddy's old restaurant downtown. It's very vibey..." April cut him off before he could elaborate any further.

"We just ate on the way over here." She pointed out before going over to her bike. "No, I know we just...I'm not saying for a full meal, we're just gonna get appetisers." Vern trailed off, talking to himself more than to April. I knew he was trying to ask her out on a date, but April was practically married to her job, even if she didn't enjoy it most of the time. "I got to go finish that interview. I'll see you two at the office!" April finally acknowledged me before she cycled off. "Or I'll see you back home!" I finally made some input, I doubt that she heard me though. I then risked a glance at Vern, he caught it. "What?" He asked. "You're smitten." Was all I could say. "No...no I'm not." He tried to fight me on this. "Don't even bother, I can see right through you." I muttered as I began to help him pack up the rest of his stuff. "I'm up for appetisers though, I didn't get to eat much before." I offered, knowing that he was gonna be a bit hurt after getting shut down. "Yeah...sure. C'mon Kid." He ruffled my hair fondly before I climbed into the passenger seat.


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