Chapter 10

 
The screeching of tires was heard clearly from the 
apartment above, although the party within ignored it. 
Too many other problems were brewing there. Splinter 
stood quietly, unwilling to fully comprehend the 
situation which had just unfolded. Leonardo approached 
him.

“Sensei?”

“I am fine, Leonardo. I was expecting that.”

“But—“

“I AM FINE.” Splinter turned, embarrassed by his rare 
burst of emotion and covered his eyes. “I am sorry 
Leonardo, I did not mean that. It has just been a very 
stressful day.”

Oyuki stepped in. “Excuse me, but would you like 
somewhere to rest, Splinter? I am sure they will be 
back eventually, but until then would you like 
somewhere to lie down?”

Splinter managed a small smile. “Thank you Oyuki, 
perhaps I should.”

Oyuki led Splinter to a bedroom while the others stood 
there, silently. 

Tess felt a tad bit out of place. She had no idea what 
was going on, but felt too self-conscious to ask. 
Clearing her throat slightly, she barely found her 
voice. “I think I’m going to step out for some air on 
the balcony, excuse me.” She walked out on too the 
windy balcony and sighed. This had been by far the 
strangest day of her young life.  This was just a 
little too strange. Not to mention his town was 
beginning to get to her. It had too much hustle and 
bustle. But some aspect of it was interesting. And 
that made everything even more confusing. She sighed 
and wrapped the borrowed shirt around her tighter as 
she began to hear sirens in the distance coming closer.

Leo had just stood there, so worried about his Sensei 
that he didn’t even notice Tess leaving. Only when the 
door to the balcony closed did he notice her. He had 
totally forgotten she was there for a few minutes. He 
could only imagine what the poor girl was thinking 
after everything that had happened today. He grabbed a 
small afghan and walked out onto the balcony. 

“Hey.” He offered her the blanket.

“Hey.” She smiled quickly and looked off onto the 
horizon.

Leo looked down. Was she mad?  “I’m sorry about having 
to drag you through all that today.”

“Sorry, ha, Leo you saved my life! I may smell real 
bad and be totally confused but at least I’m alive.”

They both stood quietly for awhile until Tess spoke 
again. “I’m sorry about what happened to your… um 
sensei.”

“I’m sure Splinter’s going to be fine. This isn’t over 
yet. Mike will probably talk some sense into Hiroshi. 
He’s usually good at stuff like that.”

“Ok, I hope so.” A gust of wind blew so hard it went 
right through the afghan. “It’s so chilly this high 
up. Brrr.”  

“Here,” Leo led her quickly to the other side of the 
balcony. “This beam acts as a wind block, see?” 

“Oh, thanks.”

“So they don’t have any high rises out in…wherever.”

“Heh, no.” 

“Do you miss it?”

“Hmn?”

“Home, do you miss your home town?”

“Eh, no not really, but I don’t think here is the 
place for me either. I don’t know, maybe I don’t 
belong anywhere right now.” 

Leo put his hand on her shoulder. “I find that very 
hard to believe.”

She turned to him. “Thanks, at least I ran into 
someone in this huge city.” 

“Hey, no problem, I’m glad you came here.” He cleared 
his throat, slightly nervous now that he had her full 
attention. 

“Actually there are times I’m glad I came here.” She 
stepped slightly closer to him. 

“Well, nothing turns out all bad.” He gave a small sly 
smile. “Hey, you met me,” he added kiddingly. 

“Yeah, I did.” She smiled and took another step. 

Leo swallowed hard when he realized what kind of 
situation he was in. Not that he didn’t want to be in 
this situation, he just wasn’t expecting this 
situation right now. But after a few seconds of pure 
inner panic another voice came into his head and 
said, ‘hey, go for it’. And Leo didn’t have any 
problem listening to the other voice whatsoever and he 
took a step closer.

And so did she…

And they got closer and closer and….

“I AM NOT GOING TO ALLOW YOU TO TAKE HIM 
ANYWHERE!!!!!” The voice rang out above the sound of 
the city. 

Tess, only an inch or so from Leo, looked at him and 
sighed. “Was that—?”

“—Hiroshi.” Leonardo answered, wishing the guy had 
better timing. 

They both ran to the edge of the balcony and looked 
down at the chaos that was breaking out below.

“What’s going on?” Leo tried to squint and see what 
was going on. “That’s Hiroshi, but what is he yelling 
about?”

“At least he didn’t run far.”

Tess squinted at what was the center of 
attention. “Oh, no. Oh my—Leo, LOOK!”

Leo did, and his heart dropped. “Oh my God, Mikey!!”

Leo turned on one heel and spun inside. “Watch until 
we get downstairs would you and make sure nothing 
happens, please?” He ran inside.

Tess watched Leo gather the others and run out of the 
building, not caring who saw them. She sighed. Alone 
again.

“Leo, hey, what’s going on?” Raph caught up to his 
brother. “Wait, we’re taking the elevator?”

“It’s quicker. Mike’s hurt.”

“What?” The question came from Don.

“Couldn’t really see what was going on. I just now we 
have to get down there now!”

Ding. The elevator stopped and they ran out to the 
outside of the building, not caring about their lack 
of cover. 

“I think you had better hold it right there, at least 
for the moment.” The voice came from a police officer, 
obviously someone who was higher up on the NYPD. 

“But,” Raph looked at Mike who was lying so still. 

Leo put an arm in front of his brother without even 
looking away from the situation in front of them. “Not 
now.” 

Far above Tess cursed. This couldn’t be good. Yes, 
this was definitely bad. She turned to run inside and 
caught Splinter and Oyuki talking. 

“I was trying to get cleaned up, what’s wrong?” and “I 
was resting when I heard a commotion coming from  the 
living room” were thrown at Tess before she even had a 
chance to address them.  

Not knowing what else to say, she stated the 
truth. “Mike’s hurt. They went downstairs.” 

“Oh no! Mikey!!” Oyuki turned to run. 

“We will go together child.” Splinter looked at them 
both and they left for downstairs. Tess quickly 
followed behind. 

They went outside the building and walked right into 
the middle of quite a disturbing situation. A man and 
girl were examining Mikey along with some sort of 
Doctor. The car accident was now apparent as the cause 
of the problem. The NYPD had their eyes on Leo, Raph 
and Don. Hiroshi was having a fit about people 
examining Michaelangelo. 

“Funny, didn’t think he cared.” Raph pointed at 
Hiroshi.

And then the press began to show up. There were all 
sorts of vans. All different forms of Media. 

“How did they get here so fast?” Don wondered aloud. 

But instead of holding the cameras on the turtles for 
a long time, the press quickly turned to the man who 
was so interested in Michaelangelo.

“Senator, Senator, would you please tell us what’s 
going on?” Many microphones got pointed in the man’s 
direction. 

“Just one moment please, and I will explain everything 
to you.” The man gave some directions and 
Michaelangelo was put into an ambulance.

“Leo, no, we cannot allow this to happen.” Raph’s 
mouth barely moved at all.

Leo just shook his head slightly. Any action now could 
result in a lot more problems. 

As the ambulance drove off, Raphael cursed under his 
breath. 

The man turned and cleared his throat. He looked at 
the audience.

“Well, I am not used to making any sort of speech at 
the last moment, but I will try. Earlier today, while 
my daughter was at a bank around the corner, it was 
robbed. The NYPD came in and a hostage situation 
began. My daughter could have died if the situation 
had escalated any more than it had, but because of the 
heroism of a few New York citizens that did not 
occur.  These citizens stand before you right now. One 
of them was injured when he once again heroically 
pushed another man out of the way on an oncoming car. 
A car which was driven by me. Such heroism I am not 
going to ignore. The victim of the car accident is 
being rushed to a hospital to be hopefully helped by 
an old colleague of mine, who is a specialist of 
sorts. That is all I have to say for now.” He looked 
at the others standing there as a limousine began to 
approach. “Do you want a ride to the hospital where 
your friend is at? It is the very least I can do for 
you.”

They all stood silently for awhile, as a whole crowd 
of onlookers waited for their answer.

“May I have a ride, please. It is my fault he is 
injured.” Hiroshi had to swallow to keep in the guilt 
he felt. He had been harsh with them the entire time, 
and yet one of them saved his life, perhaps at the 
price of losing his own.  He turned slowly to the 
others. After a slight hesitation he spoke. “Yoshi, 
would you accompany me, brother?  Your son is 
hopefully waiting for you at the hospital. “

Splinter stood there for awhile in complete shock. 
Then quietly he followed Hiroshi to the car. Raph 
slowly walked forward and climbed into the car. Then 
Oyuki, who ran up to the car and jumped in, in a panic 
to get to Mike. Leo and Don looked at each other and 
nodded and began to walk towards the car. 

Tess began to walk off. Well, she thought, at least it 
has a happy ending…. I hope.

“Tess!”  Leo turned, halfway into the car. “Do you 
want to come?”

She hesitated for awhile. Wouldn’t that be intruding?  

“Wait one second.” Leo jumped out of the car and ran 
up to her.

“We don’t have much time, but I want you to go.”  She 
looked up into his worried face.

“Alright.” She smiled at him supportingly. 

“Good.” He reached out for her hand and they ran back 
to the limo, and the press stared as it sped off to 
the hospital.

Chapter 11 coming soon!














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The Story Continues