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

Chapter Eight

Although Echo had said she'd take the city streets, she swiftly changed her mind the minute upon realizing how much faster it was to just stay below the surface.

The speed at which Echo could run, even after nearly being killed by a truck, was somewhat alarming to the ninja turtle as he sprinted after the girl through the passageways of the sewers. Despite some areas of the tunnels having puddles as long as she was tall and ankle-deep in certain spots, each stretching step was light and quick; the soles of her feet barely seemed to touch the ground.

"Hey, slow down!" Raph would call out from a couple yards behind her. It was like trying to keep up with a Central Park squirrel high on caffeine. "You have a concussion! You shouldn't be moving this fast! Your body isn't ready for that kind of stress yet!" But every time he'd voice his concerns, Echo would just laugh and glance over her shoulder.

"How do you know what's good for my body, ninja-boy?" She teased and made a hard right turn when they reached a split in the passage. He felt his cheeks begin to heat up at the sound of her comment; Raph had never been so thankful for the darkness of the sewer.

"You know what I mean, Blondie!" He shouted back after a second of getting his nerves under control and he felt himself slowly slipping into a similarly playful attitude. Maybe it was his first breakfast in a year that wasn't algae, or an adrenaline rush still pumping from his nightmare last night. But all he knew for sure was that he never had this much fun chasing his brothers around the sewers as he was having right now. "Wouldn't want you needing me to save your neck like I did yesterday!"

"I don't know what you're smoking, buddy," She sprinted a few more yards before disappearing around a left corner. "But that's not how that went down!" Her voice echoed along the walls of the tunnels, her laughter filling the air like a melody. "Race you to the hippy van!"

As much fun as this game was, there was no way he'd be able to beat her to the complex that van was being held. At first he'd thought she was just running from one passageway to the next at random, but looking back at her turns, they were definitely on a correct path to their intended destination.

But it wasn't the fastest.

With the light tapping sound of Echo's footsteps drifting in the distance, a small smirk slid across Raphael's lips and he came to a halt, his eyes watching her form with her hair flying behind her, before backtracking a few steps and disappearing down a different corridor. Her memory of surface streets and ability to apply said-memory to the sewers below was impressive, but she had no idea of the shortcuts he had up his sleeves- or arms? Shell? Raph shook the figure of speech from his mind and made his way through the sewer system.

She may have had an incredible sense of speed, but his brain would beat her brawn in this challenge.

***

Her lungs were screaming and the pit in her stomach was tightened to a point she'd never felt before, but the endorphins in her brain felt too good to slow down. Raph was right; she probably should've walked or stuck to a slow jog, but the minute the chemicals started kicking in, there was no stopping it. 

Ever since she was little, she'd always had some form of depression or anxiety with the only form of free help in that area being physical activity. After she and her mother split from her father and her sister at a young age, there was a part of her mind that still struggled to cope with things even ten years later. And when the doctors said she was too young for anti-depressant pills, walking or any physical movement in general became her temporary cure.

Her mom bought Echo a treadmill for her seventh birthday since little kids going for a jog by themselves around New York was frowned upon, and that had been her outlet that kept her off the deep end whenever April wasn't around.