The Promise

Chapter 2: The Visit

The next night came by far too quickly for Michelangelo. He heard the sound of the metal cage being unlocked, that meant it was time to work again, to be used again, to feel pain again. Mikey doesn't have to stay inside the cage like the rest of the children. He was more obedient towards the Shredder. Not because he wanted to, but because he needed to in order to avoid being hurt by Shredder and to avoid Hun at all costs. Because of this, Shredder allows him to sleep outside of the cage. Mikey was far more special to the Shredder than the other mutant children he kept.

Every child had something unique about them. There were nine children that Shredder kept as pets. Each child was assigned a number.

One, was a blue poison dart frog, but had a defect that allowed him to produce a sweet aroma rather than poison.
Two, was a brown falcon, but instead of brown feathers and black claws, she had black and white feathers with ruby red claws.
Three, was a ragdoll cat, but was born blind so he didn't have the traditional crystal blue eyes, but rather foggy white.
Four, was a red fox, but she was born mute. Which meant she had an absence of speech, but was still able to understand others.
Five, Six, & Seven, were Salamandrian triplets, two girls and a boy with dark blue/black skin, but with ice green eyes rather than their traditional yellow/orange.
Eight... he was a leopard gecko, an endangered species in this world, he was also... Mikey's closest friend at the time. Eight wasn't with them anymore.

And then there was Nine. This was Mikey's number. Mikey was a red-eared slider turtle, his species was nearly extinct. There are only a few left in the world and most of them were adults. He didn't look like a traditional red-eared slider, muscular with black eyes. Mikey was extremely adorable. He had big baby blue eyes with small freckles on his chubby cheeks. He was the Shredders most prized pet, there was nothing anyone could offer him to take Mikey away from him.

Mikey sat up from his bed, he looked out the barred window and noticed the sun was just about to set. 'Strange' he thought. 'Master usually doesn't start this early... guess we're working longer tonight' he looked down at his feet and frowned. One of  Shredder's henchmen was always there to unlock the cage to take the children upstairs. It was either the giant, terrifying, super mutant Akita dog, Rahzar or the crazy mutant snakehead fish, Fishface. Today, it was both of them, this made Mikey very worried. This could only mean one of two things: either they were all going to witness one of them being tortured by the Shredder or someone was here to buy them. Sometimes, Shredder would sell the pets he sees are not profitable, are disobedient, or are too broken to keep up with their amount of clients they had each night.

"Get up, we have someone coming to see all of you." Rahzar said as he watched all the children stand up. "And you better behave yourselves and show Master Shredder respect or I will slice you all into tiny pieces." Fishface said as he was twirling his butterfly knife in his hand. "Are we clear!?" Rahzar yelled at the young mutants. "Yes Sirs!" all the children yelped at the same time. Both Rahzar and Fishface chuckled. The children fell into line and were handcuffed to a chain that they were all connected to. Mikey was the only one who wasn't handcuffed, but followed behind the rest of the children led by Rahzar while Fishface was holding the heavy metal door open. All eight of the children were being led out of the basement into the living room.

There in the living room was their master, the Shredder, sitting on one of the white long sofas surrounded by more of his henchmen. He was wearing dark black pants, mat black shoes, a black belt, and a white core square neck tank top. He was very muscular with scars littering his upper body. His dark presence was so strong that all the mutant children stood stiff as a board, fearing if they made too much noise they would make him angry. In front of the Shredder was a glass table. On top was an unopened bottle of whiskey, two rocks glasses, and a big bag of crystal meth.

"If any one of you brats misbehave or disrespect me in any way..." Shredder said as stood up from his couch and slowly walked up to his pets, "I will punish each and every one of you." he said with a dark venomous voice. All the children shivered at his threat.

"Master Shredder, he has arrived." Fishface announced from in front of the big wooden door that led outside. "Let him in." Fishface nodded and opened the door. There stood a tall mutant bengal tiger. He had a black vest, a baby blue under shirt, and blue bandanna around his neck. There were two more mutants standing behind him; a huge male snapping turtle wearing a torn up black shirt with dark blue jeans and a tall female salamandrian wearing a dark grey shirt with faded dark blue jeans. She was also carrying a silver suitcase.

"You must be Tiger Claw." Shredder walked up to the door. "And you must be the infamous Shredder." Tiger Claw said with a stern face. "Two of my men told me that you were looking for some pets. But know this, I don't just let anyone into my place of work, if you try anything... I will dispose of you myself." Shredder kept his tone dark yet powerful. "Indeed, Mr. Shredder, I have no intention of breaking your trust. I am grateful for your hospitality and I'm hoping by the end of the night we can become business partners." Tiger Claw said as he kept his eyes locked on Shredder's gaze. Shredder grew a smirk on his face, intrigued with Tiger Claw's response. "Come inside and meet eight of my rarest beauties."