Before: A TMNT Fan-Fiction (Part One- Edited Edition)

Chapter Four

The headache that wracked against her skull was the worst pain she'd felt in years. It was as if a drum was beating the inside of her brain, keeping time with her pulse to a steady rhythm of agony. Echo lifted her hand and pressed it to her forehead with a quiet groan. What the hell happened? The teenage girl attempted to recall her newest memories, but could only see visions of the dream she'd had before- a dream filled with giant green, shelled, mask-wearing creatures with weapons and men all sharing the same face.

"Sensei, we didn't have any other choice. She needed medical attention and the nearest hospital was over an hour away!"

That voice... it was...oddly familiar. Like a song she'd heard in a taxi but forgotten the name of. The source of the memory eluded her like water dripping though her fingers no matter how hard she tried to contain it in her hands. It took her longer than a few seconds, but after a while of thinking, Echo finally pieced together when and where she'd heard it. The fight from her dream, the tallest of the four creatures who wore a purple mask. What had the others called him... Bonnie? But that was impossible. It had been a dream, nothing more and nothing less.

At least, that's what she thought til Echo took in her new surroundings. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around, slowly sitting up as the pain in her brain continued to ail her.

It was dark, save for a few lights hanging from the ceiling, scattered across the room. The walls were made of brick and stretched upwards around eleven or twelve feet, the floor consisted of smooth stone while the room in it entirety appeared to be as big as a typical high school classroom, furnished with three desks all covered in papers, lab equipment, and bottles of anti-inflammatory pills closest to her along with an old computer on the farthest one and two empty chairs resting at either side of the examination table she'd been placed on. Someone had been kind enough to give her a pillow to lay on and a blanket to keep her warm, but it still didn't change the most important thing she'd realized:

She was not in April's apartment.

"When I told you four that you could go to the surface, I thought the worst thing you could've brought back was a stray cat or dog, not a human girl." A stern voice replied to Bonnie in another room, an older man's voice that must've been in charge of whatever this operation. Though Echo was doing her best not to panic, the fact that he said 'surface' like they weren't above ground in New York caused a small hiccup of fear in her throat. "You need to return her this instant.

Was she in their basement? She wasn't being held captive, was she? There were no chains or leather straps to hold her down like in those scary movies she and April liked to watch on Halloween, and they were kind enough to give her a blanket and pillow, but still... It didn't sit right in Echo's stomach to be there, especially if the rest of her dream had been reality and the O'Neils had been kidnapped by a group of men in black suits.

"You didn't see what that guy did to her, Sensei. He literally grabbed her by the throat and smashed her head against a car!" Another voice chimed in, this one sounding a bit younger and Echo matched the tone to the orange-masked animal-human thing that had been fighting in that scene earlier as well. "She could've died!"

"Which is why you should have taken her to a hospital!" The man responded, his voice raising slightly as the conversation progressed. A moment of silence passed and a sigh escaped the man's lips. "I know you had good intentions, but now we have a whole new problem." Slowly, quietly, Echo pushed the blanket off her body and swung her legs over the edge of the table.

"I don't think she's going to be a problem, though," As Echo's boots silently touched the stone floor and she stood up, she recalled the being with the red mask, the one who'd helped her escape from her kidnappers and tried to convince her he was a good guy. "She didn't seem as scared of us as the redhead was and even joined in on the fight when she could've ran away."