Ninja Turtles Letting Go

A/N: You may need a tissue. *reaches for Trevor the bunny* Protect me bunny!

Disclaimer: I do not own New York, turtles, or ninjas.

* * *

The air flies past me as I fall from the fifteenth story of a partially constructed building, my clothing tugging at me, flapping like a pair of broken wings trying desperately to stop gravity. I hit something hard; breaking through it, I keep falling. Yeah, I'm going to die.

I HATE TRUTLES! Every time I fight them I end up clinging to the side of a building for dear life with no help in sight-

BAM!

* Gasp. Cough. Cough. Cough. Gasp.* can't breathe.

"Ow…" I groan involuntarily.

Damn blue turtle. What did I ever do to him? Oh… yeah, I am a Foot member after all.

*Gag* Ok, moving right now is not a good idea. My chest feels like it's on fire, I can't feel from my right knee down, I probably have a concussion and I think three of my fingers are broken. Yeah…I hurt. Must have fallen about five floors, damn. I'm just glad that I didn't fall all the way down. I would be dead by now if it weren't for this wooden platform.*Pat*

Someone will come and get me after things cool down… just have to hold out 'til then… The sound of ninjas fighting is so calming when mixed with the view of New York sky scrapers…or something like that… I can't really tell… my head hurts… and my vision's… getting… blurry…

I believe I passed out because the only sound I can hear from the roof now is smoke bombs going off, must be a retreat. We lost AGAIN. Damn those turt-

"AAAAHHHH!" That is the loudest, most girly screech I've ever heard and I'm a woman who doesn't like spiders.

"MIKEY!"

Suddenly my view is blocked out by a shrieking oval shape and it's getting bigger. I have to move, MOVE! I roll to the left of the platform.

BAM!

The platform pitches, bends and cracks around me. The boards give way under me and my body falls with them. My arms are the only things holding onto what is left of the platform: five small, hopefully-thick-enough, wooden boards.

*Gasp. Cough. Gasp.* My three broken fingers feel like they are trying to pull free from me, the world is spinning, I have a headache and my chest feels like someone jumped on it repeatedly… I still can't feel my right shin and I'm scared to look at it. Damn it.

"MIKEY! MIKEY!"

"I'm all right bros! Just hanging out!" The voice comes from the right of me, closer to the building, and it is not helping my headache any. I look and… speak of the devil and he shall come. I'm sharing the only thing that is keeping me from falling to my death with one of those turtles.

*Crack!*

Crap! Part of the platform just fell away! Only four pieces left!

"Meep!"

I turn my head to the source of such an obnoxious noise, what can only be described as a hybrid of an oven timer and a rat squeaking. He's staring at me. We stay like that for a whole minute, just staring at each other with wide eyes.

"You're not going to try to attack me while we're like this are you?" I feel my eyes go even wider, if that is possible, and my grip constricts around the wood. Tightly, I slowly shake my head no, only an idiot would try something so stupid. One wrong move and we will both fall.

"Good, for a second…" he trails off with a sheepish grin on his face as I narrow my eyes in anger and disgust. He thinks that I would do something so rash and senseless… he thinks I'm an idiot. How dare he! For God's sake, he's the one that almost got us killed!

"Mikey, just hold on, we'll be there soon."

I look up to see the blue masked turtle's head pop out from the closest window two stories up.

"Not to worry Leo, I'll just hang out with my friend here. Isn't that right?" he says turning to me. I just kind of stare back at him. Is he mocking me?

"Uh…right. We'll be there soo- wait. What friend?"

Has he kicked so many people off the sides of buildings that he's forgotten about me?! The one he sent flying?! Really?!

"Oh, you know…just me and a Foot." Everything is silent for a moment, the blue one just kind of blankly looking down at us. Wide-eyed, I'm getting that look a lot today. I should be the one with that facial expression, I mean, I'm staring at two GIANT TALKING TURTLES! And they're shocked? Not that it's my first time seeing them.

"We'll be right there." The blue one says shortly and disappears. I look out at the city as I try to reposition my hands. *Grunt.*

"You alright dude?" I don't even look at him.

"So, lovely weather we're having. Calm with a light breeze so it's not too hot but not too cold. You know what? This almost reminds me of a time me and Raph were out patrolling the roof tops when we ran into some purple dragons stealing from a store. Raph being the hot head that he is went charging in guns blazing. Well, now that I think about it, it was nothing like this at all. But the morel of the story is the same. We kicked bad guy butt and saved the day! And this other time-"

Ignore him and he will go away, just ignore him.

"- then Klunk actually fell into the sewage water! I know he hates water but he had to have a bath before I could let him walk around the lair again. So I took him to the bathroom and got him in the tub – that wasn't fun! I had like more scratches then arm by the time I was done. But it was sooo cute when he was playing with Mr. Quacksworth! That's the rubber ducky that April gave me. You know April is an amazing duddete. She's like a total computer pro, though not as good as Donny and she likes cats too!"

How did we get on the subject of cats in the first place? And who's April? First the weather, then purple dragons, then his cat and finally some mystery woman, how are these subjects even remotely related?

"- anyway, I finally got all the gunk off of him and the brave Klunk was allowed into the lair once more!"

Help me! Make him stop please…

There is a slight pause and I look over to see why. Bad idea, the orange one takes my look as an invitation to carry on with what he was saying before. Damn it!

"You'll never guess who I met on my first patrol as the Turtle Titan! Silver Sentry! I saved a bus driver from driving off the dock to his watery doom but my cape got stuck in the door before I could get away-"

Why me? Just kill me now. Wait…I could just let go… Bad thought! BAD THOUGHT!

"-so we beat Dr. Malignas and I got to say 'the city is safe thanks to the TURTLE TITAN!'"

"SHUT UP!" I yell, hitting my wits end.

*GROAN.*

Nice boards…nice boards! No breaking off any time soon please!

"You can talk? I thought all the Foot were mute."

I just stare back at him stunned at my own outburst. That was one of the major rules that must never be broken. Keep your mouth shut. Make not a noise.

"Say something else. Speak!"

"Mikey, what was that noise?"

"Don, did you know the Foot can TALK!? Come on, I bet you can do a good impersonation of Shred-Head."

"Mikey, the Foot is an army of humans. The chances of ALL of them being mute are astronomical. I was talking about-"

*GROAN.*

"-that!"

"Uh…ya, I was trying to ignore that….you guys might wanna hurry up."

NO SHIT SHERLOCK!

"Right, be there soon!" the purple one disappears and I can barely hear him giving orders to the others, something about anchors and ropes I think.

*Creek*

My heart jumps into my mouth and for some reason I look over at the turtle next to me. He looks very pale – err, off green. And I just stare at him because if I look away I know; I _know _something terrible is going to happen.

*Crack!*

The board that my hands are holding onto drops away and I feel my fingers slip over the wood, my own body pulling me down, I dig my nails into the wood to try and stop my fall. Only by luck did I manage to catch my nails on the last board, my fingers the only thing preventing me form falling. . .

"Hold on!"

"NO SHIT!" I yell at him, screw being quiet I need help damn it! The pain in my left hand has become so much that I can no longer feel it. I see the boards sway a bit, my fingers are slowly slipping and I can feel splinters digging deep into my skin. My arms are shaking.

The strength in my left hand gives out first, then, my right hand follows. I am dead. It happens so fast that at first I don't know what happened but something solid latches onto my wrist, preventing my fall. When I look up I see a green three-fingered hand.

"Use your other hand dudette I can't lift your weight like this."

"Are you calling me fat?" l laugh almost hysterically as I try to get my other hand to work properly. I have to feel around to find a hand hold so I can help him, my hand being numb is not helping things.

"Is that a trick question?"

"Only if you answer wrong." I finally find a hand hold and start to help. His laugh, when it comes, is strained like his lips are stretched across his teeth.

With his help, and a giant effort on my part, we succeed in getting me back on what is left of our platform.

*Gasp. Gasp* God my lungs hate me. My leg, that had only minuets ago been numb, is now sending shooting pain all the way up my body to my shoulder blades or maybe it's my ribs that are in protest I can no longer tell, I hurt everywhere.

"Are you alright?" I look his way and raise an eyebrow. And only after a slight pause do I remember that he can't see my face because of my mask. I see that he has shimmied over to save me… would I have done the same in his place?

"Mikey just stay where you are." I look up to see the blue masked turtle, the one that kicked me off the roof in the first place, coming down the wall on a rope.

"Don't worry bro I'm not going anywhere." His voice cracks at the end of his sentence. I look at him worriedly. "You'll go up first and then I'll follow you." His breath is shaky. I know he is lying and he knows it to, I can see it in his eyes, the set of his jaw, the tightness in his shoulders. He knows this is a one way trip… for one of us.

*Creek. Crack. Crack.*

"Hold on Mikey I'll be there soon!"

"Can't you make this thing move faster Donny?"

"Not unless you want me to break the line."

I look at Mikey then his brother and back again. Finally seeing for the first time what its looks like to have someone looking out for you, to worry about you and to risk everything for you. I never had anything close to that. No one to love or to care for. Even when I joined the Foot clan nothing changed I was still all alone but so are they. No, no they have something more…

"Hi there." I say calmly. I haven't had a normal conversation with anyone in a long time but I have to get this right. "My name is Anna Rose. I've lived my whole life in New York." He looks at me.

"Hey," he finally says. "My name's Hamoto Michelangelo, though everyone calls me Mikey." I take a deep breath and carry on.

"My favourite colour is green only second to purple or black depending on my mood. I hate taking tests and failing at them and above all else I hate people that think the world revolves around them." I gulp. "I love the feeling I get when I'm running, when I feel the strain of my muscles as they propel me forwards and the wind blowing past me." I pause a moment to see if the blue one is close enough for what I have in mind. "I both love and hate my life as you know doubt love and hate yours…" I say this just as his comrade comes within my grasp.

"You first Anna!" He sounds panicked now that the time has come but maybe… he know what I'm about to do. I nod my head and he reaches out to help me.

"Mikey!"

"Take her first bro I'm not going anywhere." I can hear the hollowness in his voice as the boards beneath us creek with the weight of both of us. I try to swallow the lump in my throat as I see cracks appear in the wood.

"But you will always have something more than me… a family!" as I say the last words I grab Mikey's wrist and pull giving his hand to his brother. And with a final almighty -

*Crack!*

The platform gives way and I fall. The wind whipping pasted me one last time.

~~~~~~~~ Two weeks later ~~~~~~~~~

"It wasn't your fault Mikey."

"I just wish I could have done something, you know?"

"Yeah." Says a blue masked turtle to his younger brother in orange.

It had been raining all day leaving the grass under Mikey's feet wet and cold, though he didn't feel it now he would have pins and needles later on. There was no wind to move the heavy set clouds making him feel cut off, even though they were standing only feet away from the nearest road.

"The news said that she was a jumper. A_ suicide_ jumper Leo." Mikey's hands balled into fists. "They said she was a troubled kid with no one there to help her when things got bad. That she was a another result of bullying." His voice was shaking with emotion.

"Mikey…" Leo puts his hand on his younger brother's shoulder and for a couple of minutes they just stand there in silence. "We should be getting back." He says not unkindly.

"Yeah I'll be there soon 'kay?" without a word the blue one leaves not even moving a single blade of grass or so it seems.

"For the longest time I dreamed about you … falling, about you dying." His voice is only a whisper in the night air. "I dreamed that you fell and fell but never hit the ground. That you were terrified and no one could help you. I thought that I was falling with you and..." He sighs. "I lost a lot of sleep over those dreams. And one night I just didn't want to sleep, couldn't sleep. So I did what I do best; I painted." He shuffles through the shoulder bag he had thought to bring. "At first it was just colour swirling and mixing together. Nothing defined. And every night I worked on it and added more details until I got this."

He pulls out his art work, it's a picture of a girl, in shaded black, falling through open space with colours mixed around her… until you look at the whole thing. The mixed colours become green and purple see-through feathers, her form taking on the look of one that is flight and all you can see from a distance is a bird.

"See you can feel the strain in your muscles as they propel you forward, and the wind blowing past you. So you're not falling at all but flying." With that said Mikey turns to leave the grave yard, the picture left leaning against Anna Rose's grave. A bird in the distance giving a call as he leaves.


End file.

Ninja Turtles, Tragedy