Turtles' Big Sister

Never Say Xever

Since Pepper could pass for human for a while as long as no one looked at her too closely, she'd taken to hanging out with April on the surface during the day. She kept her tail curled up, ears flattened inside her hood. Luckily, humans in New York City didn't seem too observant, and she hadn't even come close to being caught.

She and April headed down the sidewalk. It was dark, and Pepper had her hood down, tail swishing lazily behind her. April had wanted to show Pepper and her brothers a noodle place she'd found.

Pepper could feel the cool surface of her emerald pendant against her chest. She couldn't remember where the necklace had come from. A golden chain with an emerald pendant shaped like a six-pointed star. Splinter hadn't given it to her, meaning she'd most likely had it back in Barcelona. She wondered if her caretaker had given it to her. She never took it off, apart from when she slept. She hoped that maybe, one day, it would help her solve the mystery of what had happened to her parents. Maybe the necklace had even come from them. If her caretaker had given it to her, had he known them? Maybe he'd given it to her for them, or so she could always have something to remember them by.

Her ears pricked as a soft noise from behind jerked her back to reality. She swore, if she didn't know better, she'd say she was being stalked by her own brothers. Of course, she knew they were there, and exactly where they were hiding, but it was still creepy. And ridiculous.

April seemed to be on her side, because she suddenly stopped walking and turned. "You guys wanna speed it up a little?" she asked irritably.

"Yeah." Pepper folded her arms. "The streets are completely blank. You don't have to slow us down 'cause you're paranoid."

"Are you guys saying turtles are slow?" Donnie accused, peeking his head out from behind the ticket booth of the theater they were passing. 

"That's a hurtful stereotype," Mikey said, sounding offended, he and Raph poking their heads out from the other side of the ticket booth. 

"C'mon, Mikey," Pepper said. "You know I didn't mean that. But, come on, the streets are completely empty. The least you guys could do is speed up."

"Trust us, girls," Leo said, hiding behind a wall outside the theater. "We are better off keeping a low profile. We find people treat us better when they don't know we exist."

Pepper shrugged. "He does have a point."

"Sorry," April apologized. "I'm just so excited to get you of the sewers for a change."

"What are you talkin' about?" Raph asked. "We go out all the time."

"Yeah, but tonight, you're gonna do something besides hitting people."

"Aww..." Raph whined.

"Come on, Raph." Pepper walked over and patted his shoulder. "Give it a chance. It might be fun."

"Yeah, don't worry," April said. "You're gonna love this noodle place I found."

"And you're sure we'll be welcomed?" Donnie asked nervously, drumming his fingers.

April nodded. "Oh, yeah. Mr. Murakami doesn't care what you look like. In fact, he won't even know what you look like. He's blind!"

"Awesome!" Mikey said, then yelped when Raph smacked his head. "I mean...for us, obviously."

Pepper rolled her eyes.

They were all able to arrive at the noodle shop soon without any issues. The second they got there, however, that's when things started to change. There appeared to be some kind of commotion going on. Loud crashes and bangs could be heard from outside, and several silhouettes were moving across the windows.