"Ug...Monday, back to school."
She takes a peek at the clock by her bed.
6:30. Way too early for any sane creature to be awake, but she has to wake up.
"Arg, it should be illegal for mornin' ta be this early," she mutters.
She drags herself out of the warmth of her bed and stands on the cold floor. She shivers and stretches again. Then she goes to the mat she had set up in her small room. It's a little thing, really, but it's big enough for her to do her morning exercises: 20 sit-ups, 20 pushups, 13 front rolls and 13 back rolls, plus the real stretching and the little bit of yoga she knows.
She gets up from the lotus position when she's done, strips out of her sweats and changes into her outfit for that day: blue jeans, black midriff sweater and sneaks. She brushes her shoulder length curls, and throws them back into a pony tail. She wonders when that blasted black dye would wash all the way out.
"Diana!! Wake up!!" Her mom's voice shatters the quiet of her room.
She shudders, calling back, "I'm up, Mom!"
She grabs her school bag and her gi. After school, she's going down to the dojo to get a work out.
She pauses on her way up for breakfast and the other routines of the morning to grab a comic book for study hall.
On its cover there were four turtles fighting a monster. Their names? Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello.
In this reality, the turtles are comic characters.
This same day, miles south and east of Diana's place of dwelling, not to mention a pretty different reality, Raph and Mikey spar, both with bokkens; wooden practice swords.
Mike cuts down, but Raph blocks and laughs.
"Come on, Mikey! You call THAT an attack?" Raph shouts.
Mike laughs and kicks Raph away. Raph jumps back, grinning.
"No," Mikey responds, "THIS is an attack!"
He fakes two cuts, Raph going for the second, and goes under Raph's guard to cut under Raph's arm.
"Now you're the one armed turtle, Lefty!" Mike bursts out, laughing.
"Oh yeah?" Raph growls, grinning. He tackles Mike, bringing him down, now that the spar is apparently over.
"Woah!" Mike shouts, laughing and wrestling with his brother.
Neither of them notice Leo and Don standing by the door.
Don says to Leo, "Should we tell them play time's over?"
Leo chuckles, "Let's let them make fools of themselves for a little while longer." Don laughs.
"Say 'mercy'!" Raph says to his brother, whose arm he's twisting.
"Never, knave!" Mike replies, trying to sound like a knight from some movie.
Raph twists.
"OK! OK! Mercy!" Mike shouts.
Raph lets him up and smirks at the other two.
"Next?"
Don shakes his head and puts his hands up, laughing. Leo just grins, and Mike stands, rubbing his arm.
"Geeze, Lefty! Where didya learn that? It hurt!" Mikey asks.
Leo raises his eye ridges, and asks, "Lefty?"
Mike grins, "I cut his arm off in the spar."
Raph leans against the wall, "Yeah, but whose arm hurts now?"
Mike scowls and the rest laugh. Then Don asks, "Really, where didya learn that? It looked pretty impressive."
Raph shrugs, his face showing puzzlement. "I dreampt it, last night. I dreampt I was watching some human chick practicing and she taught it to me. Pretty weird."
The others look at him and then each other.
Mike can't resist, "Ooh! Raph's dreamin' about girls! So, who is she, your dream girl?" He winks at Raph.
Raph scowls at Mike. "I don't know, but she was good, what she was practicing, it looked like she was dancing."
By now, Splinter had appeared. "Raphael, tell us about your dream. My sons, I sense that this dream might have some bearing on our future. There is something strange happening."
They all look to their Sensei and then to Raph.
Mikey grins, "So Raph is turning into an oracle now? Oracle Raph!" Mikey laughs.
Raph glares at him. The rest just shake their heads.
Raph sighs and starts, "I remember I was walking down the street of a strange city. I kept thinkin' it was so weird, no one was paying any attention to me, though I wasn't wearing a disguise. They just kept walking by. I came to a gate. It was a big thing and wide open. On the other side was a park, with thick grass and a couple of trees spread around. There were only two people there. A girl, about our age and maybe 5'1" or 5'2". She looked so graceful, slender but well muscled. She was wearing jeans and a sweater." Then he realizes he's grinning and so are the others, Mikey's cracking up. Raph stops grinning and scowls. "Well, she was pretty." He glares at Mike. Mike stops giggling and shrugs. "Her partner was much bigger than she was. Very muscular and very mean looking. He kept attacking her, punching, grabbing, trying to hit her with knife hands, but she didn't seem afraid, she was ready for everything he threw at her. When he would attack, she'd bring him around and always threw him down. He'd just get back up and attack again.
Eventually, I guess she got tiered of this and she just pinned him and twisted his arm, like I did to Mikey." Raph smirks, and goes on.
"She twisted slowly until he said to stop. She let him up and he stood and glared at her. I wondered if he would attack again. He turned to me and glared. Then he just vanished.
She had this sad look on her face when he was glaring at her, then she looked at me. She walked up to me and took hold of my hands, gazed up into my eyes, and asked 'Did you know him?'
I told her I didn't, and she brought me down. I was very surprised. I had no idea someone that small and delicate looking could bring me down so easily and gently." Splinter gives him a look. Raph gives a little sheepish laugh, and says, "Aside from you, Sensei..." he trails off, feeling a little embarrassed.
Splinter chuckles and gently says, "Go on."
Raph goes on, "She had me on my stomach, and I felt her holding my arm. She said, 'This is how you cradle.' She held my arm to her body, making sure I knew just how she was holding it, and said, 'Pat the ground when you feel pain, never twist quickly when doing this to another, always slowly, or else you might end up hurting their shoulder.'
She demonstrated , and it hurt! I hit the ground with my free hand and she let me up. She faced me and bowed. I woke up then."
He looks at his brothers' and Sensei's faces for a reaction. They all just sort of look at him.
He feels sort of embarrassed until Splinter puts a hand on his shoulder.
"My son, this dream does have significance, and we must meditate on its meaning. But first, we train."
The guys shake their heads, and Mikey grins at Raph.
"I want a rematch, Dream-Boy!"
Raph grins. "You're on!"
Diana sighs, she's been feeling so weird that day. She has no idea why.
She leans on her hand, trying not to doze off, and starts doodling in her math notebook.
What a boring subject! Why did I choose to take it this year? I didn't have to. Don't have to take math Senior year.
She looks down at her artwork. "Heh," she mutters, "a mutant turtle..." She adds a pair of sai.
The teacher walks by. "Done with your class work, Diana?" he asks.
"Yes, sir," she replies.
"Then why don't you start on your homework, and stop drawing cartoons," he snaps.
She sighs, "Yes, sir."
Then the bell rings, she puts all her stuff away and hurries to her locker.
She kneels down and dumps her math stuff into her locker. She's grabbing for her lunch and the junk she'd need for the rest of the day, when a huge hand comes grabbing for her.
"Ack!" She exclaims as she moves back and reroutes the man's force into the lockers.
He makes a huge crash as he slams into the wall. Both teachers and students come running.
She's already in a stance, ready to defend herself.
"Great, just great. This HAS to happen on a Monday, doesn't it?!" She asks in irritation.
No one answers, and the man just glowers at her and the crowd. He takes something out.
It's a cross between a handgun and a phaser, like the ones you'd find on Star Trek. At least that's what Diana thinks it looks like. The crowd, however, takes one look at it and runs.
He smirks and shoots her with the thing.
She cries out and disappears.