I slowly exited my room and made my way over to where three of the turtles were around a battered kitchen table. I recognized Michaelangelo, with his orange bandanna, dancing round the kitchen, making something that smelt a lot like pancakes. I’m fairly sure that the other two turtles were Don and Leo, although I wasn’t absolutely positive about this.
“Hiya!” greeted Michaelangelo, bounding towards me, “What would you like on your pancakes?”
“What’s the choice?” I asked. Michaelangelo began ticking of the choices on his fingers (this meant that he had to change hands fairly frequently!).
“Mustard, banana, marshmallows, honey, Tabasco sauce, ketchup, cheese, whipped cream, lotsa food colouring, the stuff between Raph’s toes...” Michaelangelo momentarily paused, evidently to think of some more stuff to offer. Meanwhile, Leonardo (I think) rose to his feet and pretended to clout Mikey.
Leo turned to me. “We do just have the normal stuff like maple-syrup or lemon juice and sugar if ya want.”
“Uh. Maple-syrup would be fine.” I said, giggling slightly at Mikey’s hurt expression. I sat down into the seat next to the remaining turtle, who I was fairly sure was Donatello.
As Leonardo and Michaelangelo attempted to make some more pancakes, with most of the mixture ending up on the floor, Donatello put down his cup of coffee and looked me over.
“Hmmmm. The clothes are a bit big, aren’t they?” he decided. I automatically glanced down at myself.
“Yeah.” I looked up again. “Who’d these belong to anyway?” I asked.
“April O’Neil.” Donatello explained. “She’s one of the other human friends we have. You may have seen her on TV..?” He could tell from my expression that I evidently hadn’t.
“What about Ape?” Michaelangelo queried, bouncing over and placing a plate (which had a pancake swimming in maple-syrup on it) in front of me.
“I was just explaining who she is to...” Donatello momentarily paused. He turned to me. “What is your name anyway?”
“Andrea.” I said. “I did tell you last night, but it was kinda late.”
“I remembered!” Michaelangelo boasted, slapping his plastron in pride. Leonardo rolled his eyes.
“Hard to believe he’s almost sixteen, isn’t it?” Leonardo chuckled, sitting down and continuing to eat his own pancakes.
“Where’s, uh, Raph?” I asked, hoping that I had got the name correct. Leo, Mike and Don exchanged meaningful glances.
“He’s, er, gone out.” Donatello explained.
“Gone out?” I repeated, curious as to where he had gone.
“Yeah. Raph got kinda ticked off at our plan to let you stay here and walked out last night.” illustrated Michaelangelo. I then saw Mikey wince as one of the others evidently kicked him.
“Oh.” I said, pretending not to notice Michaelangelo.
“But don’t worry about it!” Leonardo hastily added, “Raph’ll realize what an idiot he’s being and be back by around lunchtime.”
“Yeah. Don’t think it’s your fault, Raph is always like this.” Donatello assured me. There was then a rather long, uncomfortable silence.
“So, uh, where do you come from, Andrea?” asked Leonardo.
“Originally I lived in England.” I replied, “I was in an orphanage. But I left and with the help of some older friends of mine, I managed to travel to America about, uh, six months ago.”
“Cool!” Michaelangelo exclaimed. “Where’s ya learn that throwing thingy you did to me yesterday though?”
Leonardo rolled his eyes. “Geez Mikey, you have such a good way of expressing yourself.”
“That ‘throwing thingy’ was a Judo technique.” said Donatello. “I don’t know it’s proper name but it’s probably something like Utsuri-Goshi (changing hip).”
I paused to marvel at Don’s apparent intellect before continuing, “Actually it was O-Goshi.” I explained. “I was taught my Judo skills by a teacher who would voluntarily teach some of the orphanage children and grade them.”
“What grade did you get?” Leonardo asked.
“Second Kyu.”
For the next half an hour or so, my strange new friends continued to question me. The questioning was only interrupted when Leonardo decided that maybe everyone aught to do some morning practice.
“What about Raph?” I wondered, accidentally speaking allowed.
“He can practice later.” Michaelangelo decided, simultaneously grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the door. “You can be my sparring partner instead!”
I was unable to explain that I had no idea how to use any weapons before I was whisked away.
I had been slightly shocked when I realized that they used real harmful weapons. I would not like to really be involved in a fight with one of them. As I watched I saw one of Leo’s katana blades go swooping towards Donatello’s shoulder, I closed my eyes and cringed, wondering if they would really hurt each other. But when I reopened my eyes Donatello was standing, unharmed, looking bemused at Leo’s blade which was wedged in his bo-staff.
“Whoops.” grinned Leo, yanking his blade clear.
“You’ve notched it.” Donatello declared, running his fingers over the area where Leonardo’s katana had been embedded. Michaelangelo took advantage of Donatello’s temporary pause and rammed his nunchuk’s against Don’s shell causing the victim to drop to the mat.
“Damn.” cursed Donatello, clearly annoyed at his own stupidity.
“Gottya!” Mike gloated. Donatello jumped to his feet and headed to sit on the decrepit bench along one of the walls.
Mike turned to face Leo and the two exchanged fierce growls, then they prowled menacingly around, daring each other to attack. Mikey made the first move by keeping his eyes glued to Leon’s and performing a low sweep, similar to Okuri-Ashi-Barai (Sweeping Ankle Throw), but with out any hand grips.
Leonardo easily jumped over the sweep and brought the hilt of one Katana down on the back of Michaelangelo’s neck. Mike staggered, but didn’t fall.
“That’s cheating!” Michaelangelo wailed, jumping back as Leonardo swiped again, but with the actual blade this time. Mikey and Leo battled for about five minutes before Leonardo knocked Mike backward on to the mat.
“I win!” Leonardo declared as Michaelangelo skulked of to sit next to Don.
“What about Andrea?” Donatello reminded. Leo turned to me.
“Oh yeah. Piece ah cake!”
I started backing off. Leon walked towards me.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle!” he said, grinning. I wasn’t sure whether he was telling the truth or not, all I knew was that he had two metal katana blades drawn in front of me and which I didn’t want to see any closer. I raised the two wooden blades and crossed them in front of my body, at least part of me was protected that way.
I was forced to stop my backing up as I reached the corner of the Tatami. I nervously wondered if Leonardo was going to make a swipe at me as he had done with Don just a few minutes (but what seemed like hours) earlier. As I felt a trickle of sweat run down my back I wondered if I had made the right decision in staying with these genetic mutations from nature.
I screwed my eyes shut as I saw a blade fly past my face, but when I felt no pain I reopened them. Leo had sheathed his katana’s and was standing unarmed before me, daring me to attack. I slowly put the wooden sword’s down on the floor, not taking my eyes off the turtle.
Leonardo backed up so he was standing in the middle of the mat. I slowly stepped forward to face him, inwardly wondering why I shouldn’t just run off.
“Get ‘im Andy!” Michaelangelo cheered. I wanted to turn to look at the spectators, but I refused to remove my steady watch over Leo.
Leonardo appeared to bore slightly from waiting for me to attack. He stepped forwards and performed a low sweep across my ankles, similar to that which Mikey had tried. I quickly sidestepped and retaliated with a Harai-Goshi (Sweeping Loin). For a split second I felt Leo lose his balance and sway, but he quickly regained himself and pushed me away.
Mikey was jumping up and down on the bench (which was creaking ominously) cheering for me, while Donatello looked dubious.
With confidence flowing through me, I attacked. But before I could get a grip on Leo’s shoulder, Leonardo had performed Ryote-dori (Two Wrist Seizure) on me. I pulled back, trying to escape, but my captor refuse to let go.
In an event such as this, my sensei had told me to push against the Tori (Person performing the technique) to confuse them and hopefully disorientate them enough to loosen their grip so I might escape. So that is what I tried.
I pushed Leo as hard as I could and he was forced to take a step backwards. Unfortunately he didn’t lose his grip.
I pushed again, but harder this time. Leonardo again stepped back without loosening his grip.
I decided to try one final push before I screamed for help. This time when Leo shifted his weight back, a puzzled expression crossed his face before he fell backwards on his shell. I staggered forwards and sidestepped over Leon as he released his grip on my wrists.
Slightly infuriated, Leonardo jumped to his feet and glared at the bo he had tripped over.
“Whoops.” Donatello grinned.