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~∆~

White light blurred the vision for short time before a face of beautiful woman appeared. She stared with tired and loving eyes, and her lips moved along with the soft voice in sync.

"She's beautiful."

The corners of her lips twisted upwards into smile full of care. But then it saddened, until even the spark of emotion left her kind eyes. Baby cries filled the room as well as machine beeping and multiple panicked voices yelled over each other.

~~~

A man's face showed up, wearing disappointed scowl. He shook his head and turned around with his hands behind his back.

"She's a failure. The Mutagen and DNA has done nothing with her. Get rid of her."

~~~

This time darkness replaced surrounding, giving a scary vibe from what looks to be sewers. All of sudden, a giant rat of the size of human approached and stroked his beard thoughtfully, staring down. 

He hummed to himself, followed with nod of agreement and final decision, reaching with his arms.

~~~

"Catch her!""Quickly! Before father finds out.""Any longer and she will catch cold!""Mikey, grab her!""Ow!"

A child giggle errupted in the ears, four turtles of the size of human child running after a little, cheeky girl that keeps escaping their grasp and their attempt to pull pants and socks on her. 

~~~

The girl, now few years older, frowns at her father with anger shown in her e/c eyes. Her fists clench in furry and she yells at him. 

"Leave me alone!"

And she storms into the maze of sewers.

~~~

"Hello again."

~~~

Something between scream and shriek of pain echoes through the room, followed with whimpers and another cry for help.

"Help me!"

~~~

The same girl sits in the corner of her cold cell, curled up into ball while facing the dirty wall, only light from single, small window giving a little of visibility.

"I'm sorry."

~~~

   Disgusting sound of flesh ripping doesn't bother the young girl, hence it's the unbearable pain in her back that has her full attention.

But then it faded into quiet whimpers and gasp, a new addition to her body showing itself on full display.

~🐢~

A gasp is first to come out of me, right as my e/c eyes shoot open, my pupils for sure shrunk into tiny dots. I breath heavily, managing to fully calm down after a while. Sitting up, I rub my throbbing head, also groaning at the pain in my neck and back. I should stop taking naps in Vern's stupid van. 

Which reminds me, my eyes scan the inside of van and sure enough the two aren't here, meaning they're outside, and I bet my best friend is running after people and annoying informations out of everyone that witnessed the Foot Clan attack.

And I'm right, when I open the back door so I can jump out, having to cover my still sensitive eyes from the sun shining down at us. This is also reason why I like to sleep through day and be active at night. The stupid sun is too bright. 

Groaning in disgust, I approach Vern with my hands rubbing my sore back. He looks nervously down at his watch, glancing around and back at April talking to an annoyed looking man in orange vest. 

"The Foot Clan attack still excites her?" Vern must've been too occupied by his own stress to acknowledge my presence, causing him to flinch when I suddenly appeared on his side.

"Jesus Christ, you scared me." I grinned maliciously at that. "But yeah, she's been butting every person in here about it. Now she got to Rivetti." I follow his gaze at April and the man in front of her, who must be Rivetti, as Vern said.

"Poor guy." I sighed.

"O'Neil, we're live in 30 minutes! Come on!" Vern called to April, pointing at his watch. Rivetti turned to walk away but April stopped him once more.

"Uh, no, no, no. I'll be right back. Please don't go anywhere. I'll be right back." She then jogged up to us hurriedly.

"Come on. You're killing me."

"I'm working!" She whinned in self defence.

"That's a paying job?"

"No" With crossed arms and amused smirk I watched the two arguing like an old married couple, till Vern opened the door of his van to driver's seat.

"Look, you don't think that every crime reporter in the city has been trying to work this Foot Clan story?" Vern asked her, very much annoyed.

"I know that but there's a new angle on this and I'm this close to getting it..." She showed a gap between her fingers. "...I just need a couple of more..." She turned and pointed at the place where Rivetti stood before, now the spot empty with no Rivetti.

"You exhausted him, girl." I stuck my hands into pockets of my hoodie/jacket, and April turned to stare me down for my comment. She sighed a tired sigh, her shoulders slumping which I rubbed in comfort.

"Let's stick to what we're good at. We're good at it." Vern got into driver's seat and me with April followed, her jumping next to Vern while I went back to my usual place when tagging with them: in the back.

~🐢~

"In five....four...." Vern used his fingers to count down, holding the camera directed at April in front of him with microphone in her hand. Best on it is that there are trampolines. While Vern was recording April, I sat in the van, dangling my feet over the edge.

Ever since I escaped the bastard of man and was found by April, I kept having nightmares. Well, flashes of my painful part of past if I'm being correct. But lately I've been having more than bad memories to pop in my head during sleep.

Most of them I remember, know what kind of memory is which, like the ones when I was experimented on, or those with my brothers and father before the argument I regret very much until today. If I wasn't so selfish and stupid at the time, I could be still with my family. On the other hand, if it didn't happen, I might have never recieve what I have now and never meet April.

But back to my nightmares, they keep getting more and more confusing each time I dream of them. Because I have no idea who that woman is. The beautiful woman with kindest smile and eyes I ever saw has been the beginning of my nightmares since month ago. And it bothers me I cannot figure out who is it. 

"So we're going to squad down and flap your wings. Right over there. Full extension." I got snapped back to presence when Harley, the guy showing April what to do, pretended to have wings and April doing the same but on trampoline, jumping. 

My face cringed into grimace at the way they show 'wings', however, that doesn't stop me from snickering with laughter and pulling out my phone to snap few pictures of April embarrassing herself. She shook her head at me.

"Four years of journalism school so that I can do that. It's embarrassing." My best friend and sister figure said annoyed, putting her yellow jacket on when reportage ended.

"Embarrassing? Yes. Amusing? Also yes." She shoot me a glare, at which I responded with cheeky grin.

"Your not helping." My shoulders lifted in shrug.

"Look, O'Neil, I get it. You want to be a serious journalism. I see you sniffing around the newsroom for the big stories. But it's also okay to just give people something a little lighter. Little... Little froth" Spoke Vern, turning to April after putting cameras into his van.

"Froth?" Both mines and April's face crossed confusion.

"You know, how when you get a coffee, it's just...like...coffee then they put a little froth on it. It's kind of nice."

"Vern, that's a foam." April fixed the stuttering guy.

"Yes, foam, froth. You get the point. It's just nice. Kt taste good. It's candy. You ever heard the expression? 'Never take a candy from a baby'? It's because even babies love candy! It's nice and you're giving people smoothy they like that's good and nice. They look at you and they see 'Wow, there's a nice, there's a candy'? The point is I think that you should be rewarded not pushing yourself , okay? And I'm... I'm prepared to reward you. I say that we go to my buddy's old restaurant downtown. It's very vibey."

"We just ate on the way over here." April is quick to get her bike while I grabbed my skateboard from the van.

"No, I know. We just... I'm not saying for a full meal. We're just gonna eat appeteasers." I deadpanned at Vern still trying to convince us, well, April.

"I got to finish that interview. I'll see you at the office!" With her helmet on, April got on her bike and I jumped on my skateboard, in sync growing distance from Vern.

"I'll see you at the office!" Was last thing I heard Vern yell at us, aimed especially for April.

~🐢~

Looking around if anyone's around, I don't see a single soul and turn to look down at April's phone, Rivetti's face on the screen as April just had to get more info about the Foot Clan attack.

"Hey, do me a favor. Lose my number." Were Rivetti's last words before he hang up. I couldn't help but chuckle at how annoyed he's from April. Again got on our bike and skateboard and went to Docks.

By the time we got there, it turned dark night. Going around some containers, we hear voices came from there. I shared a look with April, looking through the fence separating us. April pulled out her phone and dialed the number of her colleague, who picked it.

"Chris, Chris, it's April. Me and Y/N are at the Docks..." From what I know, April's colleagues are fine assholes and exactly like I assumed, Chris hang up almost immediately.

"Have co-workers like that, I'd snap easilly." April only nodded at me. We switched places somewhere to have better view. When we found the right spot, throught the hole that's in the fence we see people, or better Foot Clan. 

It wouldn't be April if she didn't have the need to record it, but to her bad luck there was nothing she could record as it's too dark and her flash on phone does not help, so she began to climp up the fence. I shoot her wierd look.

"What do you think you're doing?" My dear best friend has this tendency to get herself into trouble, a lot of trouble, and most of the times drags me in with herself, so it's always on me to help her out of it. I'd like for today to go without problems.

"I need evidence." She didn't spare me a glance, not until she landed on the other side.

"And you can't do it from here?" 

"No. Come on." My shoulders dropped with sigh, giving up and climbing after her. With the rain pouring on our heads, we hid behind containers, me throwing a hood over my head to both hide my identity and get my hair as less wet. 

We peeked from behind the corner to see the scene unfold in front of us with some really big shadow fighting Foot Clan. But once I see its shape, my eyes widen in realization.

It's one of my brothers.

The last time I was with my brothers and father was around 6 years ago, when I was 8. Never after I got the chance to stumble upon any of them, not even when I went to search for them. It forced me to believe they maybe moved somewehre else or....doesn't matter.

Still it's clear on my face how much shocked I am to see him, even though he himself most probably doesn't even know I'm still alive, not to say here with him. Foot Clan started to yell, asking who's the person fighting against them, and causing me to smirk at their panic. Serves you right, bitch. 

"Retreat! Retreat!" Yelled familiar female voice and Foot Clan began to retreat. When the cars left, on top of one of the containers stood my brother, and if my mind isn't playing tricks on me, he looked our way.

Due to seeing sias attached to his hips, I recognize him as Raphael, the tough teddy bear. April pulled out her phone and took a picture but it caught only little piece of him as he disappeared again, leaving a ping of disappointment in my chest.

I joined April's side when she went to another container that has a symbol meaning 'family' drawn on it. April of course had to take a picture before deciding it was time to go home. And so glad I am.

~∆~

Hey guys! Here is the first chapter and soon, maybe tomorrow I will post another, even two if I will have time. I hope you guys will like this better and we get as many views, votes and comments as possible. Bye!<3